A diagnostic tool for growth readiness

Most brands are nowhere near ready for testing. They don't even know their main channel, or have any sense of product-market fit. I made a diagnostic tool to help.

This is for any brand looking to launch new products or grow their existing audience. It matters because 'building something nobody wants' is still a top reason that startups fail.

Luckily there's a simple fix. The catch - it requires rigor. Read on to understand why. Or jump ahead to the diagnostic quiz to see where you land with testing readiness.

How I learned about qualifying

I think a lot about qualifying. This is the sales tactic of filtering out ineligible prospects so you only pitch people you think are ready. It saves time, energy and money. Which I learned the hard way when I was doing door-to-door sales back in the day. When you walk 5 miles for 100 knocks and 10 decent conversations, you learn quickly who's not worth your time.

What I'm looking for now

These days I'm filtering around readiness for growth. A lot of brands I encounter know they have a marketing problem, but most of them can't articulate exactly what's wrong. They say they need SEO, or ads, or social but don't really know how those channels fit into the bigger picture (or what it takes to stand them up).

But every now and then I encounter someone who knows what stage of growth their company is in, the channels that are most effective for their offering, they know their audience, and they're measuring campaigns effectively. This is the goal. And it's my job to get people there.

A new diagnostic tool

The quiz I've built will help you diagnose your readiness for growth and testing. You'll get scored across 4 categories with tips on how to improve. You learn, I learn. If I can help: great! Let me explain a little about the underlying theory.

The 4 categories

• System health: where you're at with analytics, tracking, measurement of campaigns
• Closing the loop: we're talking feedback and making the most of your experimentation learnings
• Isolating variables: this is about cleanliness of data, having good test prep and inputs to get good signal out
• Risk of failure: this is what we're up against, the cost of not getting it right. Maybe you're testing a hunch so the stakes are low. Maybe you're out of runway and you need your last Hail Mary pass to land.

The above are wrapped in;

The growth maturity model

1. Find one reliable channel to get customers
2. Product Market Fit: when your customers can't live without your offering, because you've dialed in positioning (who, what, why)
3. Scale: once the growth engine has been stabilized, supercharging it for big success

Next step

If you're serious about growing your audience and you want to know what's blocking your testing process, take 3 minutes to answer 14 questions and get clear on what you need to fix.