# Growth product manager Human Guide

## What This Is For
Strategic growth product management expertise for SaaS companies — from growth loops and activation to retention, monetization, and PLG strategies. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Growth product manager agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for growth product manager.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Growth product manager guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Systems over tactics** — Growth loops compound; growth hacks don't
- **Activation is everything** — If users don't activate, nothing else matters
- **Retention is growth** — Churn kills; retained users compound
- **Measure what matters** — One north star metric, ruthlessly tracked
- `loops-*` — Growth loops, flywheels, viral mechanics
- `activation-*` — First-time user experience, onboarding, time-to-value
- `retention-*` — Engagement, habit formation, churn prevention
- `monetization-*` — Pricing, upgrades, expansion revenue
- `experimentation-*` — Growth experiments, A/B testing, metrics
- `plg-*` — Product-led growth strategies and patterns
- **Optimizing acquisition before activation** — Filling a leaky bucket
- **Vanity metrics** — MAU without engagement is meaningless

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Philosophy, How This Skill Works, Core Frameworks, Growth Loop Types, The Growth Equation, The AARRR Funnel (Pirate Metrics), PLG Motion Types, North Star Metric Framework, Growth Model Overview, Anti-Patterns.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Systems over tactics** — Growth loops compound; growth hacks don't
- **Activation is everything** — If users don't activate, nothing else matters
- Activation is the single most important growth lever. If users don't experience value quickly, nothing else matters — they won't retain, refer, or pay.
- Don't show everything. Reveal complexity as users need it.
- Don't start users with blank slate.
- Day 60: "Last chance" + data deletion warning
- Never stop early based on results!
- □ Did we reach required sample size?

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Growth product manager human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the ncklrs/startup-os-skills skill entry for `growth-product-manager`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Growth Product Manager

Strategic growth product management expertise for SaaS companies — from growth loops and activation to retention, monetization, and PLG strategies.

## Philosophy

Growth isn't about hacks. It's about building **compounding systems** that create sustainable, defensible growth.

The best growth product strategies:
1. **Systems over tactics** — Growth loops compound; growth hacks don't
2. **Activation is everything** — If users don't activate, nothing else matters
3. **Retention is growth** — Churn kills; retained users compound
4. **Measure what matters** — One north star metric, ruthlessly tracked

## How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in `rules/` organized by:

- `loops-*` — Growth loops, flywheels, viral mechanics
- `activation-*` — First-time user experience, onboarding, time-to-value
- `retention-*` — Engagement, habit formation, churn prevention
- `monetization-*` — Pricing, upgrades, expansion revenue
- `experimentation-*` — Growth experiments, A/B testing, metrics
- `plg-*` — Product-led growth strategies and patterns

## Core Frameworks

### Growth Loop Types

| Loop Type | Mechanism | Example | Key Metric |
|-----------|-----------|---------|------------|
| **Viral** | Users invite users | Dropbox, Calendly | K-factor |
| **Content** | Users create discoverable content | Notion templates, Figma Community | Indexed pages |
| **Paid** | Revenue funds acquisition | Any SaaS with paid ads | CAC payback |
| **Sales** | Revenue funds sales team | Enterprise SaaS | ACV / CAC |
| **SEO** | Content ranks, drives traffic | HubSpot, Zapier | Organic traffic |

### The Growth Equation

```
Growth = Acquisition × Activation × Retention × Monetization × Referral

Each multiplier matters:
- 10% improvement across 5 areas = 61% total improvement
- 50% drop in one area = 50% total drop
```

### The AARRR Funnel (Pirate Metrics)

```
    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │              ACQUISITION                     │
    │         (How do users find us?)             │
    ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
    │              ACTIVATION                      │
    │       (Do users have a great first          │
    │              experience?)                    │
    ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
    │              RETENTION                       │
    │         (Do users come back?)               │
    ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
    │              REVENUE                         │
    │        (Do users pay us money?)             │
    ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
    │              REFERRAL                        │
    │      (Do users tell others about us?)       │
    └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

### PLG Motion Types

| Motion | Best For | Key Lever |
|--------|----------|-----------|
| **Free Trial** | Complex products, considered purchases | Trial conversion rate |
| **Freemium** | Simple products, network effects | Free → paid conversion |
| **Open Source** | Developer tools, infrastructure | Community adoption |
| **Reverse Trial** | High-value products, sticky usage | Premium feature discovery |
| **Usage-Based** | Variable consumption, API products | Usage expansion |

### North Star Metric Framework