Learning in public

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Buyers expect a “Show, don't tell” experience in the product-led era. 

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When you're in a new product and/or growth leadership role, there's often a great deal of expectation about the impact you'll create at the company, ultimately mostly around how the business metrics will lift.

But here's the thing.

You're not going to move the metrics by telekinesis.

And you're not going to move the metrics on your own.

How you're going to ultimately drive the outcomes that the business cares about is going to be determined by how well you enable your team to consistently and repeatedly identify and exploit opportunities.

There's only one way you can accelerate getting there.

By accelerating the rate of learning in your team.

If you focus on this, you will get to impact faster.

Knowledge is a gift, so treat it as such.

All the experiments that didn’t deliver the lifts you hypothesised?

All the dead-ends you hit?

They are not failures to hide.

They are learnings to share.

But here's the typically overlooked but important detail you need to know.

I’ve noticed a tendency for failures in product and growth to be brushed under the carpet.

This is a mistake.

Don’t learn in private.

Instead, socialise your learnings consistently.

Far and wide.

The learning likely can be leveraged in places and ways you haven’t anticipated.

Learn in public.

My good friend and fellow growth geek

Andrew Capland

says:

It took me way too long to learn this lesson. Just like in math class, you get some points for knowing the right answer. But you need to show your work to get full credit.

Authors note: it’s maths, not math. 🇬🇧 😋

By learning in public, you demystify the process.

You also counter impatience for results.

Because this is the only way to really demonstrate progress before you've moved any metrics.

When the results do come - and they will - they're acknowledged to be as a result of the process.

Not an accident.

But as the outcome of the growth system.

Not luck.

But by design.

Elena Verna

suggests:

Predictability is one of the best leadership qualities! Even if that means saying “I don’t know”. Even if that means saying “we made wrong decisions”. Even if that means explaining in detail the inputs to all decisions and what was in your control and what was not.

When you operate transparently, confidence in the process increases.

Confidence in you increases.

Everyone wins.

Anuj Adhiya

adds:

A weekly cadence of reporting to the company on learning and next steps (in an easy-to-digest/jargon-free format) is key from my experience.

The minute growth becomes "that thing that person does over there" vs "Here's what we've all learned about how to grow" signifies the death knell for the growth program.

Beyond regular reporting, in my experience, regular higher bandwidth Impact and Learnings reviews have always been valuable in opening up the growth box to let people see what’s going on inside.

Whatever tactics you employ, just be consistently transparent.

Let people see the messy workings.

Bring them on the journey.

The destination will make much more sense.

Until next time!

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Thanks again to our sponsor for this post Storylane.

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