The 3 Ugly Ducklings of Growth

Sofia Quintero Head of Growth @Geckoboard

All your key metrics in one place

Industry Nomad

@sofiaqt  

Specialised knowledge from

unrelated industries can be very useful

in less organised

environments.

The 3 Ugly Ducklings of Growth

Ugly duckling: A useful idea, concept or discipline that’s often overlooked in ‘non-native’

industries despite its power.

“We don’t do corporate stuff”

“Traditional marketing is over”

“Data-driven or die”

“Product is everything”

Branding Industry:  Agency  world  

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships

that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one

product or service over another.”

Seth Godin

Some stuff can’t be measured.

That’s ok.

Do things you can’t measure and do those things because they make you feel proud

about the business you’re building.

The tone you use when you reply to emails.

Making customer support something that everybody

can be involved with.

How helpful you’re with your network and other startups. The balance between

shipping stuff fast and launching crap.

Caring about design.

The way your team talks about your business when they are getting drunk in a meet up.

Creating some space for fun and building stuff that’s not

related to work.

Baby Steps: Startup Branding

Micro conversions =

Details matter

“Qualitative excellence can’t

be hacked” Marc Ecko  

Branding on its own, may not take you to exponential growth, but it will help you.

Change Management

Illustration by Alice Eris Urchin

Industry:  Management  Consul9ng  

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress”

Charles Kettering

Growth = Constant change

Changing the way you hire people

Changing the strategy based on learnings

Changing the product

Changing the messaging

Pivoting

Growth = Change

Change = Danger

Badly managed

Become a distraction Affect productivity

Nurture politics Diminish focus

Affect employee retention Injure culture

Understanding change

How do you avoid those negative effects?

It has stages

It’s an emotional process

It’s all about communication

Time  

Morale  and  prod

uc9vity

 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (70’s)

Product  problems     People  problems    

Change management may not help you achieve exponential growth but it

will help you, especially with people problems.

Let’s not reinvent the wheel when it comes to managing change in startups

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Changemaking: Tactics and resources for managing organizational change

Plain Good Business

Illustration by Alice Eris Urchin

Industry:  Skateboarding  

Next round of funding

Sustainable business

You have everything you need to start today.

Kind people in customer service departments.

Getting to know our customers.

Keeping the promises we make.

Building a culture of respect.

Win-win partnerships.

Fundamentals are good

What drives Geckoboard’s growth?

Founders who are OK with saying: “I don’t know”

Talented engineers and product managers

A constant pursuit of focus

A strong conviction about doing things that

we feel proud of

“In pursuit of quantitative gymnastics, be careful not to lose sight of the

qualitative purpose, your qualitative meaning, the reason you’re doing

‘this’ in the first place” Marc Ecko  

@Geckoboard