Why Create a Growth Team at Uber?

The article starts by explaining the rationale behind creating a growth team at Uber. It delves into the concept of the "Product Death Cycle," where companies often fail to sustain growth due to a lack of focus on user acquisition, retention, and engagement. Growth teams are essential to combat this cycle by applying scientific methods to business KPIs, optimizing user acquisition, retention, and engagement.

Growth Hackers vs. Growth Teams

The article differentiates between "Growth Hackers" and "Growth Teams." Growth Hackers are individuals who employ creative strategies to drive growth, while Growth Teams are organized groups with a broad set of skills that work collaboratively to achieve growth goals. The key takeaway is that growth is a team effort that requires a diverse set of expertise, including product management, engineering, marketing, data analysis, and design.

Where Should Growth Teams Focus?

The article provides a framework for prioritizing growth projects based on three factors: effort, success rate, and upside. The authors emphasize the importance of focusing on projects with high reach, which can have a significant impact on overall growth. Reach is defined as the number of end users touched by a feature change.

Growth Team Roles & Responsibilities

The article highlights the critical roles within a growth team, including:

• Growth PM: Responsible for the experiment roadmap.
• Growth engineer: Focuses on technical decisions and implementing experiments.
• Growth marketer: A versatile marketer with expertise in various channels.
• Growth data: An analyst focused on creating insights.
• Growth design: A designer leading the UX, emphasizing speed.

Growth Teams at Uber: A Case Study

The article provides a detailed case study of Uber's growth team, detailing its evolution, key achievements, and challenges. It highlights the team's impact on driving growth on the rider side of the platform, particularly in China, where it achieved significant success.

Growth Team Structures & Models

The article explores different organizational structures for growth teams, including:

• Pods: Matrixed to respective functions, with growth PMs reporting into Product.
• Business Unit: Functions reporting into a GM, with pods underneath.

The authors recommend that the organizational structure should be aligned with the specific problems the growth team is trying to solve.

Growth vs. Marketing & Product

The article discusses the key differences between growth, marketing, and product. While marketing focuses on building brand awareness and generating leads, growth teams focus on driving business outcomes like user acquisition, retention, and engagement. Product teams focus on building core value and enhancing product-market fit. The authors emphasize that growth teams should focus on getting the core value out to the world, while product teams focus on refining the core experience.

Joining or Starting a Growth Team

The article provides advice for individuals considering joining or starting a growth team. It emphasizes the importance of evaluating a company's culture, leadership DNA, and the existing organizational structure. It also outlines the key factors to consider, such as the company's commitment to experimentation, the ownership model for the growth team, and the availability of dedicated staff.

Overcoming Organizational Friction

The article concludes by addressing the challenges of implementing a growth team within a company. It highlights the need for a fundamental understanding of the changing landscape of tech product growth, the importance of dedicated resources for growth initiatives, and the need for a different process for managing growth experiments.