How to practically execute growth sprints? How to collaborate with client and team? How to get stakeholder buy-in?

1. PMF & Growth
Playbook
Why, what, how & when
(internal playbook for Isobar)

2. Contents
This document was created with 3 purposes in mind - to explain, to show & to teach/use
Section 1 - Theory overview, Practical Processes
- Pg 4 Growth Overview
- Pg 10 Experimentation: Why and Process
Section 2 - Case studies
- Pg 22 Sprint 0 - Growth Design Sprint
- Pg 29 Sprint 1 - Growth Sprint Review
- Pg 29 Ongoing - Agile Product Management
Section 3 - Practitioners slides/toolkit
- Pg 41 Team training slides
- Pg 48 Toolkit
- Templates
- https://realtimeboard.com/welcomeonboard/mqIUH6eSPLzofmFvOGth3CkDcVer4DzyruVM3sspGRzGOqYWrzKHtRgUiKY62
M08

3. Should our product
Grow?

4. What is growth?
Growth should be a metric that represents value experienced by the user

5. When to grow?
Growth stage happens after 1) problem/solution fit 2) product/market fit 3) business model fit.
N.B. Growing before product/market fit is like a pouring water into a ‘leaky bucket’

6. When to grow?
Product/Market fit should be the focus before scaling or growth.

7. When to grow?
What are leading indicators for product/market fit? Statistically, achieving over 40% via the Product/Market fit
survey is an indicator for product/market fit.

8. We’re close to product/market
fit
Next steps?

9. How does the product grow?
Build a growth model to understand ‘how the products grows’.

10. What are the key metric to focus on?
North Star Metric should be the focus of growth efforts. Represents value experienced by users. E.g. daily active users, rides per day

11. What are the metrics to avoid?
Measuring and managing vanity metrics will lead to vanity goals and meangingless growth

12. Practical Metrics: Input vs Output metrics
Focusing on input metrics is key to driving output metrics.
E.g. increasing conversations / user (input) leads to weekly active users (output metric)

13. How can our product
Grow?

14. Experimentation via the scientific method - Why?
According to research by Airbnb and Facebook, the odds of success of a new feature or product correlates to the # and
velocity of experimentation. In short, more tests = more % of success

15. Experimentation via the scientific method - How?
By following a structured process for testing and iterating, we can systematically improve key metrics. For example, hypothesis testing
of parts of the business model, value prop testing with users, a/b testing UI and UX, testing copy for landing pages.

16. Growth Sprint Process
In practice - 2 week overview of activity.

17. Setting up a cross-functional Growth Team
Competencies involved in week to week growth sprints will vary depending on the priority metrics/levers to increase. Will
generally involve business/exec as a sponsor, engineering, design, marketing and data.

18. Training a cross-functional growth team
Included is an education deck to level up the growth maturity of a cross-functional team
Click to access slide deck

19. Case studies

20. Case study 1: Sprint 0 (Design Sprint) Review
Case study 2: Sprint 1 (Ongoing Growth Sprints) Review
Case study 3: Ongoing Agile Product Management
3 Case Studies
Sprint 0
Discover
Design
Launch
Sprint 1+
Observe Data
Ideate & Prioritise
Design & Document
Test
Analysis and Synthesis
Ongoing Agile
Product Management
Research
Synthesise
Prioritise
Build

21. Sprint 0
Review
Case studies

22. BAU Growth
Sprint 0 Review
(Growth Design Sprint)
20 August 2019

23. We can answer ‘how will this product grow/what’s our growth strategy?’ by executing a 2 week
Growth Design Sprint
Why Sprint 0 (Growth Design Sprint)?

24. Sprint 0 Deliverables
Timeline
Stage
Day 1-2
Understand
Day 3-4
Define
Day 5-6
Diverge & Decide
Day 7-8
Prototype
Day 9-10
Test & Validate
Outcomes Understand how the
product grows and
prioritise key levers
Define the key
metrics to focus on
for upcoming
sprints.
Build a list of
prioritised growth
experiments
Design and launch
the tests.
Collect data from
tests to inform
future ideas for
experiment
backlog,
Activities &
Deliverables
Challenge statement
Deadline & checklist
Growth Model
User Path To Value
Prep space / working
board
Social Contract
Daily summaries
Lightning Research
Collect Qual data
Collect Quant data
1 sentence goal
Populate experiment
log
Team prioritisation
Experiment Design
Experiment Kanban
Collect Data
Data Synthesis
Update Test Backlog
Update performance
dashboard

25. Day 1-2: Example deliverables
Sprint 0
Show ‘how this product will grow’ by:
a) collecting data to inform an un-biased
perspective on product/market fit
b) creating a growth model so that we can prioritise
growth levers
b) understanding the ‘user path to value’ within the
product so that we can remove friction to value
c) training a team and implementing a
growth/scientific process so that there can be an
experiment cadence
d) executing growth sprints to incrementally
increase key metrics
What: Challenge Statement
Why: Frame the problem into a specific,
measurable, actionable goal
What: User Path To Value
Why: Use a product analytics tool (like Amplitude)
to conduct a funnel analysis of a user journey within
the app. The goal is the understand the friction
points preventing them experiencing the core
product value of the producct
What: North Star & Growth Model
Why: The business needs to align around a
performance metric, called a North Star. This
represents user value. This is an output metric to
measure and manage. Inputs to the north star are
the actionable metrics to measure and manage.

26. Day 3-4: Example deliverables
Sprint 0
Working Project Space
What: User Persona
Lean Canvas/Business Model
Product Vision and Roadmap
Why: To provide an easy, physical space
to align efforts
What: Weekly Sprint
goals
Why: To focus the team
around specific growth
levers
What: Experiment Priority Board
Why: To shortlist upcoming experiments. A
physical space for the team to huddle around
and decide on upcoming experiments
What: ‘So What’ Board
Why: Create insights and further tasks to
improve growth and product by analysing and
synthesising data from experiments

27. Day 3-4: Example deliverables
Sprint 0
What: Qualitative Data: Guerilla research synthesis
Why: Collecting data with a specific research
objective, i.e. why aren’t users connecting, so that
we can hypothesise solutions and potential features
What: Quantitative Data: Retention graph, funnel flows and friction points
Why: Understand, visually, where users are dropping off

28. Day 5-6: Diverge and decide
Sprint 0
What: Experiment Log
Why: Collect all ideas and prioritise as you go via
a prioritisation method, e.g. RICE
What: Team Prioritisation
Why: Team input to strengthen growth
ideas.

29. Sprint 1
Review
Case studies

30. BAU Growth
Sprint 1 Review
20 August 2019

31. Overview
Sprint 1+ Review
Done
Not Done
Went well
Obstacles
Resolutions
Backlog
Upcoming
collaboration
Sprint
Context
Test
Analysis
Synthesis

32. Growth Engine Overview
Sprint 1+ Review
What: Qisper Growth Engine
Why: Visible project board to encourage collaboration

33. What are the priority, high leverage metrics to focus on?
Sprint Context
We are here.
Before product/market fit, business model &
product iteration is the focus
Upcoming growth roadmap.
Dual focus on product and growth metrics.
Activation is priority metric. Acquisition
secondary metric to collect data.

34. What’s been done this sprint?
Done & Not Done
Qualitative
User Research
(Objective:
Increase
activation)
Guerilla interviews @
RMIT
● 3 existing user
interviews
● 2 new user
interviews
● 1 product/market
fit survey
Growth
Experiments
Fliers @ RMIT
RUOK Push Broadcast
RUOK Facebok Ads
Not Done
Digital Fliers (not
enough time)
Socialised 2 week
sprint process
with team

35. What did we observe from the tests?
Done: Analysis & Synthesis of results
Synthesis
Good or bad?
Bad
(Un)expected?
Unexpected
Compared with
industry?
Low activation
/engagement
What
happened?
Increase in
‘session start’ not
correlating to
increase in
messages sent.
Why?
Users are logging
on but not
engaging in high
value events
because they aren’t
seeing quality or
relevant people to
connect with.
Priority
Opportunities
Discover why:
* users aren’t
sending messages
* Users aren’t
accepting new
connections
Key
Takeaways
1. Test interests,
groups and events
2. Research and
test ‘meaningful
moment’/job-to-be-
done

36. How can we improve our process going forward?
Went Well, Obstacles, Resolutions
Obstacles
Firebase
functionality
Resolutions
Leverage
knowledge from
Dim and Ben
Well
Team ideation
and refinement of
tests based on
data
Not Well
Impact of RUOK
broadcast test
Speed of tests
Visibility for
stakeholders

37. What next?
Prioritised Backlog
Experiment Board
Low effort/Low Impact
● Digital filers for
online communities
High effort/High Impact
● Test prototypes for
1-player mode
● Design and test
‘Interests’ and
‘Events’

38. How your team can manage your own growth sprints
DIY Growth Sprints
Checklist
1. Setup visible project space with Socialise 2 week sprint process with cross-functional team
2. Appoint team member to be ‘Growth Co-ordinator/Manager’
3. Day 1-3: Observe quant and qual user data. Make hypothesis and team ideation of experiments.
4. Day 4-5: Team prioritisation of experiments. Winning experiments to be designed, documented, socialised
5. Day 6-10: Execution of growth experiments
6. Socialise wins, losses, learnings
7. Double down on potential ‘veins of growth gold’
8. Trade-off ‘dead ends’
9. Repeat cycle of Step 3-8

39. Ongoing Product
Management
Review
Case studies

40. BAU: Delivering incremental value
Sprint Review
20 August 2019

41. Overview
Product Manager - Program 1
Review
Product
Backlog
User
Research
&
Synthesis
Product /
Market Fit
Survey &
Synthesis
Backlog
Grooming &
Prioritisation
Decomposing
vision into
executable
sprints
Product
Roadmap

42. Overview
Decomposing Vision in to yearly strategy, quarterly objectives, measurable monthly outcomes

43. Product Backlog

44. Product road map to show product goals (increasing NPS & product/market fit), product features, data
infrastructure and marketing initiatives.
Product Roadmap

45. Guerilla research: User interviews onsite to collect qualitative data from current users
User Research

46. Guerilla research: Synthesis of data via affinity mapping to group problems, solutions, potential features
User Research

47. Product/Market Fit surveys - via Typeform
User Research

48. Product/Market Fit surveys - synthesis and key takeaways
User Research

49. Workshop with ambassadors (power users): How can it help more?
User Research

50. Practitioner’s
slides/toolkit

51. Tools & Resources
Sprint 0
Sprint 0 Timetable & Deliverables
Growth Model
Growth Levers
User Path to Value
Social Contract
Qual Data Folder
Quant Data Folder
Experiment Log
Experiment Design Doc
Experiment Kanban
Stakeholder Growth Report
Sprint 1 & Ongoing
Project Workspace
Experiment Backlog
Experiment Design Document
Growth Roadmap
Sprint Goals Sheet
Sprint Activities Timetable
Analysis & Synthesis Doc
Sprint Review Template
DIY Growth Team Checklist
Stakeholder Growth Report
Program Review &
Ceremonies
Monthly Throughput Review
Stakeholder Growth Report