Growth Principles 4/7

Note to the reader: This is a repost from LinkedIn

For growth’s sake, don’t be dogmatic…

I am reading “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making Book” by Tony Fadell - https://g.co/kgs/mVUfkez - and I wanted to call out Tony’s description on what type of operations will likely make big changes: 𝐴 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠:

1. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑.

2. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚—𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡-𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡.

3. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛-𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒, 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑖𝑡.

𝟒. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬’ 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬.

1. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚 𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑡.

I especially like the fourth point about not being dogmatic. This point is crucial because it emphasizes the importance of being humble and adaptable in the face of real-world feedback. As the Mike Tyson famously once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” In my team I like to say: “Everyone has a Growth plan until they run their first live experiment.”

It’s easy to fall in love with our own product vision and believe that we know exactly what our users need. However, the reality is that our assumptions are often wrong or incomplete. Only by putting our products in front of real users and gathering feedback can we truly understand what works and what doesn’t.

Be humble. This doesn’t mean abandoning our vision altogether, but rather being open to tweaking and refining it based on real-world insights. The most successful products are those that strike a balance between a strong vision and a willingness to iterate based on user feedback. This requires a leadership team that is confident enough to set a direction, but humble enough to admit when they need to course-correct, and knowing when to do so quickly!