GOING FROM 0 TO 10 MILLION CUSTOMERS OR MORE - TOP GROWTH TIPS FROM AN EXPERIENCED GROWTH PROFESSIONAL

1. Lessons Learned
Growing to 15 Million Users and Beyond

2. TeamSnap Context
• Makes it easy to manage your
sports team or organization
• Started as web only & migrated to
mobile first
• Initially B2C, now B2C and B2B
• 15MM users
• Often in list of top 15 five star apps

3. Leveraging Engagement to
Drive More Engagement

4. Use Engagement to Drive More Engagement
Started testing text ads in
transactional emails

5. Added Cross-Selling
Throughout the App

6. Focusing on Early Activation

7. Figuring Out When You Have
“Hooked” Your Customers...

8. Often this means focusing
on the first couple minutes
a user tries your app
And Then Focus Your Efforts Around That
• Usability testing
• AB tests
• KPIs

9. It Is Hard to Overinvest
in Analytics

10. Link the Front to the Back Is Key
How Do the Things We See in GA Relate to Long Term Behavior?
• How many customers
convert much later,
perhaps on a different
device?
• How does LTV vary
by media channel,
engagement, etc.?
• How does churn vary
by media channel,
engagement, etc?

11. Front Back
In-house transactional
databases
Link the Front to the Back

12. Know Your Virality, Inside
and Out
Have an automated report that
spits out virality metrics on a
regular cadence
• Viral coefficient (K)
• Viral cycle time
• Understand who the most viral
customers are and how the viral
process works in detail!

13. Technology
Simple AB tests mostly
focused on simple click /
engagement events
More complex goals
using custom JS
Deep integration with our
backend - ability to match
up visitors with long term
spending & churn data
People
One of many things I was
doing
External consultant,
borrowed designer
resources
Full time AB tester &
dedicated marketing front
end developer
AB Testing Is Like Magic Pixie Dust
Push Yourself to Always Be Improving

14. Understanding Churn Inside and Out Is Crucial
for Recurring Businessines
• People focus a lot on ASP...
• ...but churn is more important
• Which customer segments churn the most?
• What behavior is tied to churn?
• What customer sources have the most churn?
• Are there pricing plans that have more churn?

15. Know Your Team’s Limits (in Analytics)
• More training
• Dashboards
• Analyst assigned to growth team
• More training

16. We Learned We Had to Actually Invest in Analytics
• High quality tools
• Real or near-real time data

17. Don’t Forget a Little Process

18. Launching Experiments Is Not Free
Build a Prioritization Framework
• Everything takes more time than
you think
• Agree on how to prioritize projects
(what metrics are key)
• Do quick what-if scenarios
1
2
3
4
5

19. Focus on the KPIs
• As they say, the K in KPI doesn’t mean thousand
• Break corporate goals down into KPIs
• Tie KPIs to comp plans
• Which KPIs can the growth team most control?
• Which KPIs provide more immediate feedback?
• Ensure everyone has easy access to KPIs

20. Investing in People

21. Invest in a Few Sharp Analytical Generalists and
Surround them with Part-Time Specialists
• Small core team
• Experts for specialized skills
• Liberal training budget

22. Questions? @kenpmcdonald
ken@teamsnap.com
www.firstmillioncustomers.com
and www.teamsnap.com