It’s easy to overlook that Facebook didn’t form its growth team until 2007, despite already having tens of millions of users.
Alex highlights a common pitfall many startups encounter:
“Startups shouldn’t have dedicated growth teams. The entire company should be focused on growth. The CEO should lead the charge. There needs to be someone who sets a clear direction for where the company is heading, and that should be the person in charge of the entire organization.”
At Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg made monthly active users (MAUs) the key metric the world used to evaluate the company’s success. At WhatsApp, Jan Koum focused on daily message sends, while Airbnb prioritized nights booked, comparing themselves to the world’s largest hotel chains.
Alex further explains:
“When driving growth, it’s crucial to define a clear north star as a leader. The importance of this becomes evident the moment you have more than one person working on something. You lose the ability to control every action… It’s not always obvious to everyone what the company’s top priority is.”
For instance, Jan could have chosen monthly active users for WhatsApp’s north star metric, but would WhatsApp truly be someone’s main messaging app if they only used it once a month?
Selecting a north star metric and making the entire company accountable for it ensures that, when teams build new features, they are aligning their work with the company’s key priorities.
However, Alex cautions CEOs not to overthink selecting the “perfect” metric:
“Most metrics are probably interrelated, so choosing one isn’t as critical as you might think. Just pick the one that resonates with your mission and values. For instance, daily active users (DAUs) and MAUs are highly correlated. Either would work… Choose one that fits your vision and can guide the company long-term. But make sure you have a north star.”
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