Are you a firefighter or an executive?

Hi there 👋,

Like many of you, I work primarily from home. As does my partner.

We all know that working from home requires a tidy environment.

But working crazy hours in a small apartment together, complete with a dog wrecking havoc the moment our backs are turned (or even before), means that keeping the apartment semi-presentable feels like its own full-time job.

I feel like I get so focused on the day-to-day tasks - dishes, vacuuming, taking out the trash- that I never find time for the bigger tasks required in cleaning my home.

My laundry pile is getting large enough to take me in a fight.

And the same can easily be said for working in growth.

Don’t get distracted by little fires

It’s too easy to get caught in the day-to-day tasks, putting out each fire as they appear, rather than building a foundation and strategy.

It’s too easy to lose sight of what’s most impactful, or just get blind-sighted by yet another optimisation.

But you need to zoom out, and look at the bigger picture.

What will actually make a difference versus provide a few more clicks or conversions?

What could change the future of your business?

It takes time to spot these opportunities, but more than that, it takes space. The space to think, reflect and discuss.

You need to create this space with zoom-out meetings.

Don’t spend more time checking than doing

Companies usually fall into one of two categories:

• They’re either firefighters, who never zoom-out and just focus on hosing down the immediate issue.

• Or they’re executives, who stay holed in up their meeting room, talking and talking, but never doing.

When trying to fix the issue of focusing on bigger wins, it can be tempting to plan too many meetings.

But trying to zoom-out weekly won’t get you much further than firefighting.

You’ll go round in circles, discuss the same issues over and over, and never get things done.

Your to-do list will keep growing and yet you don’t find the time to actually tick anything off.

You need time before each meeting to prepare and explore options versus randomly discussing things.

You also don’t want to base your findings off of one bad week, but rather reflect on an entire month.

If you plan this meeting in weekly, you’ll end up skipping it more times than not. It’s low-urgency - I mean the building is on fire right now, this can wait!

It’ll get buried in the day-to-day craze, just like my laundry does.

The solution to growth (and cleaning)

You need a monthly growth zoom-out meetings.

It ticks all the boxes:

• Enough time to prepare

• Enough time to actually do the tasks that emerge from it

• Hard to skip as you’ll have to wait a whole month for the next one

• Plenty of data to work with between meetings

In this meeting, you check how it’s going in regards to your North Star Metric. Are you on track? Are any targets or projects taking you off-track?

Also take a moment to check in with your key growth lever(s) from the previous month.

If you need a refresher on growth levers, check out this article I wrote about them.

Things to consider:

• Where are we vs the target?

• What were the wins?

• What were the learnings?

• What do we want to do differently next month?

• What are the biggest risks for next month?

• What do we want to double down on?

Use the findings of this zoom-out

Don’t have this monthly meeting and then return to fighting fires, use the findings and ensure that you adapt your schedule and strategy accordingly.

This meeting should inform you on the following:

• What are the challenges right now? Consider whether these are internal or external factors.

• Do you need a shift in focus? A lot can happen in a month for a startup, so if you’ve made a lot of progress or found a more impactful area, you might shift focus to it.

• Do you have the resources needed to be successful?

• Are there any process changes needed?

These monthly zoom-outs will show you the way and then help you to keep on track as you get there.

Recommendation

In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related book, individual or newsletter to check out related to the week's topic.

A crucial aspect of measuring your progress is also knowing the right metrics and having a setup to consistently track your progress.

For this, I’d recommend checking out Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz.

It’s focused on taking a data-driven approach to startups.

Do you not have the time to read the full book?

I get it, my pile of laundry is truly starting to resemble the leaning tower of Pisa.

In that case, check out this brilliant summary that highlights the key metrics.

It can be easy to narrow your gaze and neglect the bigger picture.

Resist this urge; never forget to stop and look at the map you’re making.

Now it’s time for me to follow my own advice and zoom-out on the cleaning required in my flat.

I'm living in Bilbao for a while now, and it feels a bit like different location same challenge. I have a fridge begging to be scrubbed.

So while I pull on a pair of yellow gloves and grab a sponge, take the time to schedule your first monthly zoom-out.

Daphne