You’re going to make a growth strategy doc. This will be your blueprint for getting users and pitching your product, and it will eventually turn into your day-to-day work.
If you’ve done the prior readings, it should take 2-4 hours to make.
Phase 1: Setup
Make a Notion doc.
Title it “[Company Name]: Growth Strategy”, and put a link to your site at the top for us to reference.
Make each of the following phases a section on your doc.
Phase 2: Acceptable CAC
What’s your acceptable CAC? Put it here.
If you don’t know yet, or don’t have access to the information you need, make assumptions that feel reasonable.
Spell out your math — and your assumptions — so we know how you got to your conclusion.
Phase 3: Bad alternatives & value props
Copy the template into a Google Sheet and list out your product’s top 3-5 bad alternatives with their associated value props. We recommend Google Sheets rather than Notion tables because it’s easier to comment cell-by-cell to give feedback.
When we work with clients, users tell us these answers themselves (in user interviews). For now, put yourself in the user’s shoes and list out what you think the bad alternatives, problems, etc. would be.
Link to that Google Sheet from your Notion doc.
Phase 4: Target personas (”the who”)
List out 3-5 personas you think would be high-intent. These should be bullet points.
Don’t write extra explanations for why you chose them; your reasoning should be self-evident from the persona.
Phase 5: Buyer’s journey
Write out what you think a typical buyer’s journey would be. You don’t have to make formal slides like in our template, just write out the numbered steps in a section in your notion doc.
Again, these learnings typically come from users, but make assumptions if you need to.
Phase 5a: Sample
Bold the step of your buyer’s journey that you think would be the sample.
In a sub-bullet point, write a quick sentence or two on A) why you chose it as the sample and B) what a different sample could be.
Phase 6: Growth loops
List 0-3 growth loops you think could apply to the product. We say “0” because growth loops sometimes don’t apply. If so, say why not.
Phase 7: Acquisition channels (”the how”)
List 3 acquisition channels you’d want to test, with a sentence or two explaining why you think they’d be a good fit.
Pretend your acceptable CAC is a hard limit, even if it’s not.