The growth framework you should never forget

When I started my career at P&G, I will never forget my first training: «the marketing framework». It was the simplest, most logical framework I had ever encountered – a simple «Who,» «What,» «How» framework «ala McKinsey» with three circles and big bold letters. Nothing new, probably, for most of you.

But wait… there is more.

Five years later (or so, I can’t remember), I got an updated version of this training, a big flashy «Marketing framework 2.0». All thanks to the brilliant mind Simon Sinek after his book «Start with Why». Now the Marketing 2.0 was four circles, with one at the center that said «Why».

You might think this is just another post to say that you should start with why. Hopefully, it’s just not another piece of content that goes into the darkness nothingness on the internet. The whole point of this post is to think about how this framework truly applies to growth.

As I’ve already mentioned, growth in tech is truly in charge of distribution (platforms, partners, and users), discoverability within these distribution channels, trial, purchase, and repurchase. But how do you map the opportunities when you are in the arena in front of your manager, who is asking you to «spend more» on a platform or «trigger» another push notification to refer a friend?

How do you start looking into new opportunities?

The conversation usually goes like this:

Ines the manager: Mary, we are 2000 activations below forecast, and we have $100,000 we need to spend. I need you to find opportunities on Google Search, Google DV360, or improve the discount. I need these opportunities for this afternoon. One more thing, we can’t increase our average ROI.

Mary the growth lead: Oh, we can spend the $100,000 in Google in about a week. I think we can increase our bid to aim for 100% impression share (currently at 80%). ROI might be off for the marginal cost, but on average, it will vary 1-2%.

Ines the manager: Fantastic! Let’s do that. Let’s get the machine going and increase spend little by little.

As a growth leader, I’ve heard this song too many times, and honestly, every time you hear a conversation like this, you should feel that a bird just died somewhere. This conversation wasn’t about the customer that we are serving; this wasn’t about capturing a learning that will produce sustainable growth. This was about «not getting fired for not spending the money or hit a marginal amount of users in the forecast».

The growth leader didn’t stop to evaluate the opportunity to truly find incremental reach to solve a customer need. It was about «hit the budget spend, report how many more activations you made, and don’t even check if you are just cannibalizing other channels».

Sadly, this happens on a weekly basis, and people run like chickens without heads all over the place.

As a growth leader, when you are trying to evaluate incremental opportunities, you should always start with why. But well beyond the why, which usually is «we are running low vs. forecast, or our CEO just raised guidance for the year because she/he feels confident».

Your next step is to think about the «Who.» Who on this channel are you not serving properly today? Usually, you can break the Who down into many attributes. In the example above, the growth lead was after «increasing the reach of my ads with more impression share,» but at what cost? Why weren’t we running at efficient levels already? If this population was such a good idea, why are we not doing our job

Once you have identified the potential user segments and their needs, the next step is to figure out what you can offer them that will address those needs. This is where the «What» comes in. You need to have a clear understanding of what your product or service can offer to these segments and how it can solve their problems.

In the example above, the growth lead identified a specific segment that was trying to send money to Nigeria, and they had a landing page that was converting really well for that segment. By understanding what that segment wanted and how their landing page addressed that need, they were able to identify a clear opportunity to scale that experiment and spend the $100k to acquire more customers from that segment.

Finally, you need to figure out how to deliver your solution to your target audience. This is where the «How» comes in. You need to have a clear understanding of how you can effectively reach and engage with your target audience to deliver your product or service to them.

By going through the process of starting with Why, Who, What, and How, you can develop a structured approach to evaluating growth opportunities that focuses on the customer and their needs, rather than just hitting spending targets. This approach can help you identify new segments to target, understand their needs, develop solutions that address those needs, and deliver those solutions effectively.

In conclusion, the marketing framework described in the post, and the updated version in the book «Start with Why», provides a valuable tool for growth leaders and marketers to develop a structured approach to evaluating growth opportunities. By starting with Why, Who, What, and How, you can focus on the customer and their needs, and develop solutions that address those needs effectively, leading to sustainable growth for your business.

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