Growth Experiment Template

Heeey there,

Will you be in (or close to) Split in July?

We’ve finalised the location of our workcation and while exact dates of who arrives when are still forming one thing are for sure:

We’ll be at the Ultra Europe Festival from the 7th to the 9th 💃…

Would love to meet you there!

Now back to marketing stuff 🤙

Today’s newsletter will be a shorter one and will focus on experimentation in marketing.

However, if you find these insights valuable, the best way to support our work is by inviting your friends to become Dot Connecters and learn more about Connecting The Dots between marketing activities and financial goals.

Topic Of Today:

• Growth Experiment Process 🧑🏻‍💻

• Why would you use this template? 🤷🏻‍♂️

• How would you use this template? 👀
  

  • 3 simple steps

• Who is the template for? 🙋🏽‍♀️

• Sections of the template 🔢
  

  • Idea Backlog & Ranking

  • Prioritized experiments Overview

Growth Experiment Process 🧑🏻‍💻

Probably a lot of you have seen frameworks like the B.R.A.S.S., I.C.E. & P.I.E. for growth experimentation ranking.

But how many of you have ever actually used these?

In my experience, there are a lot of great frameworks out there that in theory people like, yet rarely put into practice.

I think one of the reasons we don’t use some of these, (even when we know they could potentially help our work), is that introducing a new approach, not to mention setting up the necessary materials is anxiety-inducing.

That is where a great template comes in handy.

It is easy to overcomplicate using a method by wanting to do it “the best” way and including a whole lot of unnecessary steps & tools.

Keeping it stupid & simple will often do more good than perfecting every detail.

So, what can you do with this template?

✅ Track experiment learnings & next steps, all in one document.
✅ Gather input from teams to discover and collect new experiments.
✅ Structure the input process to understand which experiment to run & how.
✅ Auto-rank experiments based on: chance of success, impact and resources.
✅ Align stakeholders & teams around  “when what and how” execution details.

Why would you use this template? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Creating high-impact growth marketing experiments that can drive growth is hard.
‍
It is hard because of several reasons…

But based on my experiences you can break these down to 7+1 key points:

1. The lack of a structured process and documentation to track insights & learnings.
2. The lack of clarity when it comes to ownership per experiment.
3. Lacking motivation from stakeholders to gather input or push things through.
4. Generally miscalculating the work & time necessary to run an experiment.
5. Lacking One Metric that Matters, i.e. a KPI to focus on/optimise each stage.
6. Not understanding the difference between Leading KPIs and Lagging KPIs.
7. Focusing all efforts on short-term experiments vs long-term experiments.

+1 Lacking the necessary foundations to drive growth.

‍
Will this growth marketing template solve all these issues?
Of course not.

What this growth marketing template can solve however is »

creating the foundations for your team to execute experiments & drive growth by working in a structured and scalable way.

Or in simpler terms: it gives you the basis for ranking, selecting & running experiments so you don’t have to start from scratch.

How would you use this template in 3 steps? 👀

1. Gather and Generate Ideas
Make it a habit for yourself and your team to write down their ideas in the 'Idea Backlog & Ranking' Tab. Add your name, a short description and the stage of the funnel the idea can impact. Next to that, add any insights which made you think of the idea.

This should help in formulating your hypothesis on how you believe this could be solved. Pro-tip: don't worry if you don't know exactly how to solve this, remain high-level and deep-dive into the “how” later on.

2. Rank all ideas
Once you have gathered a bunch of ideas you can start ranking each idea per team member. Assign a separate column for each teammate (you’ll see where in the template) so that you can gather input before discussing total scores.

Keep in mind that scores are not set in stone; you can adjust them based on new information, such as how long each idea will take to implement, how many people it will reach, or any insights you gain during the experiment. In addition to gathering input from colleagues, you can also involve third-party experts, such as agencies or consultancies that you work with.

3. Further Define picked experiments
Once you've determined which experiments you want to run, refer to the "Prioritised Experiments Overview" tab for a comprehensive summary of each experiment and its status.

Next, for each experiment, discuss and agree on the following topics:

• What is the experiment, and when will it be conducted?

• What is the insight behind our hypothesis, and who is our target audience?

• Which team or individual is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed?

• What are the primary metrics and support metrics that we'll use to measure success?

• What were the results of the experiment, what did we learn, and what are our next steps?

By aligning on these key topics for each experiment, you can ensure that everyone involved understands the goals, responsibilities, and expected outcomes and that you're equipped to make informed decisions throughout the experimentation process.

Who is this template for? 🙋🏽‍♀️

Product Owners
Looking to run experiments throughout the entire buyer journey from activation all the way to referral campaigns.

Growth Teams
Growth Team Leads looking to set up their growth marketing team and growth processes from scratch or optimise their current set-up.

Agency Owners
Agency owners looking to drive Growth Marketing for their clients in a structured and transparent way.

Founders & CEOs
Looking to create a scalable and repeatable process for driving Growth Marketing experiments within their organisation.

Sections of the template 🔢

Section 1: Idea Backlog & Ranking

Use this section to gather new ideas from team members & stakeholders. Each participant has their own section where they can rank their ideas based on 3 simple criteria » Confidence, Impact, and Ease of implementation. Based on these criteria, you'll be able to filter and understand which ideas are worth working on first.

Section 2: Prioritsed Experiments Overview

1. Create an in-depth overview of the prioritised experiments.

2. Keep track of which experiments are currently running.

3. Document learnings and next steps.

All in one handy overview. Use this document to communicate with internal stakeholders, team members or even 3rd party experts.

Thanks for staying tuned, you are awesome!

If you’d like to get the experiment template, just comment below ❤️

LinkedIn posts worth reading this week:

1. Resources for sales teams on adopting AI
Sales teams that have adopted AI have increased leads and appointments by about 50% according to McKinsey's research in the Harvard Business Review.

2. 3 learnings in shifting from a sales-led to a dual motion growth
Sam Kuehnle (VP of Marketing @ Loxo) listing misconceptions and advice on shifting from a sales-led to a product+sales-led motion.

3. What does the perfect B2B funnel look like?
How an agency owner & growth hacker thinks about building B2B funnels.