I recently started as a new product manager in addition to being a growth PM. I’d want to know how growth PMs at different companies operate their growth teams. If you were in my position, how would you handle this circumstance?
Observations I made on our situations:
We haven’t done much in the way of iterating, despite spending a lot of time planning, debating, and developing ideas.
We haven’t used the MVP methodology in our previous growth attempts; instead, we’ve operated more like a product team implementing complete products.
We are dependent on the engineers of other teams to conduct experiments since we lack dedicated engineers.
Additionally, please share any thoughts or pointers you may have for a fresh growth PM looking to expand their growth team! It would be much appreciated!
Recognize your acquisition and retention funnels first.
Create a MECE map of the drivers at each level of the funnel when you have funnels.
Decide which phases in the funnel you want to concentrate on (it might be the largest TAM, the least explored, the least efficient, etc.). The decision you make will depend on the demands of the company, what other teams aren’t doing, etc.
An exploration, expansion, and extraction portfolio is what you should ideally aim for. According to (3), you can begin with any of them. This might let you provide more PMs on the team scope as you develop (e.g., each might drive one of these workstreams). There are, of course, various methods to split things apart.
As another reader pointed out, you might or might not be allowed to conduct trials based on the size of your user base. You will iterate a great deal, even if you are not yet proficient in A/B testing. The team’s brainstorming sessions may be an excellent source of ideas for generating hypotheses, which you will then need to investigate and test, provided that they align with and support objectives 1-3.
With only yourself and a little help from people in marketing, data science, and/or user research, you can pull off something impressive. You will want to have engineers who can commit to this for a project of this scale. The size of your business, the significance of growth, the magnitude of the opportunity, the opportunity costs, etc., all influence whether or not this is feasible.
For me, JTBD hasn’t proven to be very helpful. On the few occasions I’ve attempted it—one time in Detroit with a coauthor of the framework—the outcomes were clear and not quite detailed enough to be useful.
Having said that, several of my coworkers swear by it.
If I were you, I would concentrate on understanding the demands of your users, your company’s needs, the market’s potential, and the actions of your rivals. If most of the ideas are new to you, it may indicate that you haven’t given the problem enough thought. However, the brainstorming session may surprise you with some really great ideas.
Based on both excellent and bad brainstorms I’ve conducted in the past, here are some recommendations for doing a successful brainstorm:
Write a fantastic brief that includes all the information, background, and details about the issues you want the team to concentrate on. Despite asking everyone to read it beforehand, spend the first fifteen minutes going over it. Ask data scientists, user researchers, and other domain experts who work for a large enough company to share their areas of expertise with the group.
Adopt a clear objective and communicate it to everyone from the outset.
Start the brainstorming session with a fantastic five-minute icebreaker.
Ensure that every person gets an opportunity to speak and be heard.
More organization and planning are preferable to less. Give a timetable to everyone in advance.
I used to be a growth PM and currently manage one. Here are a few thoughts for you:
Unlike most product functions, growth involves more iterations. It takes a lot of testing, particularly in the beginning, to determine what will and won’t work.
Understanding the current growth constraints for your product—where are you most constrained?—is the best strategy to optimize value. What is a reasonable maximum amount of opportunity?
You can afford to experiment much more when you have millions of users to test your ideas on. Since your sample is small and some trials won’t converge, you must be more thesis-driven in your work if you have hundreds. You should only test items designed to produce large lifts if you have hundreds because you won’t be able to see little impacts.
It is best to strive toward having committed engineers. It is advised to assess the opportunity you have and present your case for what you can do with devoted resources as opposed to shared resources before attempting to get more resources.
Here are two articles which I think you should have a look at:
I’m glad you found my response helpful! If you’re looking for a blog that discusses the strategy in detail, I would recommend checking out “The Data Science Insider” blog. They often cover various aspects of data science and provide insights into effective brainstorming techniques and strategies for collaborative problem-solving. It’s a great resource to dive deeper into the topic and gain further knowledge on implementing successful brainstorming sessions.
Many thanks; this is quite helpful. Have there ever been disagreements between the product teams and what came within the growth category (your team’s responsibility)? How do you go about defining your team’s responsibilities?
That’s a really fascinating question. Our product team is also not too big, but I didn’t run across this. Larger teams and/or teams where it’s difficult to draw a clear line between growth and everything else may experience it, in my opinion.
The simplest method to avoid this is to suggest a goal for the team and see if it overlaps or clashes with other teams’ goals. For example, you can set a target for sign-ups, but if another team is in charge of turning sign-ups into a core action, you can have problems where sign-up volume increases but quality decreases. Proposing goal-setting for conversion within a specific timeframe is one strategy to stop this. In this manner, you are responsible for the quality, and after a given amount of time, another team surpasses it.
Disagreements between product teams and the growth category can occasionally arise due to differing priorities and objectives. To mitigate this, open communication channels and regular meetings should be established to align on goals and ensure a shared understanding of responsibilities. Defining your team’s responsibilities involves clearly outlining the scope of work, setting specific targets, and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with the overall growth strategy. Regular evaluation and feedback loops can help refine and adjust these responsibilities as needed to ensure optimal collaboration and success.
You should consider the size of the opportunity before making any decisions in any kind of organization. The main issue here is that most product managers struggle to accurately assess the scope of their jobs. I won’t get into the reasons behind this, as there are many. However, note that this is the most difficult portion of the exercise.
It is crucial for product managers to have a clear understanding of the scope of their responsibilities in order to effectively address the issue of declining sign-up quality. By accurately assessing the size of the opportunity, product managers can make informed decisions and implement appropriate strategies to improve conversion rates. This requires careful analysis and consideration of various factors, such as market trends, customer needs, and competitor offerings. While it may be challenging, investing time and effort into accurately assessing the scope of their jobs is essential for product managers to drive success in their organizations.
Additionally, having a clear understanding of the scope of their responsibilities allows product managers to prioritize initiatives and allocate resources effectively. They can identify areas that require immediate attention and focus their efforts on addressing them first. Furthermore, accurately assessing the scope of their jobs provides product managers with valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their products. This knowledge enables them to develop targeted strategies and innovative solutions to overcome challenges and stay ahead in the competitive market. Therefore, by continuously evaluating and expanding their scope, product managers can ensure long-term success and growth for their organizations.