Lenny Rachitsky: prediction

Transcript context

…In general, I would say having stability in north star metric for at least six months feels like table stakes to me and that's for the reasons that I cited before, for building momentum, for building domain expertise, and also for compounding impact in areas where you see success, where you notice growth flywheels that you can optimize. However, if you're reaching a point where that north star metric feels like it's old news, maybe you're outgrowing it, maybe you want to work on different things, I think that's great. Be open-minded about changing it up. I would generally try to start with the mechanics of the business and what you think you might be able to drive in terms of metric impact with the resources you have on your growth team. That can look different for every growth team because some of them have marketing, some are more product and engineering, some are kind of a mix of both or even something different than that. So, I would start with what impact do we think we could have? Where do we think the biggest opportunity is to chase? You can literally draw a funnel on a whiteboard and map it out and brainstorm together, do some analysis on the side, and when you see what opportunity feels like the most important thing to chase, try to build a north star metric that reflects the output of that work, rather than drives all of your decision-making from the beginning. A north star metric should really be a measure of what you plan to do, the strategy you plan to deliver is delivering results for the business on the other side, rather than the other way around. So, you mentioned trials and freemium at one point and I want to spend a little time on this, and I know you also have some strong opinions about this kind of debate. Another debate people have, there's always debates in growth, between offering a trial or offering a freemium product, self-serve, and I think your perspective is you should do both, and I think maybe you call it a reverse trial because I was doing some research. So, I guess is that true?, Is that how you see the world, and then just generally, why do you believe that that is the right approach? What is it about all these growth people with their strong opinion?…

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