The Only Effective Way to Learn Growth
Very few people have what it takes to learn how to effectively and sustainably drive growth for high potential products. This was my unfortunate conclusion after many years of trying to teach growth. I started with sharing growth insights through blogging, then tried offering online video courses and even co-authored Hacking Growth, a leading book on growth. Yet most people still seemed to struggle in growth roles. And I was not alone in my pessimism. Chamath Palihapitiya, who started the growth team at Facebook, once claimed “I do think there are a handful of folks who are good practitioners of understanding value in product, probably 10 to 15 of them in the world. Everyone else is a spammer.”
So I was surprised to find myself nodding vigorously when a new way to learn growth was proposed by Oleg Yakubenkov over lunch in London last year. Oleg, a former data scientist at Facebook, explained to me that simulations are essential for gaining skills and experience in a variety of high-risk fields from piloting a plane, to medical training, military planning, and even preparing for disasters such as pandemics. Each of these roles is too dangerous for on-the-job training alone. While growth failures may not be life-threatening, they can be very expensive. Unmet growth potential can cost company shareholders millions or even billions of dollars. And on a personal level, careers suffer from each failed attempt to grow a business.
Oleg’s vision was for a simulation where you are placed in the high-pressure role of trying to drive growth for a new VC back mobile app. You are working with a rich and evolving data set in Amplitude to initially understand what is going on and then to formulate and analyze experiments that move the business forward. In addition to using the data for decisions, you often need to use it to make your case to skeptical teammates and leaders in the business. Each decision is fraught with risk from where to take the product, when to scale it and how to acquire the right customers. You will make some mistakes, but this is an important part of the learning process.
Unlike the real world where you often make these decisions without effective feedback, in this simulation, you have the support of a great mentor who helps you understand if you have made the best decisions. Mistakes are only effective for learning if you realize that they are mistakes and it’s often difficult to know this in the real world. Your friendly virtual mentor also helps you navigate other common growth challenges such as how to effectively communicate with your CEO and increase alignment with your teammates.
Given the depth and challenges of the simulation, participants develop the instincts and muscle memory for using data to make the right choices. The simulation takes a lot of focused effort, but in around 12 weeks it develops world-class growth skills and the confidence and experience to put them to immediate use.
Wow, I thought, this simulation would be awesome! And then Oleg told me the kicker. He had already built it in Russian and it had reached 7000 students primarily through word-of-mouth momentum from people who were achieving strong results based on their learnings. Companies from startups to Russia’s largest tech firms were using the program to upskill their teams. And he shared a list of glowing reviews from past students. So when Oleg asked me if I was interested in partnering with him to enhance an English language version of the simulation, I quickly and enthusiastically said yes!
As I worked with Oleg to enhance the simulator, I increasingly appreciated how complementary our skills and experiences are. While Oleg is outstanding in data and product management, I started my career in marketing and had worked my way into product-driven growth over time. We both recognize that to be good with data, product, or marketing today, you need to be good in all three disciplines. And being good at all three is critical to being good at driving growth. So I was very excited to find my data and product skills rapidly improving as I worked with Oleg to expand the simulation. I have long considered my product and data skills to be good, but Oleg helped take them to a much higher level. He is brilliant and has a way of taking complex concepts and making them easy to understand.
We finished rebuilding the simulation earlier this month and it is now available at GoPractice.io. I couldn’t be more thrilled with what we have created. I only wish it would have been available for my past teams and companies where I had invested and/or advised.
The cost of GoPractice.io is $1190 for the 12-week program. This includes 10 weekly calls with Oleg and me where participants can ask questions about recent learnings and how they can be applied in their unique business situation. And fortunately, you can try it with no risk. If you get started with the simulation and find it isn’t what you were hoping it would be, we offer a full refund. Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions.
