Lars Lofgren

Unlocking the 4 Gateways of Growth

Hit me up

@larslofgren

1 4 gateways and the metrics for each

We’ll cover…

2 How to go hunting for big wins

3 Where to find ideas for testing

#KISSwebinar

I’m not going to spend any time on Google Analytics.

How healthy is this business?

Gateway Metrics

Use metrics that measure your biggest problem.

Ignore the rest.

When picking metrics, always ask yourself:

What’s my biggest constraint right now and which metric will tell me if

I’m making progress?

Gateway #1: Is your idea any good?

Your main metric:

Get someone to pay or use your product regularly.

Bad metrics for this gateway:

1 Asking people if they’ll pay

2 AdWords clicks

3 Beta or waiting list signups

4 Traffic

Gateway #2: Is your product good enough?

Your main metric:

Ask 500 users the Product/Market Fit Question

What is the P/M Fit Question?

1 Very disappointed

2 Somewhat disappointed

3 Not disappointed (it isn’t really that useful)

How would you feel if you could no longer use [your product]?

Your goal for the P/M Fit Question:

At least 40% of users should say “Very disappointed.”

*Sean Ellis and Hiten Shah get credit for this one.

How do you get to the first 500 users/customers?

Hustle.

The P/M Fit Question isn’t perfect, verify with a

retention metric.

Gateway #3: Can you grow?

Pick just one channel to start

Work on your channel for at least 3 months. Assume it’ll work and get the resources needed to execute.

Your main metrics:

Your main business metric and acquisition funnel.

Main business metrics:

1 SaaS: Monthly Recurring Revenue

2 Ecommerce: Monthly Revenue

3 Consumer Tech: Monthly Active Users

Start tracking your acquisition funnel here

Gateway #4: Do you have a stable model?

Your main metrics:

Depends entirely on what business model you have.

The SaaS Model

1 LTV is at least 3x acquisition cost

2 Recover acquisition cost within 12 months

3 Get monthly churn below 2%

The Ecommerce Model

1

2

3

It’s all about profit margin.

The Consumer Tech Model

1 Virality > 1

2 Usage 3 out of 7 days

3 30% of users active day a"er signup

4 Organic growth of 100s signups/day.

5 Clear path to 100,000+ users

*Andrew Chen’s “Zero to Product/Market Fit”

Find someone in your industry that knows the

key benchmarks.

Start with constraints, hack together what you need to measure them.

Big Win Hunting

A/B tests don’t ma#er, they come later

1 Get qualitative insights for hypothesis

Big Win Hunting

2 Launch, do it LIVE

3 Use the eyeball test

#KISSwebinar

1. Get qualitative insights

So we’re on a KISSmetrics sales call…

2. Launch, do it LIVE

1. New email 2. New deck

3. The eyeball test

Finding Ideas to Test

Whenever you’re not sure what to test, get qualitative data.

5 ways to get qualitative insights

1 Customer Development

2 Surveys

3 Feedback Forms

4 Customer Analytics

5 Usability Tests

1. Your customers want to help you, go talk to 20 of them

1 Brief overview of who they are

How to structure your interviews:

2 Deep dive into their problems

3 Present solution for feedback

#KISSwebinar

1 Expect a 10% response rate

2. Start running surveys with these rules:

2 Only ask questions that you need

3 Don’t exceed 10 questions

#KISSwebinar

4 Start with open response

5 Categorize responses to see trends

Use Qualaroo surveys to target steps in funnel

#KISSwebinar

3. Our feedback form at KISSmetrics:

4. Pull user activity logs on two groups

Find 20 of each:

1 Ideal customers

2 Customers that started but le"

How are these two groups different?

5. Start doing usability tests

Great for general UX, not good for market-specific

insights.

1 Get qualitative insights for hypothesis

Big Win Hunting Recap

2 Launch, do it LIVE

3 Use the eyeball test

#KISSwebinar

Run through this cycle at each gateway until you get past it.

Q&A Time!Lars Lofgren @larslofgren

llofgren@kissmetrics.com