This document provides a summary of various growth tools and frameworks for businesses, including the Business Model Canvas, analytical vs intuitive thinking, customer development, lean startup metrics, funnel metrics, forecasting, and structured brainstorming techniques. It discusses tools for visualizing your business model, exploring alternatives, communicating vision, finding your business model through customer feedback, measuring user activation and retention, and making meetings more effective.

1. Growth Toolkit
Ross McKegney
August 2012

2. About me.
MBA, Rotman School
MSc, Software Engineering, Queen's
2002-2008: product manager / architect, IBM
R&D, WebSphere Commerce team.
Then a serial entrepreneur with companies Ross McKegney
in media and design. Currently CTO at @rossmckegney
Verold, the leading online collaborative
platform for artists/designers of 3D assets
(gaming and animation). Part-time professor
at the UOIT business school.

3. Growth Toolkit:
Business Design

4. Alex Osterwalder
Business Model Canvas.
Your business, visually.
Great tool for getting
stakeholders on board,
exploring alternatives,
and communicating
vision.

7. Roger Martin
Analytical Thinking
vs Intuitive Thinking

8. Jeanne Liedtka
Making the design toolkit
accessible to managers

10. Operations Toolkit:
Customer Development

11. How to find your
business model

12. Lean Startup Metrics
Eric Ries, Vanity Metrics vs Actionable Metrics
http://www.fourhourworkweek.
com/blog/2009/05/19/vanity-metrics-vs-
actionable-metrics/
Steve Blank, Metrics+
http://steveblank.com/2009/12/17/building-a-
company-with-customer-data-metrics-are-not-
enough/

13. e.g. User Base Metrics
Registrations (Customers who completed the registration process during the month)
Activations (Customers who had activity 3 to 10 days after they registered. Measures
only customers that registered during that month)
Activation/Registrations %
Retained 30+ Days
Retained 30+/ Total Actives %
Retained 90+ Days
Retained 90+/Total Actives %
Paying Customers (How many customers made $ purchases that month)
Conversion rate: Paying/(Activations + Retained 30+)

14. Forecasting
Your forecast will be wrong, embrace that.
But it is still an important exercise.
Once you have a plan in place for metrics, plug
the numbers into a formula like:
http://andrewchen.co/2009/01/19/how-to-
create-a-profitable-freemium-startup-
spreadsheet-model-included/

15. Funnel, Users vs Customers
At a high level, there’s what is happening:
● Each time period, a bunch of newly registered users come in (both
acquired through ads or through viral marketing)
● Some % of these users convert into paying users
● Some % of these users then send off viral invites
● Revenue is generated by building up a base of paying users
● Cost is generated through building up a base of active users
(paying or not!)

17. Structured
Brainstorming

18. Gamestorming
Excellent collection
of games/tools to make
meetings more effective.
Check out:
gogamestorm.com

20. Impact & effort:

22. 5Ws framework
Your company is the ONLY ________
that __________
for __________
in _________
who ___________
in an era of ______________