BUILDING A GROWTH MACHINE
THE METHOD BEHIND THE MACHINE
!
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

WANT TO KNOW THE #1 QUESTION I’M
ASKED ABOUT GROWTH?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

WHAT TACTIC WOULD YOU USE TO GROW
MY COMPANY?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

4
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

ONE…
TIP…
SECRET…
HACK…
TACTIC…
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

THE ANSWER TO…
IS NOT WHAT MOST THINK IT IS
WHAT TACTIC WOULD YOU USE TO GROW
MY COMPANY?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TACTICS
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH PROCESS
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

PROCESS?!?!?!
WHAT CAN BE SO SPECIAL ABOUT PROCESS?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

4 REASONS TO FOCUS ON
PROCESS FIRST, TACTICS SECOND
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

12
1. WHAT WORKS FOR OTHERS, WON’T
WORK FOR YOU
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR AUDIENCE IS DIFFERENT
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR PRODUCT IS DIFFERENT
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR BUSINESS MODEL IS DIFFERENT
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR CUSTOMER JOURNEY IS DIFFERENT
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

YOUR BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT
PLAIN AND SIMPLE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

18
2. GROWTH = SUM(1, 2, 3, 4….X)
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

What happened here?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

20
SILVER BULLETS DON’T EXIST
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

21
3. RATE OF CHANGE IS ACCELERATING
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

SEO No Keyword Data, Author Rank, Content
Freshness, Social Shares, Search Result Format
DISPLAY RTB, No Cookies, Mobile
EMAIL Tabbed Inboxes, Inbox Actions, Unsubscribe,
Mobile
FACEBOOK
Newsfeed Ads (4 formats), Video Ads,
Optimized CPM, CTA Format, Custom Audiences,
etc, etc

CHART CREDIT: JAMES CURRIER
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

24
4. YOU NEED A MACHINE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

A MACHINE IS…
1
2 PREDICTABLE
SCALABLE
3 REPEATABLE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

THE MACHINE PRODUCES THE TACTICS
THE PROCESS MAKES THE MACHINE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

SO LET’S SEE THE PROCESS…
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

THE GOALS OF THE PROCESS
1 RHYTHM
Momentum is powerful. Establish a cadence to fight
through failures, get to successes, and find
momentum
2 LEARNING Constant learning of our customer, product, channels
and feeding that learning into the process to improve.
3 AUTONOMY Individuals decide what they work on to achieve the
team goals.
4 ACCOUNTABILITY
With autonomy, comes accountability. You
don’t have to be right all the time, but there
is an expectation to improve.
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

THE FIRST STEP: KNOW WHERE
WE ARE GOING
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

HOW WE SET GOALS
OBJECTIVE: Qualitative statement
!
TIMEFRAME: 30 - 90 Days
!
KR1: Measurable Goal 1 (Hit 90% Of Time)
KR2: Measurable Goal 2 (Hit 50% Of Time)
KR3: Measurable Goal 3 (Hit 10% Of Time)
!
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

ONCE WE KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING WE
HIT THE ROAD AS FAST AS POSSIBLE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

6. Systemize
(Playbooks)
1. Brainstorm
(Backlog)
2. Prioritize
(Experiment Doc + Backlog)
3. Test
(Experiment Doc)
4. Implement
5. Analyze
(Experiment Doc)
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

FOUR KEY DOCUMENTS
1 BACKLOG The backlog of experiment ideas.
2 PIPELINE Experiments that were ran or are currently running
and the highlights of their results.
3 EXPERIMENT DOC Objective, Hypothesis, Experiment Design,
Results, Analysis, and Learnings
4 PLAYBOOKS Step by step guides for successful
experiments that should be repeated.
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP ONE: BRAINSTORM
BRAINSTORM ON THE INPUTS
NOT THE OUTPUTS…
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP ONE: BRAINSTORM
ACTIVATION RATE = STEP 1 CONV * STEP 2 CONV * STEP 3 CONV
IF WE WANT TO
IMPROVE THIS
WE BRAINSTORM ON THESE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

4 WAYS TO GENERATE GROWTH IDEAS
(Read The Innovators Solution)
1 OBSERVE How are others doing it? Look outside of your
immediate product space. Walk through together.
2 QUESTION Question brainstorming. Why? What is… What if…
What about… How do we do more of…
3 ASSOCIATE Connect the dots between unrelated things. i.e What
if our activation process was like closing a deal?
4 NETWORK Growth mastermind groups. Build your network of
growth people. I’m on the phone every day for ideas

STEP ONE: BRAINSTORM
CREATE A BACKLOG
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE
1
2 IMPACT
PROBABILITY
3 RESOURCES
LOW - 20%, MEDIUM - 50%, HIGH - 80%
Comes from your hypothesis. Take into account
long lasting effects vs one hit wonders.
Marketing, Design, Engineering
1 Hour, 1/2 Day, 1 Day, 1 Week
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE
CREATING A HYPOTHESIS
IF SUCCESSFUL, [VARIABLE] WILL
INCREASE BY [IMPACT], BECAUSE
[ASSUMPTIONS].
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE
JUSTIFYING YOUR ASSUMPTIONS
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
1
2 QUALITATIVE
QUANTITATIVE
3 SECONDARY
Previous Experiments, Surrounding Data,
Funnel Data
Surveys, Support Emails, User Testing
Recordings
Networking, Blogs, Competitor Observation,
Case Studies

STEP TWO: PRIORITIZE
CREATE EXPERIMENT DOC
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP THREE: TEST
WHAT IS THE MVT
(MINIMUM VIABLE TEST)
TO UNDERSTAND OUR HYPOTHESIS?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP THREE: TEST
WRITE THE EXPERIMENT DESIGN IN EXPERIMENT DOC
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP FOUR: IMPLEMENT
GET SHIT DONE
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP FIVE: ANALYZE
1
2 ACCURACY
IMPACT
3 WHY?
How close to your hypothesis?
The most important question you can ask. Why did
you see the result that you did?
What were the results of the experiment?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP FIVE: ANALYZE
LEARNINGS + ACTION ITEMS IN EXPERIMENT DOC
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

STEP SIX: SYSTEMIZE
1 PRODUCTIZE Productize as much as you can with technology
and engineering.
2 PLAYBOOKS For the things you can’t productize, build into step
by step playbooks to make them repeatable.
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

6. Systemize
(Playbooks)
1. Brainstorm
(Backlog)
2. Prioritize
(Experiment Doc + Backlog)
3. Test
(Experiment Doc)
4. Implement
5. Analyze
(Experiment Doc)
REPEAT
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

WHAT A TYPICAL WEEK LOOKS LIKE
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Growth Meeting
- Personal Learnings
- Goal Review
- Experiment Review
- This Week’s
Experiments
Predicting, Prioritizing, Implementing,
Analyzing, Systemizing
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

ZOOM OUT (set OKR’s)
ZOOM IN (4 - 12 weeks)
ZOOM OUT
ZOOM IN
ZOOM OUT….
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

MACRO OPTIMIZATION
QUARTERLY REVIEW
1
2 ACCURACY
BATTING AVG
3 THROUGHPUT
How many successes to failures? Is it improving
over time?
Are your hypotheses getting more accurate?
How many experiments are you running in a
given time period? How do you do more?
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com

THANKS!
MORE ON MY SITE: HTTP://WWW.COELEVATE.COM
Brian Balfour :: @bbalfour :: http://www.coelevate.com
BRIAN BALFOUR
VP Growth @ HubSpot
Previously EIR @ Trinity Ventures, Co-Founder @
Boundless, Co-Founder @ Viximo (acq by Tapjoy)