This was my third time building a growth model. I've learned from previous opportunities and challenges. The things I found challenging with the previous models that I have built is what's the right level of complexity to build here? Simplifying the loop was one learning. The other learning, I think that is important is when estimating the progression of those variables, are, is that variable going to stay constant, get better or worse?

Where I think it can get more useful is we're looking at a yearly horizon or even better, a multi-year horizon of growth of the company and trying to understand, okay, when is that growth horizon going to be at its maximum or we're going to hit a plateau? In most tech companies that I've either worked for or talked to, multi-year horizon is super hard to determine, and I found very few companies that want to spend their time thinking about it. Therefore, I found that data framework a little bit irrelevant for the teams that I've been leading.

As a disclaimer, all numbers here are hypothetical and are for demonstrative purposes only.

The difference here (from my other growth loop models) is that I really empowered my team to build it from the get-go. For the three direct reports that I had that were managing those individual channels, it was basically a brand new learning. They hadn't been part of that mindset of loops and growth modeling. It was a lot of teaching, educating, and bringing along. At the same time, I think it was a formidable opportunity for them to learn about that and then build it for their own channel.

I think that was the biggest value: them learning and understanding the mechanism. Why does that compound? Where is the growth constraint? Why does that matter more than anything else? It really helps narrow the focus, but after that work, thinking about why that's a constraint and then really breaking that apart to apply a solution or a new initiative or a strategy.

SEO in growth loops is interesting - after a couple of iterations of this document, I recommend asking a couple of questions when building something similar around SEO: what does a loop look like in a constraint? Should you blend these different categories? Should you separate them when they have drastically different conversion rates?

My advice is that if you're starting with a generic model, see where the constraint is and just reflect on whether or not that should change given the different content categories.

Your conversion to lead constraint is going to be different depending on the type of content you're modelling. You can take it lighter or deeper, but if the constraint is content capital, capital allocation, or volume of new article published, then that metric is kind of irrelevant.

It would push us in a different direction that actually doesn't require this level of loop breakdown. Knowing that, I would apply this type of modelling on a case per case basis. However, I would do a generic one with everything blended so you can see where the constraint or the constraints are, and then break down further if needed.

Spend the least amount of time possible on this exercise. Using templates, either this one or all the ones that are in Reforge or Artifacts, spend the least amount of work there and a disproportionate amount of time thinking about what that growth constraint actually means. That is where the most impactful work can be done. And it's almost more qualitative than it is quantitative.

This can get really in the weeds, really complicated really fast, and it's not that critical. Reflecting on why that's a constraint and really going then layers deeper than the surface - I think that's the juice. And so it's almost asking those five 'whys' to this constraint. Don't stop at the first insight - get to the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and then you're eventually going to get to the 'aha' insight.

Eva Thouvenot

This model is a great starting point to begin modeling growth in different channels, but I found the best strategy to be using it as a framework to help your team think deeply about constraints and dig deep into insights from their work.

This was my third time building a growth model. I've learned from previous opportunities and challenges.

The difference here (from my other growth loop models) is that I really empowered my team to build it from the get-go. For the three direct reports that I had that were managing those indi

SEO in growth loops is interesting - after a couple of iterations of this document, I recommend asking a couple of questions when building something similar around SEO

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