Breaking down Growth

Nick Dahl crafted this article on breaking down each factor of growth strategies with the context of Truecaller which not only tells where to focus for growth but also how to measure growth.

?There is a very important point which suddenly came to my mind while reading it – which I will mention in the end.

Nick’s article has touched upon almost 8 KEY factors that leads to growth

A. The essence of GROWTH as a process: Usually when we discuss growth we always identify it as an outcome while GROWTH IS ALL ALONG A PROCESS. Nick breaks the biggest misunderstanding about GROWTH that

“Growth is rarely the result of one big breakthrough”.        

Rather GROWTH is sum of PRODUCT, MARKETING, ANALYTICS, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, COMPETENCY all coming together to build a systematic process which churns out GROWTH in every repeat.

It is a process which identifies an OUCH moment, by using the CORE VALUE PROPOSITION it converts OUCH to an AHA moment.        

B. Connection of GROWTH with 4 Ps: What became vital for True Caller’s Growth was the 4th P i.e. Promotion. Partnerships, PR, Social media, CRM, Digital marketing, App store visibility, Paid marketing all helped in converting the first push to continuous traction.

C. Value at the core of GROWTH: Most often key reason for high rate of burn in marketing for organisations is not trusting on the value proposition of the product. Nick mentioned to trigger sharing behaviours as soon as the feature/product solves a problem for user. The core value proposition can be the biggest promoter for the product thereby it becomes a big resource in Acquisition loop for new user via

- Word of Mouth – As user experiences the AHA moment automatically it triggers user to forward to his/her connections.

- Referral notification – A certain in app push focusing on the value proposition triggers the referral cycle.

- Social media share – It’s actually an extension of the first trigger where User extends the word of mouth beyond his/her circle

There is a great Tool, developed by Off The Record a Netherland based Growth agency that connects Channels with Acquisition loop ?with evaluating effectiveness criteria.

D. Repeating the systematic process of GROWTH: Growth does not stop at 1st AHA moment rather finding avenues to build on top of that AHA moment. This can be achieved via

a. Educate: Making sure of users understanding the value propositions

b. Operation: No hiccups in feature performance

c. Vertical benefits: To solve associated problems – True Caller's ASSISTANT feature which leverages ML to share LIVE CALL TRANSCRIPTS of the screening of incoming caller.

d. Horizontal benefits: To add more benefits – True Caller’s call me back update

e. Community engagement: Added benefits to help the community – Community comments feature of True Caller allows user to have the valuable insight about specific number.

E. The Retention game of GROWTH: Floor Kreijkes (CMO Meditation Moments) shared that

Retention loop focuses on the returning users by producing retention triggers which ensures users continue to enjoy product’s core value propositions.        

a. Utility based or Time based – Engagement of one moment encourage engagement in future. Example: True Caller’s feature of Time based notification (On CALL or FREE) to which User clicks and takes action on app like in app msg

b. Network based or Activity based – When engagement happens between active users which increases more engagement. Example: True Caller’s feature of “Who viewed your profile” where user wants to know who viewed and search for other users who checked profile while the 2nd user gets email of same ““Who viewed your profile”

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F. Marketing Spend for GROWTH: Long term sustainable growth needs the foundation of POSITIVE ROI (Return on Investment) and CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) which is LOWER than the LTV (Life time value of User)

In a competitive market like India (contributing 70%+ revenue of True Caller) where there are multiple competitors (like Bharatcaller, Hiya, Whoscall, Showcaller, Mr Number) it’s always good to have initial marketing spend to build the traction in the form of Marketing Budget, Discount, Freemium, added benefits etc.

LTV = ARPDAU * LT -? CAC.

• In case CAC > LTV, it means spending is on GROWTH
• In case CAC < LTV, it means spending is to get faster traction

G. Metrics of GROWTH:

• North Star Metric – DAU for True Caller. 3 Musts are important

a. Must be a leading indicator of revenue,

b. Must represent product strategy,

c. Must measure customer value (through retention or engagement)

Every North star metric should be broken down to Output metric that measures the avenues which contributes to revenue indicator. For example: DAU is broken down to MAU, ENGAGEMENT and MONETIZATION. Further according to the growth teams should have sub goal and metrics to measure their values or efforts. For example: ?MAU into New users, Churn, Resurrection, ENGAGEMENT into Active days, Sessions, Time spent, MONETIZATION into Ads, Subscriptions, Other revenue sources

• Activation: The only principle for activation is user’s affinity to core value proposition, which can be measured through achievement of a certain threshold for any activity or behavioural cue. For Example: Successfully identification of 3 unknown calls for user triggered activation for True Caller.
• Retention Curve: Identifying retention curve for a specific period would give out the indication of Product Market fit. If the curve flattens out then product strategy or features need to be relooked to attain PMF.

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H. Interpretation of Growth Funnel: Probably the most important factor in the article towards growth. Nick indicates the subtle difference between traditional Marketing funnel vs Growth funnel and how significantly it can change mindset of the teams involved.

Traditionally marketeers get involved during Awareness and Acquisition segment while the program management and sales team check in for remaining of the funnel, which in a way creates a siloed approach slowing the growth. In Growth funnel the most crucial factor is the Growth team focuses on holistic improvement and impact on each stages of the GROWTH Funnel from Awareness to Referral. The Growth team has

-?????? Clear GOALS identified for impact zones of the funnel

-?????? Churning of IDEAS continuously

-?????? Quantifying and testing of ideas to create the PROOF OF CONCEPT

-?????? ANALYSING the success and failures

-?????? Identifying the LEARNINGS from the iteration

-?????? EXPERIMENTING towards attaining Growth

?Now the important point which came to my mind during reading was in Indian B-schools’ curriculum we see lack of focus on development of GROWTH or PRODUCT MANAGEMENT mindset rather intense focus on MARKETING.

NO OFFENCE TO THE B-SCHOOLS in India, I have checked many curriculums and disappointed to find entire 1st year syllabus stands on the pillars of FINANCE, OPERATIONS, MARKETING and ECONOMICS while little focus on what these functions actually drive i.e. PRODUCT GROWTH or SERVICE GROWTH. In 2nd year where ELECTIVES come in, there is a Siloed approach towards study of growth i.e. buried into

Funny part is – An enthusiastic Student who wants to learn the entire mechanism of Growth or Product management probably never be able to take all these 5-6 subjects in 2nd year as Elective classes depends on majority interest of students.

?With every organization traditional or start-up around us leaning towards Faster and Sustainable Growth mindset and looking for candidates with similar mindset – the education is not structured to impart the right knowledge at the right time.

It’s high time when the educators take a look at this gap, take suggestions from businesses to revamp the curriculum at the core level.