I gave you bricks, but no foundation

Hi there 👋,

I often talk about experimenting and improving your growth process.

But the other day, I was walking my dog - where I get the majority of my epiphanies, as he really likes to take his time - and I realised something.

I had never actually spoken about the growth process itself on Growth Waves.

I’ve talked about everything you can do once you have this growth process, but not setting it up in the first place.

I was giving you the bricks for a house that had no foundation.

So today we’re going to turn back the clock, and start with the cement, also known as your growth process.

We can’t cover all of it, but let’s cover a key part: how to better lead the growth process.

Who can lead a growth process?

A growth process is a structured approach to experimenting in certain areas in order to align teams to achieve the North Star Metric.

That can be a little difficult to wrap your head around, so let’s simplify it.

Your growth process are the train tracks taking you where you need to go. It ensures that each route you take is still heading in the right direction, even if it includes detours to pick up or drop off extra passengers.

And your growth lead is the conductor, keeping everything moving swiftly and towards the final destination.

As exciting as it can be to get a growth process up and running, it’s not the quick and easy job you’d hope it to be.

So who is up to the task?

You could hire someone to do the job, but this isn’t always possible for startups and brands with smaller budgets.

But don’t worry, you’ve got that person right there on your payroll already. 

They’ve got the skills required to lead a growth process, so now you just need to adapt their role for the responsibilities.

Now let’s look at what those growth processes require for success.

How to be the best train conductor

1. Take the time to zoom out

Consider whether you’re working on the right things. Is this an area worth focusing on for growth?

Before anything else, you need to ensure you have the right NSM. Ensure it reflects your brand’s aims and values.

You can’t follow a route without a specific destination in mind.

2. Set up the right documentation

This is so underestimated in growth, and yet it’s a key factor in your potential success.

I don’t care how you document, as long as you do.

You should work out your hypotheses before you start any experiment. You should rank experiments to determine their level of priority and how to learn from them.

I doubt you’ll struggle to fill your backlog with ideas, that part always comes easily. It’s deciding which experiment is worth the effort and time.

3. Lead growth meetings

Aim to host a growth meeting every week or two.

You want it to be regular enough for updates, progress reports and staying aligned, but still leave time to get things done in between.

I recommend having different people present each time. As the growth lead, you’re there to keep everyone on track and participating.

Avoid spending too much time on metrics or falling into decision paralysis.

Your meeting isn’t the place for ideating and prioritising, that should happen beforehand.

4. Staying alert

Never get too comfortable. Continue trying to improve the process and your approach to growth.

Definitely take the time to celebrate your wins, but don’t lose sight of your NSM.

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.

Today you’re getting two recommendations!

The first is a classic in the growth industry: Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown. It covers all the practicalities of what a growth process is and how to run it.

This is a great book that I’ve read several times. But I found it was missing the messy reality of doing this in a startup and without extensive resources…

So three years ago I co-authored one specifically for growth consultants and agencies, Growing Happy Clients.

However, I still wanted to find a resource that took it a step further for D2C brands and helped startups start tracking their growth experiments and build up a growth process.

So I created my own course to cover this. In case you missed the announcement, end this month I’ll be releasing a written online course covering the experimentation process step-by-step.

Lay down your foundation with a strong growth process.

Whether you or another individual take over the role of growth lead, use this list as a checklist to understand your responsibilities.

Before you know it, you’ll be renovating and going full DIY with meta ads, conversion optimisation, lead generation and more.

Time to go walk my dog again and try to score some new epiphanies.

Daphne