Growth is getting harder for SaaS business. Over the last 10 years, 3X more dollars chase the attention of every US Internet user and the channels for acquiring customers are in constant flux. The solution is a coordinated full company growth effort. These slides show how to drive broad participation and execute in a weekly cadence of testing and learning.

1. Sean Ellis
CEO / GrowthHackers
Building a Company-Wide
Growth Culture
SaaStr Annual 2016

2. Everyone Wants Explosive Growth
@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
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3. But Extreme Competition for Attention
$0
$20
$40
$60
$80
$100
$120
$140
$160
3.5x
US Online Ad
Spend per User
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

4. Channels in Constant Flux
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James Currier
@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

5. Solution: Company-Wide Growth Effort
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Product
External
Channels
Promise
1st Experience
Ongoing Experience
Acquisition
Activation
Revenue
Retention
Referral
biz dev/
APIs
Marketing
Growth
Team
@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

6. Growth Company Requirements
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Broad
Participation
Weekly
Cadence
Transparent
Learning

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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Broad
Participation
Weekly
Cadence
Transparent
Learning

8. External Experts
Internal Experts
Ideas Tests Results
Core Growth Team Drives Process
Ideas from Full Team & External Experts
@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
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9. Goal: Build a Large Backlog of Ideas
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

10. Formalize Ideas in Experiment Doc
• Include hypothesis, research, target lever
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Keep general contributor
ideas simple (no ICE)

11. Example: Growth Ideas from Dropbox
Revenue
test
Referral
test
Retention/
Revenue
test
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Broad
Participation
Weekly
Cadence
Transparent
Learning

13. Growth Team Manages Cadence
• Start with growth master + ad hoc team
• Ad hoc team: designer, analyst, engineer,
ideally key execs (CEO, VP Product…)
• Add dedicated growth roles as needed
• Weekly test launch goals and weekly
growth meeting
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

14. Weekly Growth Meeting Agenda
• 15 Min: Growth metrics, issues and opportunities
• 10 min: Review last week’s testing sprint
• 15 min: Key lessons learned from analyzed tests
• 15 min: Select tests for this week’s sprint
• 5 min: Check growth of idea backlog
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

15. Goal: Test at High Tempo
• No certainty about how you will grow
• Rapid Testing across all vectors
• More testing = More discovery
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Acquisition Referral
Activation Revenue
Retention Resurrection
@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

16. Example: Twitter Increased Tempo
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

17. Prioritize by ICE Score & Focus Area
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

18. Manage Testing
• Assign each test to a
project manager
• Anyone on growth team
can be a project mgr
• Run tests sufficient time
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

19. Analyze Results
• Always ask why
• Systematize on learning
• Informs follow up tests
• Revisit past programs
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Broad
Participation
Weekly
Cadence
Transparent
Learning

21. Every Test Leads to Learning
• Share all results with team (not just wins)
• New ideas requires access to past learning
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

22. Example: Past Learning Leads to a Win
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Slides
Videos
• Learning: Embeds = longer sessions
• Engineering solution: oEmbed (same
action more embeds)
• Results: 41% more embeds

23. Final Thought: Focus on Value Delivery
• Value delivery drives sustainable growth
• Help right users get value from your product
• Easy to align full team around value delivery
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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers

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@SeanEllis @GrowthHackers
Join GH Projects Private Beta
at Projects.GrowthHackers.com
Purpose-Built Growth Collaboration System:
1) Team Ideation 2) Prioritize Testing 3) Capture Learning
Join us at GrowthHackers Conference Feb 18th. Save with Code SaaStr50