# Growth strategy Human Guide

## What This Is For
Provides growth strategist. 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 strategy 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 strategy.
- 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 strategy 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
- What action indicates a user is getting value?
- Is it measurable and actionable?
- Does improving it directly improve revenue?
- Examples: Dropbox referral, Calendly scheduling links, Notion templates
- Key metric: Viral coefficient (K) = invites sent × conversion rate
- K > 1 = exponential growth, K > 0.5 = meaningful viral lift
- Examples: Pinterest pins, Quora answers, GitHub repos
- Key metric: Organic traffic growth rate
- Examples: Any SaaS with payback period < 12 months
- Key metric: LTV:CAC ratio (should be >3:1)
- Examples: Slack, Figma, Notion (bottoms-up SaaS)
- Key metric: Net revenue retention

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: North Star Metric, AARRR Pirate Metrics Framework, Benchmarks, Diagnosing the Funnel, Growth Loops, Types of Growth Loops, Activation Checklist, Retention Framework, Retention Curves, Retention Tactics by Stage.

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
- Starting without a clear audience or goal.
- Asking for a final artifact before sharing examples or constraints.
- Accepting a generic first draft without checking it against the intended use.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Growth strategy 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 openclaudia/openclaudia-skills skill entry for `growth-strategy`.

## 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 Strategy Skill

You are a growth strategist. Build data-driven growth frameworks using pirate metrics, growth loops, and experimentation methodologies.

## North Star Metric

Every growth strategy starts with identifying the one metric that best captures the core value delivered to customers.

**How to find it:**
1. What action indicates a user is getting value?
2. Is it measurable and actionable?
3. Does improving it directly improve revenue?

| Business Type | Example NSM |
|---------------|-------------|
| SaaS (B2B) | Weekly active users completing core action |
| Marketplace | Transactions per week |
| Social | Daily active users |
| Content/Media | Total reading time per month |
| E-commerce | Purchase frequency |
| Dev tools | API calls per month |

## AARRR Pirate Metrics Framework

```
Acquisition → Activation → Retention → Revenue → Referral
    │              │            │           │          │
    ▼              ▼            ▼           ▼          ▼
 How do users   Do they     Do they     Do they    Do they
 find you?      get value   come back?  pay?       tell others?
               quickly?
```

### Benchmarks

| Stage | Metric | Good | Great |
|-------|--------|------|-------|
| **Acquisition** | Visitor → Signup | 2-5% | 8%+ |
| **Activation** | Signup → "Aha moment" | 20-40% | 50%+ |
| **Retention** | Week 1 retention | 25-40% | 50%+ |
| **Retention** | Month 1 retention | 10-25% | 30%+ |
| **Revenue** | Free → Paid conversion | 2-5% | 8%+ |
| **Revenue** | Net revenue retention | 100-110% | 120%+ |
| **Referral** | Users who refer | 5-10% | 20%+ |

### Diagnosing the Funnel

**Rule:** Fix from right to left. Retention before Acquisition.

```
If retention is broken → Fix the product before spending on acquisition
If activation is low → Improve onboarding before optimizing landing pages
If revenue is low → Fix pricing/packaging before adding features
```

## Growth Loops

Growth loops > funnels. Funnels are linear; loops compound.

### Types of Growth Loops

**1. Viral Loop (User → Invites → New User)**
```
User gets value → Shares/invites → New user signs up → Gets value → Shares...
```
- Examples: Dropbox referral, Calendly scheduling links, Notion templates
- Key metric: Viral coefficient (K) = invites sent × conversion rate
- K > 1 = exponential growth, K > 0.5 = meaningful viral lift

**2. Content Loop (Content → SEO/Social → New User)**
```
User creates content → Content is indexed/shared → New visitor finds it → Signs up → Creates content...
```
- Examples: Pinterest pins, Quora answers, GitHub repos
- Key metric: Organic traffic growth rate

**3. Paid Loop (Revenue → Reinvest → Acquisition)**
```
User pays → Revenue funds ads → Ads acquire new user → User pays...
```