In my previous note, we talked about the Business-Design Practice; let’s now discuss what that looks like a process. I call it Engineering Growth.
1. What’s the difference between Engineering and Design?
I have this debate with my students a lot!
Are Engineering and Design synonymous? Well, Not really.
Although there are some overlapping practices, they are very fundamentally different.
If you read my previous note, I define the Design practice as the discovery process. I see Engineering as the practice that provides the practical use for such discoveries.
As expressed masterfully by Prof. Neri Oxman and her wonderful article on the Age of entanglement. Engineering to convert knowledge into utility. Design converts utility into cultural behavior and context.
A good Engineer figures out how things work and implement a Design with as few original ideas as possible. — GLC.
I always say that I’m an engineer by training and a creative by trade. As for the past two decades, I have been jibing between these two practices.
I still remember the day I attended my very first University Open day and an Engineering professor quoted:
“Scientists study the world as it is, engineers, create the world that never has been.”Theodore von Kármán (1881-1963)
I was hooked!
The professor “forgot” to mention that to become one would be an excruciating suffering process (at least for me), but that’s another story.
Let’s get back to the topic of Engineering Growth.
2. Why are we not growing as we should?
There are three questions I get asked pretty much every time we start discussing Growth with a business or organization I interact with.
- Why are we not growing?
- Why are they way ahead of us?
- Why the hack is the team underperforming?
You might think the answer to such questions is quite complicated, and it requires a lot of time and effort to answer, right?
In reality, the answer is quite simple. More than you think!
Here it is.
Because your business or organization is not Designed nor Engineered for that.
Sounds Simplistic? Let me elaborate.
My friend Pedro Clivati from growthhakers.com explained it so clearly in our latest conversation.
Growth is a process, not a project!
Here is where we started discussing the symbiotic relationship between Business-Design and Growth-Hacking. I see the Growth-Hacking as the Engineering process of Business-Design. So practically the implementation process of Business-Design.
3. Engineering Growth.
The uncomfortable truth about Growth is that if our organization is not growing, then it is declining. This does not mean that we are necessarily doubling our revenues each year. Instead, it means that our organization has in place the right purpose, people, processes, and products see note #012 to sustainably be a better version of itself.
By saying that our organization is declining, I mean it is getting obsolete, or our market is getting commoditized, or our competitors are closing the gap or even getting ahead.
Believe me. I have been there myself, but at the time, I didn’t know what I know now, and inevitably my venture failed.
- It failed because I didn’t know what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong.
- It failed because I developed a tunnel vision, and I was focussing only on products and revenues.
- It failed because I didn’t measure the right things. It failed because I focus on the wrong problems to solve.
- And most of all, it failed because I was so focused on my company that I forgot to consider what real value I was providing to my customers. Not fun. But Failure is the greatest teacher of all. Isn’t it.
3.1 Tools and FrameworksSo here is my interpretation of the Engineering growth process.
First, the foundation of Both Business-Design and Growth-Hacking is that they are both strategic approaches to innovation that places the consumers at the center of the Company or Organization’s Strategies. More on this in future notes.
4. Business-Design & Growth Hacking Framework
Disclaimer:
I will cite several tools and frameworks. I consider them pillar tools, but in reality, there are several other tools that you can use to get the job done. These are the ones that I feel more comfortable using, and so far, they have served me well. But if any of you have new and more effective tools, please don’t estate to drop me a comment. (I do have a slight addiction to tools as any engineer does).
1. Growth Index
First I begin by assessing My current position with a model that I called the growth Index. It is the Model I present in my book BusinessBeyondDesign. This Model gives me an idea of which element I should focus on first and see how many areas of unbalance I need to focus on.
2. Value Proposition Canvas
When I usually use a variation of the Value Proposition Canvas to verify that my offer is aligned with unexpressed customer needs. Discovering jobs our customers want to get done.
3. Business-Model Canvas
I use a variation of the Business-Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas depending on the stage of the project I’m evaluating.
4. Growth Engine.
I then try to identify the Engine of growth or, as collins calls it the flywheel, the overlaying system that creates actual value for an organization
Before we cross the Growth-Hacking threshold, Here’s another disclaimer.
Models are great! But they are pretty useless unless we master the practice of sense-making and insights discovery.Furthermore transforming such insights into actionable unique strategies.
This is important if you want to learn more about the models and apply them effectively; you can book a call with me.
Until this phase, we are in the realm of Business-Design. The main objective of this framework is to discover and implement an organization’s strategic objectives to meet Business Goals satisfying Human Needs.
Now we cross the threshold of Growth Hacking which offers a practical framework to foster Growth by using experimentation and analytically informed decisions to achieve such strategic objectives.
5. North Star Metric
Here, we start introducing the concept masterfully explained by Pedro of the three-layer cadence of KPIs the North Star Metrics, Objective, and Idea. The NSM is the single metric that best captures the core value that your product delivers to customers. And it indicates the single metric that all the organization. Should focus on.
6. Growth Funnel
The best rationalization of customer-centricity IMO is focussing on the entire customer journey. In GH, we use the [AAARRR] framework. In this phase, we try to identify which of the growth levers is the bottleneck.
7. OKRs
Now, here is the initial definition of the objectives, and often this phase is aligned with the OKRs methodology. We are defining Objectives and Key Results.
8. Ideas
The Ideas generation phase in what Pedro called Democratizing ideas company-wide Every member of the growth team but even company-wide should contribute to ideas generation. Another aspect of the human-centered approach.
9. ICE
Now that the divergent thinking phase (Idea generation) has been completed, we focus on convergent thinking by prioritizing Ideas; there are several prioritization frameworks. A commonly used one is [ICE]. I really like the ICE2 method as well.
10. Growth Sprint
Last but not least Growth must become systemized, becoming a recurring habit. It “forces the team” to look at metrics and results. Sprints are done weekly, usually take an hour, and are divided into two phases that we like to call the zoom in and zoom out.
There you have it. This is a comprehensive process of what I define Engineering Growth. I’m sorry if you expected an easy five steps DIY methodology. It requires some effort and investment of time and resources. I never said that growth was easy.
On the other hand though think about how much time, effort, resources, and talent are wasted on a daily basis trying to solve the wrong problem or losing focus of the actual metrics that truly matter. I know I did.
5. The Goal is long term sustainable goal.
Let me be clear here if our objective is to make a quick buck or follow the latest trend or pull out some quick turnaround. This process is definitely not for you.
If that is your goal, here is my evergreen success formula.
Buy for 5 sell for 10 make 50% profit. Beautiful isn’t it?
Chances are that in the current state of the economy, Markets and competitive landscape such formula is easier said than done.
When we master how to Engineer our Growth, though, we will be able to:
- Plan for different scenarios and deal with uncertainty,
- Allowing us to pivot, expand, evolve, and even disrupt markets,
- Ultimately becoming sustainable and long-lived.
Learning to Design a Business will allow us to feel in control and focus only on those metrics that will truly push our team and organization forward. And that’s the Beuty of long-term sustainable growth.