Breaking down silos to grow

Here’s the thing: growth ideas often come from thinking outside the box and looking at the full complexity of the user flow, rather than getting stuck in the silos created by products, features, and org structures.

Basically, no matter how you slice and dice your projects to optimize for Growth (capital G), the real growth (lowercase g) often lies in the seams between those projects and teams.

Picture this: a widget company has a deals team that busts their posteriors to secure awesome Black Friday discounts. They even get those deals featured on the homepage. Sounds great, right? All those users flooding the site will see the deals and go wild!

But wait, what about the email and notifications team? Shouldn’t they be crafting personalized updates and maybe even more exclusive deals for engaged users? And what about marketing? Are they on the same page with messaging, or will users get confused by mixed signals?

In big companies, this kind of coordination doesn’t happen automagically. Teams often optimize for their own little fiefdoms without seeing the bigger picture.

Now, decentralizing growth efforts is usually the secret to scaling. Trying to centralize everything just creates org friction and slows things down.

But there are times when it’s worth the extra elbow grease to get everyone singing from the same hymnal. My rule of thumb? When there’s a tidal wave of users expected, like during Black Friday or the World Cup, it’s time to yell (figuratively!) and get all hands on deck.

At the end of the day, growth is a team sport. By breaking down silos and looking at the big picture, you can find those hidden gems that really move the needle.