BUILDING A GROWTH MACHINE BY: BRIAN BALFOUR Brian Balfour :: - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

BUILDING A GROWTH MACHINE

BY: BRIAN BALFOUR

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

ONE MISSION, ONE GOAL

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

AUTHENTIC GROWTH

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWING IN A WORLD OF SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…

The Lines Between Marketing and Product Are Blurring

Where does marketing end and product begin in software?

1

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWING IN A WORLD OF SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…

The Lines Between Marketing and Product Are Blurring

Where does marketing end and product begin in software?

1

Marketing Has Become More Technical & Quantitative

“Mad Men” skills aren’t as important.

2

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWING IN A WORLD OF SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…

The Lines Between Marketing and Product Are Blurring

Where does marketing end and product begin in software?

1

Marketing Has Become More Technical & Quantitative

“Mad Men” skills aren’t as important.

2

Data Is Becoming More Accessible

Gathering quantitative and qualitative data is becoming easier

3

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWING IN A WORLD OF SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED…

The Lines Between Marketing and Product Are Blurring

Where does marketing end and product begin in software?

1

Marketing Has Become More Technical & Quantitative

“Mad Men” skills aren’t as important.

2

Data Is Becoming More Accessible

Gathering quantitative and qualitative data is becoming easier

3

Scale and Speed Of Growth Is Accelerating

Time to 1M Users/ARR has accelerated.

4

Revenue Referral Activation Retention Acquisition

GROWTH ≠ ACQUISITION

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWTH EFFORTS REQUIRE…

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

Product Engineering

GROWTH

Marketing Data

GROWTH AND PRODUCT IS DIFFERENT

BUILDING CORE VALUE

GETTING THE LARGEST % OF OUR AUDIENCE TO EXPERIENCE CORE VALUE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE GETTING USERS TO EXPERIENCE THAT CORE VALUE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWTH EFFORTS

CREDIT: ANDY JOHNS

10000 20000 30000 40000 NATURAL ADOPTION TRUE GROWTH POTENTIAL PURPOSE OF GROWTH EFFORTS

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

GROWTH IS MORE ABOUT A CHANGE TO TEAM STRUCTURE, PEOPLE, METHODOLGY, PROCESS NOT TACTICS/HACKS

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

LEARNING HOW TO GROW AUTHENTICALLY DOESN’T START WITH TACTICS

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

PROCESS

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

PROCESS?!?!?!

WHAT CAN BE SO SPECIAL ABOUT PROCESS?

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

4 REASONS TO FOCUS ON

PROCESS FIRST, TACTICS SECOND

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

14

• 1. WHAT WORKS FOR OTHERS, WON’T

WORK FOR YOU

YOUR AUDIENCE IS DIFFERENT

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR PRODUCT IS DIFFERENT

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR BUSINESS MODEL IS DIFFERENT

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY IS DIFFERENT

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT PLAIN AND SIMPLE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

20

• 2. GROWTH = SUM(1, 2, 3, 4….X)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

MOST PEOPLE FOCUS ON WHAT HAPPENED HERE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

BUT WE SHOULD ASK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HERE AND…. HERE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

BUT WE SHOULD ASK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HERE AND…. HERE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

BUT WE SHOULD ASK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HERE AND…. HERE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

23

SILVER BULLETS DON’T EXIST

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

24

• 3. RATE OF CHANGE IS ACCELERATING

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

SEO

No Keyword Data, Author Rank, Content Freshness, Social Shares, Search Result Format

DISPLAY

RTB, No Cookies, Mobile

EMAIL

Tabbed Inboxes, Inbox Actions, Unsubscribe, Mobile

FACEBOOK

Newsfeed Ads (4 formats), Video Ads, Optimized CPM, CTA Format, Custom Audiences, etc, etc

Effectiveness 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 WOM Novelty Email MySpace Craigslist Twitter Mobile iOS Android Facebook

Ooga Labs

EVOLUTION OF CHANNELS

CREDIT: JAMES CURRIER

27

• 4. YOU NEED A MACHINE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

A GROWTH MACHINE IS… 1 2 PREDICTABLE SCALABLE 3 REPEATABLE

THE MACHINE PRODUCES THE TACTICS THE PROCESS MAKES THE MACHINE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

BUILDING A GROWTH MACHINE

THE PROCESS

THE GOALS OF OUR PROCESS 1 2 LEARNING

Constant learning of our customer, product, channels and feeding that learning into the process to improve.

3 AUTONOMY

Individuals decide what they work on to achieve the OKR’s.

4 ACCOUNTABILITY

With autonomy, comes accountability. You don’t have to be right all the time, but there is an expectation to improve.

RYTHYM

Momentum is powerful. Establish a cadence to fight through failures, get to successes, and find momentum

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Set Goals

OKR’s

Explore Data

Qualitative and Quantitative

Find Levers

Growth Model

DAILY/WEEKLY

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

GOAL IS TO FIND THE HIGHEST IMPACT AREA THAT WE CAN FOCUS ON RIGHT NOW GIVEN LIMITED RESOURCES.

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

YOUR TOOL IS YOUR GROWTH MODEL

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

GOAL IS WAU’s, BUT WHAT EFFECTS WAU’s?

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

GOAL IS WAU’s, BUT WHAT EFFECTS WAU’s? WAU’s = New Activated + Retained

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

GOAL IS WAU’s, BUT WHAT EFFECTS WAU’s? WAU’s = New Activated + Retained

New Activated = (RegisteredFB ADS * ARFB ADS) + (RegisteredViral * ARViral)+…

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

GOAL IS WAU’s, BUT WHAT EFFECTS WAU’s? WAU’s = New Activated + Retained

New Activated = (RegisteredFB ADS * ARFB ADS) + (RegisteredViral * ARViral)+…

RegisteredViral = Imp * Conversion Rate * Invites/User * Email CTR * Landing Page CR

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

BUILDING A GROWTH MODEL

GOAL IS WAU’s, BUT WHAT EFFECTS WAU’s? WAU’s = New Activated + Retained

New Activated = (RegisteredFB ADS * ARFB ADS) + (RegisteredViral * ARViral)+…

RegisteredViral = Imp * Conversion Rate * Invites/User * Email CTR * Landing Page CR

Retained = (New ActW-1 * RetentionW-1) + (New ActW-2 * RetentionW-2)…

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FINDING LEVERS

THREE THINGS TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE INPUTS

1 2 CEILING BASELINE 3 SENSITIVITY OVER TIME

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Set Goals

OKR’s

Explore Data

Qualitative and Quantitative

Find Levers

Growth Model

DAILY/WEEKLY

HOW WE SET GOALS (OKRs)

OBJECTIVE: Qualitative statement TIMEFRAME: 30 - 90 Days KR1: Measurable Goal 1 (Hit 90% Of Time) KR2: Measurable Goal 2 (Hit 50% Of Time) KR3: Measurable Goal 3 (Hit 10% Of Time)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

AN EXAMPLE…

OBJECTIVE: MAKE VIRALITY A MEANINGFUL CHANNEL TIMEFRAME: 90 Days KR1: 1.5% Viral/WAU KR2: 2% Viral/WAU KR3: 3% Viral/WAU

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

1 2 IN OUR FACE INPUTS NOT OUTPUTS 3 CONCRETE

OKR’s will never be set on on the

• utput (WAU) the will always be

set on the inputs. OKR’s will be somewhere that we can’t forget

• them. Review daily and weekly.

Goals will change mid-OKR VERY rarely.

OKR PRINCIPLES

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Set Goals

OKR’s

Explore Data

Qualitative and Quantitative

Find Levers

Growth Model

DAILY/WEEKLY

HOW WE GET GROWTH INSIGHTS

INSIGHT

Quantitative Qualitative Intuition

1 2 QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE

User Surveys, 1 on 1 Conversations, Full Story Videos, Customer Support Tickets GA, Mixpanel, Datastore. Goal is to answer questions we don’t know about our user, product,

• r channel. Break it into pieces.

EXPLORE DATA

UNDERSTAND THE INPUTS OF THE INPUTS

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

BUILD A MINI MODEL

UNDERSTAND THE INPUTS OF THE INPUTS

1 2 CEILING BASELINE 3 SENSITIVITY

UNDERSTAND THE WHY

UNDERSTAND THE INPUTS OF THE INPUTS

Why do users who get to invite page not covert?

<— Super targeted to the variable we are trying to improve <— Open ended question to allow for all types of answers <— Email looks like a personal email to create a sense of importance

UNDERSTAND THE WHY

UNDERSTAND THE INPUTS OF THE INPUTS

Bug 7% Other 8% Would Prefer To Just Share On FB 10% Don't Want You To Spam Friends 11% Reward Not High Enough 29% Didn't Know Who To Invite 35%

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP ONE: BRAINSTORM BRAINSTORM ON THE INPUTS NOT THE OUTPUTS…

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP ONE: BRAINSTORM

ACTIVATION RATE = STEP 1 CONV * STEP 2 CONV * STEP 3 CONV

IF WE WANT TO IMPROVE THIS WE BRAINSTORM ON THESE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

4 WAYS TO COME UP WITH GROWTH IDEAS 1 OBSERVE

How are others doing it? Look outside of your immediate product space. Walk through together.

2 QUESTION

Question brainstorming. Why? What is… What if… What about… How do we do more of…

3 ASSOCIATE

Connect the dots between unrelated things. i.e What if our activation process was like closing a deal?

4 NETWORK

Growth mastermind groups. Build your network of growth people. I’m on the phone every day for ideas

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE 1 2 IMPACT PROBABILITY 3 RESOURCES

LOW - 20%, MEDIUM - 50%, HIGH - 80% Comes from your prediction. Take into account long lasting effects vs one hit wonders. Marketing, Design, Engineering

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE

CREATING A HYPOTHESIS

IF SUCCESSFUL, [VARIABLE] WILL INCREASE BY [IMPACT], BECAUSE [ASSUMPTIONS].

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE

JUSTIFYING YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

1 2 QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE 3 SECONDARY

Previous Experiments, Surrounding Data, Funnel Data Surveys, Support Emails, User Testing Recordings Networking, Blogs, Competitor Observation, Case Studies

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE

CREATE EXPERIMENT DOC

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP THREE: TEST WHAT IS THE MVT (MINIMUM VIABLE TEST) TO UNDERSTAND OUR HYPOTHESIS?

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

1 EFFICIENCY

What is the least resource intensive way to gather data about the hypothesis.

2 VALIDITY

The experiment must take into account how to get a valid result by designing a control and required amount of data.

STEP THREE: TEST

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP THREE: TEST

WRITE THE EXPERIMENT DESIGN IN EXPERIMENT DOC

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP FOUR: IMPLEMENT GET SHIT DONE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP FIVE: ANALYZE 1 2 IMPACT SUCCESS/FAIL 3 WHY?

How close to your prediction? The most important question you can ask. Why did you see the result that you did? Be prepared for a lot of failures.

STEP FIVE: ANALYZE

LEARNINGS + ACTION ITEMS IN EXPERIMENT DOC

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP SIX: SYSTEMIZE 1 PRODUCTIZE

Productize as much as you can with technology and engineering.

2 PLAYBOOKS

For the things you can’t productize, build into step by step playbooks to make them repeatable.

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

• 6. Systemize

(Playbooks)

• 1. Brainstorm

(Backlog)

• 2. Prioritize

(Experiment Doc + Backlog)

• 3. Test

(Experiment Doc)

• 4. Implement
• 5. Analyze

(Experiment Doc)

REPEAT

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

WHAT A TYPICAL WEEK LOOKS LIKE

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Growth Meeting

• Learnings
• Goal Review
• Blocking Items/

Strategies

Predicting, Prioritizing, Implementing, Analyzing, Systemizing

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

WEEKLY GROWTH MEETING

DON’T GET ATTACHED TO IDEAS

1 2 GOALS LEARNINGS 3 BLOCKING

Learnings, not updates. You can monitor experiment updates in the pipeline. Progress against goals What blocked you from doing something this week?

WEEKLY GROWTH MEETING

TEMPLATE

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

MACRO OPTIMIZATION

(REVIEW QUARTERLY)

1 2 ACCURACY BATTING AVG 3 THROUGHPUT

How many successes to failures? Our we improving over time? Are our predictions getting more accurate? How many experiments are we running in a given time period? How do we do more?

MACRO OPTIMIZATION

HOW WE IMPROVE

1 2 INFRASTRUCTURE TEAM 3 PROCESS

Improve current teams skills. Add to the team. Experiment, analytics, and qualitative feedback infrastructure Refining the process for more efficiency or quality of ideas, implementation, and analysis.

A FINAL WORD PART ONE ITERATION DOES NOT EQUAL INCREMENTAL

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

A FINAL WORD PART TWO IT IS NEVER TOO EARLY TO START THIS PROCESS

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

A FINAL FINAL WORD THERE IS NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THIS

• PROCESS. SUCCESS COMES DOWN TO

GRIT, FOCUS, AND PERSISTENCE.

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

THANKS!

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com