The Right Way To Set Goals for Growth

The Right Way To Set Goals for Growth

Setting goals is a crucial part of achieving growth in any business or product. However, it's important to approach goal-setting in the right way to ensure that you are focusing on the right metrics and driving meaningful progress. One of the best approaches to goal-setting is to set absolute goals, such as the number of active users and the decrease in churned users. These absolute numbers are what truly matter when it comes to measuring growth.

It's important for teams to take credit for what they do, rather than solely relying on natural growth. For example, if you focus on growing traffic to a lower converting country like Germany, instead of a higher converting country like the U.S., you may hit your traffic goals but not your signup goals. It's essential to align your goals with the metrics that truly indicate growth for your business.

When it comes to measuring growth, one important metric to consider is the activation rate. This metric is calculated by dividing the number of activated users by the total number of users. There are two ways to move this metric in either direction: you can either change the number of activated users or change the total number of users. By focusing on these two components, you can effectively drive growth and improve your activation rate.

What is “Seeing The Matrix” For A Product Leader?

Being a product leader requires more than just analyzing data and making incremental improvements. To truly excel in this role, you need to be able to see the bigger picture and have a clear vision and strategy for your product. Data can help you iterate and make improvements, but it's vision and a clearly articulated strategy that will help you leapfrog your competition.

However, vision and strategy alone are not enough. It takes incredible self-awareness, humility, and courage to change organizational models, business models, and product object models. The most successful product leaders are the ones who are willing to reinvent themselves and their products to stay ahead of the curve. These "re-inventers" are the true "unicorns" in the product world.

When it comes to product development, it's important to never outsource your story or any component of your competitive advantage. Your story and competitive advantage are what set you apart from your competition, and outsourcing them can lead to a loss of authenticity and differentiation. Additionally, having a prototype is worth a hundred meetings. Prototypes allow you to visualize and experience your product in a tangible way, making product meetings much more productive and effective.