Alex Walters’ Post

Here's another tricky bit about being aHead of Growth: You have to adopt a mindset that balances strategic direction with the flexibility of experimental learning. Let me illustrate. Let's consider launching a new feature or service, "GrowthHack360," conceived during a strategic planning session. After this session, you might question: Me: What if GrowthHack360 doesn’t resonate with our users? CEO: Why wouldn’t it? It’s part of our growth strategy. Me: But what if the market doesn’t need it or it doesn’t solve a significant problem? CEO: We’ve decided it’s key for our growth. This kind of exchange is more common than you'd think and highlights a common issue: conflating strategic importance with market need. As a Head of Growth, your role is to ensure that initiatives like GrowthHack360 not only align with strategic goals but also address genuine market needs and customer pain points. Approaching new initiatives as a series of experiments is crucial, especially in a startup environment where market dynamics are continually shifting. You need to position GrowthHack360 not as a definitive solution but as a hypothesis to test in the market. Coming back to the conversation... CEO: We can't position our growth strategy as tentative. Me: Acknowledging it as an experiment doesn’t weaken our position; it strengthens our adaptability and shows we’re committed to genuinely solving user problems. When it comes to growth initiatives you have to almost expect that initiatives will fail more often than they will succeed. Denying the possibility of failure limits the opportunity to learn along with the risk of continuing down unproductive paths. For example, if GrowthHack360 is launched in different market segments with varied messaging and fails to engage in each case, it's crucial to understand why. Was it the feature itself, the market understanding, or the execution strategy that fell short? If no market responds positively, then you’ve learned something valuable about your growth hypothesis. So again, that's the trick for Heads of Growth - you have to ensure that strategies are not rigid directives but informed experiments. Thats what provides clarity, even in failure, because it provides a roadmap for iterating toward successful growth strategies. It helps create a culture where every outcome is a learning opportunity, leading to more sustainable growth.

A really big lesson from leading growth was to not just settle for repeatability in the growth processes. And this was a wild realization for me at the time because I thought that's what I was supposed do to. Turns out that that I was, but that's not all. What I was focused on was on clearly defining and documenting standard processes. For growth teams, this means establishing systematic approaches to how we manage campaigns, leads, and conversions. It's about setting a baseline of structured methods that ensure consistency across all growth initiatives. But then I had to learn to shift from just having defined processes to managing these processes through data-driven insights. This includes analyzing conversion rates, tracking engagement at each stage of the funnel, and understanding where leads drop off. It's about leveraging data not only to track outcomes but to make informed decisions that refine our growth strategies actively. And once that was in place I had to focus on continuous improvement. For a growth team, this means constantly testing new hypotheses, integrating feedback into the growth process, and striving for innovation in our approach itself so that we're constantly enhancing them. So the question shifted from, "Is our process repeatable?" to "Are we optimizing our growth strategies effectively?" It made me look beyond establishing reliable systems and move towards actively refining and enhancing these systems to better meet our goals. In practice, this means building a culture that values data and feedback, where every member of the growth team is encouraged to look critically at their work and push for continual improvement. It’s about embracing a mindset where the process itself is subject to growth and refinement—just like the markets we operate in to stay competitive and effective in how we execute on growth.

Here's a trap waiting for all new Heads of Growth: Metrics as a blocker of common sense. Let me explain. Growth ultimately boils down to hitting certain numbers in a specific timeframe. But this can lead to tunnel vision with metrics, which is dangerous. Most of this danger comes from companies incentivizing their teams based solely on numbers, which can lead to counterproductive behaviors or shortsighted decisions. It sounds obvious to say it but its vital to inspire actions that contribute to long-term goals and sustainable growth, rather than actions that chase short-term wins to hit a fleeting target. Metrics should serve as a compass—a way to navigate and make informed decisions—rather than a checklist of destinations to reach as fast as possible. They should resemble a dashboard in a cockpit, offering multiple vantage points to assess the company's health and trajectory. A comprehensive dashboard provides a multidimensional view of performance and potential pitfalls. The potency of a metric-driven strategy lies in the questions it prompts you to ask. This is why the best growth leads employ metrics to close knowledge gaps and verify assumptions. For instance, analyzing if high-scoring leads convert better than others can tell you about the accuracy of your lead scoring model and prompt strategic adjustments. Questions should test the utility of knowledge, not merely affirm it. Now, not everyone speaks the language of numbers with equal fluency. This is why growth leads either have to develop a strong analytical acumen or they have to onboard a data-savvy person who can distill complex information into actionable insights and interpret what they mean in the context of the business and the market. In essence, a strategic approach to metrics is about fostering a culture of intelligent analysis. It’s about recognizing that metrics are not the goal but rather a means to steer growth judiciously so that every step forward is a step in the right direction. Sounds like common sense, right?

Have you ever been driving to a new destination, but next thing you know, you are on your way to your house? And on top of that, you can't even remember how you got here? It's a very eerie feeling when you snap out of it, and happens because your mind and body went on "autopilot" - It's actually called "highway hypnosis". Something similar tends to happen in business - we tend to zone out, focusing on a variety of other things, while the business grows and evolved by inertia. I see it happen often in consulting firms. Somewhere along the line, they get distracted and lose focus, and their growth strategy goes on autopilot. What usually snaps them out of this "growth hypnosis" is the growth plateau. The usual 5 - 10% YoY growth has stopped and they don't know why. Just like when you snap out of your highway hypnosis being halfway home when you meant to go to the bank. Here are a few signs you might be in "growth hypnosis": - Your growth is being fueled by one or two of your largest clients by consistently expanding your services to suit their needs. - Your growth is being fueled by referrals, but they aren't necessarily the best referrals, but you take them because you have become dependent on them. - You feel like you no longer own a unique position in the minds of your ideal customer because your services have become too broad and your messaging commoditized. - You have departments or practice areas that are pretty much operating independently in silos, with their own individual growth engines, but your organization is smaller than 250 people. If you find yourself in these situations, here are a few things you can do, to get your growth back on track: 1. Realign leadership and the broader organization on the fundamentals - Business strategy, ICP, positioning, narrative 2. Realign your growth function (marketing and business development) and ensure they are working together in support of the business strategy. 3. Test your understanding of the ecosystem, by evaluating where quality ICP referrals are coming from, and double down on building and nurturing the right relationships. The purpose is to build a thought leadership position within this ecosystem. 4. After you have done the 3 above, explore ways to scale your thought leadership and relationship building through marketing and advertising. P.S. "Growth Hypnosis", if not addressed in time, is often the prelude to the "feast and famine death spiral"

The number one problem I typically see with growth teams in growth-stage companies is prioritization. When everything is important... Nothing is. You can have the best team and the best product in the world! But if you're not organized and proactive... You'll still fall short. Here are 3 frameworks and exercises I like to use to help make sure my growth teams stay on track: ⭐️ ‘North Star Goals’. Establish 1-3 north star goals that are THE most important to get done in your week. If you’re getting distracted by something that doesn’t ladder up to those goals, it gets deprioritized. ✍️The Eisenhower Matrix (AKA urgent v. important matrix). I use this matrix myself almost weekly. Whenever you have a long to do list and are feeling overwhelmed, draw out a chart with four quadrants. List out your to-do lists and organize by how impactful they are and how long they will take. It will sort out what to do today, tomorrow, soon, and never based on what are the most valuable items on your list. 🍚 The RICE framework. List out tests or items to do, and assign them a value based on Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort. Multiply Reach x Impact x Confidence, then divide the sum by Effort. The higher the score, the higher the priority. I love this framework when you have a TON of ideas for testing, and don't have time (or budget) to implement them all at once. What do you do to keep your team working on the most high-priority items? PS - Need to get organized? Ask me about how I can help your growth efforts go from throwing spaghetti at the wall to knocking it out of the park 🚀

You are busy, you've got clients but... you aren't growing Does this sound familiar? I promise you aren't the only one feeling this way. So many of us start, get those first few clients and the money starts rolling in. It feels great. But you are unable to scale. You are stuck in that sweet spot (it's not sweet anymore) So, how do you break free? •⁠ ⁠Challenge your mindset: Recognize that "comfortable" isn't the goal. Growth requires pushing boundaries and exploring new possibilities. •⁠ ⁠Invest in systems & automation: Free up your time by streamlining processes and workflows. Focus on scaling your impact, not just your hours. •⁠ ⁠Embrace new strategies: Research and experiment with different marketing tactics to reach a wider audience. •⁠ ⁠Level up your offerings: Develop additional services or packages that cater to higher-tier clients. Remember: Growth doesn't happen by accident.  It requires intentionality and a willingness to get uncomfortable. Have you also experienced this phase of feeling stuck? How did you get out of it? #strategies #growth

The mind-blowing truth:   Consistent processes unleash unstoppable growth. We’ve all seen this quote. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”   You want insanity to exist in your operations, without it, you get different results. And that’s not what you’re aiming for each day running your company. In operations, insanity is letting the end outcome figure itself out.   Our brains crave the opposite. Systematic patterns that reduce friction in decision-making. Give it something new each time and friction increases with inconsistent results.   During initial success as your company grows, it’s tempting to buy into “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. The perfect response I heard to this, “just because it’s not defective, doesn’t mean it's effective”. When you let this happen, a handful of people decide how to do things for their convenience.   In the long run, you are just robbing Peter to pay Paul. The problems don’t just pile up, they compound and rolling back all that dysfunction gets expensive.   When you do this, you will get a version of the result you’re looking for. It just won’t happen the way you envision it. You’ll get lucky a handful of times and hope you’ll make that magic happen again.   So, plan operations the right way by taking everything you know and getting it down on paper.                Understand how you work in sequences, it’s the collection of step-by-step patterns. The patterns give you the ability to build a collection of processes into your execution.   You want repetitive steps to achieve the same result. That’s the goal when you’re looking for scalable operations. A collection of processes that’s second nature in your operations. Easy to spot, simple to document, and effective in achieving the same results over and over.   Don’t keep your operational brain guessing each time. Build an operation that relies on documented patterns and embrace the insanity.   Follow me, Humberto Garcia(🔔), one rep at time every week (aiming for 3x😁) Know how your people think to scale your operations. I lean into building your operations for success as a fractional COO with actionable tips and growth strategies.

🌱 Just read an eye-opening piece on growth strategies that got me thinking deeply. Here are some key takeaways that struck a chord: - Growth Is The Sum Of A Lot Of Small Parts: Success isn't about finding a single magical solution but rather an intricate combination of experiments and learnings. - Rate Of Change Is Accelerating: Every major acquisition channel is evolving rapidly. Adaptability is crucial to stay ahead of the curve. - What Works For You, Won’t Work For Others: Customization is key as every product, audience, and business model is unique. - You Need A Machine: Building a growth machine involves scalability, predictability, and repeatability. Wondering how to establish a growth process that works? Look no further, as this article provides insights that are both practical and insightful. Share your thoughts on this approach towards growth—what resonated with you the most? https://lnkd.in/e4kscS8U

Your biggest competitor isn’t who you think it is. When most business owners think about competition, they’re focused on the other companies in their industry. But in reality, your biggest competitor is something far more dangerous: indecision. I’ve seen it time and again. A business owner knows what needs to be done—whether it’s refining their processes, launching a new offer, or scaling up—but they hesitate. They wait for the perfect moment, more research, or a sign that everything will work out. Here’s the truth: the perfect moment doesn’t exist. While you’re waiting, someone else is out there taking action, learning from their mistakes, and getting ahead. A client once told me their biggest regret wasn’t a bad decision—it was the opportunities they didn’t take. Every moment of indecision cost them momentum, customers, and revenue. The key? Stop hesitating and start executing. Growth doesn’t come from perfect plans—it comes from action. 👉 What’s one decision you’ve been putting off? Drop it in the comments or DM me.

Growth: the holy grail of every business. But what if I told you that chasing growth at all costs might be your biggest mistake? After years of pursuing aggressive growth targets, I've learned that sustainable growth isn't about hacks or quick wins. It's more about understanding some uncomfortable truths. 1. More users doesn't always mean more revenue. 2. Rapid growth can mask fundamental business issues. 3. What got you here won't get you there - strategies must evolve. 4. Growth without retention is just a leaky bucket. 5. Sometimes, slowing down is the fastest way to grow. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱: - Improve user activation and retention, not just acquisition. - Align growth metrics with core business health indicators. - Build a culture of experimentation and data-driven decisions. - Prioritize customer experience over short-term gains. - Invest in sustainable, repeatable growth processes ( loops being one of them ). - Eliminate the product feature factory mindset. At the end I would say. Forget 10x growth. Focus on 10% improvements, compounded relentlessly. #growth