(and what you can do about it)

Growth is all about demand.

It creates demand; captures it; bottles it like lightning, and catalyzes a market solution better than any other discipline out there.

When applied correctly, growth as a practice can be impactful to just about any organization.

But not all organizations are built for growth.

Here are a few reasons why you may not be ready for that growth Rockstar you’ve been stalking on LinkedIn, and they may not be ready for you.

1. You Don’t Have Signs of Product Market Fit

If you’ve read that, and need to look up what Product Market Fit is, then you’re definitely not ready to hire on a Growth Marketer.

That said, if you’re a start-up, and you’re early, you can find PMF without a growth rock star on board.

But if you’re expecting to hire someone in growth to “find it for you” — then you’re in for a surprise.

Growth Marketers, as great as they are, don’t magically conjure product market fit. They don’t develop a product, create the vision for the market, and execute on all areas of the business that create PMF.

Growth, ultimately, adds fuel to your fire. But you, as the entrepreneur, provide the spark.

So what can I do about it?

First, understand there are great resources out there for entrepreneurs looking to introduce a new product to market, but the #1 killer of starts is not the product, it’s the lack of market.

The best way I have heard this described is “wind at your back”. You’ll see organic adoption of your product, word of mouth referrals, healthy SEO and content adoption, and a general “buzz” about your product if it is truly serving the needs of the market.

Product-channel fit is additive to this.

Yes, PCF can make our break your start-up, but it simply cannot function without the required PMF components.

Below you’ll find a great introductory video on PMF by Ycombinator, and further reading here.

2. Your brand needs work.

Growth and Brand are powerful allies.

When I think back upon my career highlights, I can only think of times driven forward by a symbiotic relationship between Growth and Brand.

Often, I sum up Growth as a deterministic system of distribution for great products. I will expound at length on the relationship between Product and Growth, but we often overlook (especially in B2C) the symbiotic relationship between Growth and Brand.

If your brand identity is vague, meaningless, and not well differentiated from it’s competitors, Growth will have a hard time turning inputs into outputs.

On the candidate side, I’ve seen a lot of questions asked about product. Perhaps, even TOO much focus given to product.

And I get it, you want to know WHAT you’re growing.

But missing the connection between the brand and the product, and the brand and growth, is a critical mistake for candidates.

If you happen to be interviewing someone senior, it’s one that a seasoned vet will likely not overlook.

So what can I do about it?

If you haven’t already, check out my recent blog post on the topic and run through some brand identity exercises. Teams with little to no marketing resources tend to overlook these key findings and the important exercises required in weaving them into your brand’s key narratives.

If the role you’re hiring for doesn’t already have a brand peer at that level, ask yourself why.

If you’re looking for someone to “do it all”, then you’ve already fell into the third trap.

3. You’re looking for someone to “do it all”.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had conversations with founders that are just “looking for someone to figure it out”.

Red flag ahoy.

No-one out there just “figures it out” or “does it all”.

It’s a team effort starting with support from senior leadership at the top.

Often, I warn CMOs and CEOs about hiring “Growth Marketers” with too much breadth built into their CVs. If they’re telling you they can manage every single channel out there AND project manage all your integrated campaigns AND get your customers to a measurable a-ha moment through product led growth practices, then they’re either super-human or they’re bullsh*tting you.

Often times, it’s the latter.

And look, we get it. You’re a start-up, you’re boot strapping, you’re just seeing signs of product market fit and want to add fuel to the fire but don’t want to go all in. If you’re looking for candidates that have start up experience, they very much understand this.

However, that only gets you so much credit.

If you’ve built the job profile to check all the boxes of skillsets like you’re filling out a bingo card, but have never ACTUALLY run any tests on those channels, why would I want to be the first one to do it? What happens if I fail? What happens if you’re simply not ready as a brand or a product to distribute on any of these channels you’ve listed, let alone all of them?

These are the questions your candidates will be asking themselves.

So what can I do about it?

Be specific.

Familiarize yourself with the basics of Product Channel Fit.

Be able to articulate where you see opportunities for growth, what elements of growth can drive your business forward, and what skillsets are required.

There are no candidates out there that can do it all, all of the time, and you should not expect that.

4. Sometimes, the cat is dead.

Yes yes I know, the sub-title is dark.

But what I’m referring to is the famous Schrödinger's cat experiment, in which the observable test is both true and false until a state of observance occurs.

Nerd out on any recent quantum particle theory, and you’ll also learn that the universe is not locally real.

What does this have to do with Growth?

Well, like science, Growth is all about experimentation.

And in any good experiment, the act of observance creates a local reality in which the cat is either alive or dead. And sometimes, whether intentional or not, you infer a promise to a candidates that the cat is alive and well. If you just have the right person running the experiments, surely all the cats are alive.

Wrong.

In particle physics, they never blame the quality of the observer as part of the failure of the experiment. Sure, they may look at control variables, test conditions, and more… but the act of observation is never deterministic in and of itself. It simply is.

And the harsh reality is that sometimes founders simply can’t accept that the cat is dead.

We get it, the cat is your baby. You feel like your product should get distribution on every channel, all of the time, simply because it’s awesome.

So what can I do about it?

Unfortunately, having a realistic view of how your product can grow is a necessary trait as a founder.

Having at least a base-line of experimentation to back-up your intuition for scale goes a long way with your growth candidates.

Be specific, discuss your experimentation process, and talk about what’s worked and not worked in the past. They will excitedly tell you about where they can jump in, augment and enhance processes, and increase testing velocity to get you the distribution you (hopefully) deserve.

Conclusion

It’s a wild time to be hiring.

People are on edge about a recession, and layoffs are looming.

Simultaneously, recruiters are struggling to fill roles during what appears to be an extended great resignation.

Without further commenting on the macro environment, I can confidently say that the skillsets in Growth are in high demand, and about as recession proof as it gets.

In my experience, there is often opportunity in chaos, and market disruptors can really come alive in such a macro environment.

The right innovators & disruptors coupled with the right growth practitioners working in synchronicity with the right skillsets is a powerful thing.

I for one am excited to see what unfolds.