Hiring your first head of growth Unlocking Growth Potential by Navigating the Interview Process
Steering your ship through the vast ocean of opportunities, the Head of Growth is the compass that guides your organization towards uncharted territories of success. The importance of this role can’t be overstated, as it seamlessly blends the realms of marketing, product, sales, and engineering to drive growth and scalability.
However, hiring your first Head of Growth is a journey with challenges. Here, we offer a comprehensive guide to navigate this process, providing the key questions to ask and interpreting their potential answers.
In this article, we will tackle three things when hiring your first head of growth:
- Understanding the Role of a Head of Growth: The article provides an in-depth understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a Head of Growth, from building and aligning a growth unit and team to creating and implementing growth strategies. It sheds light on the importance of this role in driving a company’s expansion and the challenges many organizations face in effectively incorporating a growth function.
- Key Interview Questions and Insights: The article presents a set of key interview questions that hiring managers can ask potential candidates for the Head of Growth position. It also explains what each question aims to uncover about the candidate’s experience and capabilities, providing hiring managers with a valuable tool for assessing candidate suitability.
- Interpreting Candidate Responses: Beyond just providing the questions, the article offers guidance on interpreting candidates’ responses. It outlines potential answers and explains what each might indicate about the candidate’s skills, experience, strategic thinking, and adaptability. This nuanced approach equips hiring managers to make more informed and effective hiring decisions.
Interviewing for hiring your first head of growth, the top 6 questions.
1. Building a Growth Unit
*Question*: Have you built a growth unit before?
A growth unit is a specialized team within an organization tasked with identifying, implementing, and optimizing growth strategies. This unit is pivotal in accelerating the company’s expansion by focusing on innovative and often data-driven solutions to increase user acquisition, retention, and revenue.
The importance of a well-structured growth unit can’t be overstated. It serves as the engine of your organization, driving you toward your business objectives.
However, building an effective growth unit is no easy task. Many organizations falter in this regard due to a lack of clear growth goals, inadequate resources, or the absence of a comprehensive growth mindset.
A candidate’s experience building a growth unit indicates their ability to create a team aligning with the company’s growth objectives.
*Question*: Have you built a growth unit before?
- – *Yes* – Look for details about the structure, function, and key initiatives of the unit they built. This showcases strategic thinking, organizational ability, and experience in driving growth.
- – *No, but has a plan* – Gauge their initial steps and factors they would prioritize. This demonstrates foresight, strategic planning, and an understanding of growth dynamics.
- – *No, and no plan* – Indicates a potential lack of experience or strategic thinking. Further probing may be required to ascertain their suitability for the role.
2. Building a Growth Team
*Question*: Have you built a growth team before?
A growth team, often a part of the larger growth unit, is a cross-functional group comprising members from various departments like marketing, sales, product, and engineering.
This team works collaboratively on growth-oriented goals, seeking innovative ways to improve the product, enhance customer experience, and drive user acquisition and retention.The importance of a growth team lies in its ability to break down silos and facilitate unified efforts toward growth.
However, constructing a cohesive growth team is often challenging for many organizations. The obstacles range from finding the right mix of skills and expertise to fostering effective cross-departmental collaboration.
Building a growth team requires leadership skills and identifying talent that aligns with the company’s growth objectives.
*Question*: Have you built a growth team before?
- – *Yes* – Their process, prioritized roles, and team member selection strategy reveal their leadership style, team-building strategy, and ability to identify necessary skills.
- – *No, but has a plan* – Their approach to building a team from scratch gives an insight into their foresight, leadership potential, and understanding of growth dynamics.
- – *No, and no plan* – This may indicate a lack of experience or strategic thinking. Further probing is necessary to evaluate their capability.
3. Aligning a Growth Unit and Team within an Organization
*Question*: Have you aligned a growth unit and team within an organization before?
In an organization, aligning the growth unit and team implies integrating these entities with the rest of the company’s structures and processes.
This involves ensuring that the growth objectives align with the company’s overall goals, facilitating effective communication and cooperation among different teams, and creating an environment that fosters a growth mindset.
Successful alignment can lead to more coordinated efforts toward growth, better decision-making, and a shared understanding of the company’s growth objectives.
However, achieving this alignment is often a challenge. It requires careful planning, effective communication, and a deep understanding of the company’s structure and culture.
Many organizations struggle with this, resulting in siloed teams, conflicting goals, and ineffective growth strategies.
A candidate’s ability to integrate a growth unit and team into an existing organization speaks volumes about their adaptability and strategic thinking.
*Question*: Have you aligned a growth unit and team within an organization before?
- – *Yes* – Their experience, challenges faced, and problem-solving approach provide insights into their adaptability, problem-solving skills, and understanding of organizational structures.
- – *No, but has a plan* – Their approach to integrating a new growth unit shows their strategic thinking, adaptability, and understanding of your organization’s unique needs.
- – *No, and no plan* – This may indicate a lack of experience or adaptability. Further questions may be necessary.
4. Building a Growth Strategy
*Question*: Have you built a growth strategy before?
A growth strategy is a detailed plan outlining how an organization intends to achieve its objectives. This strategy can encompass various aspects, including new market penetration, product development, and diversification. It often involves a mix of quantitative goals, such as increasing the user base or revenue, and qualitative goals, like improving the user experience or brand perception.
A well-crafted growth strategy is vital as it provides direction, helps prioritize resources, and serves as a roadmap for scaling the business. However, creating a successful growth strategy is a complex task that many organizations struggle with.
Common pitfalls include setting unrealistic goals, failing to align the strategy with market realities or the company’s capabilities, or simply not reviewing and adjusting the strategy based on performance and changing circumstances.
Experience with building a growth strategy provides valuable insights into a candidate’s strategic acumen and learning ability.
*Question*: Have you built a growth strategy before?
- – *Yes* – Their strategy performance and optimization process highlighted their strategic thinking, learning ability, and adaptability.
- – *No, but has a plan* – Their approach to developing a growth strategy showcases their understanding of growth principles and ability to apply them to your context.
- – *No, and no plan* – This could indicate a lack of strategic thinking or experience. Further probing may be required.
5. Aligning a Growth Strategy with an Organizational Structure
*Question*: Have you previously aligned a growth strategy with an organizational structure?
Aligning a growth strategy with an organizational structure involves ensuring that the company’s growth plans are effectively integrated into its existing structure and processes. This includes coordinating with different departments, aligning their goals with the growth strategy, and ensuring that all parts of the organization work together towards the company’s growth objectives.
This alignment is crucial as it enables smoother execution of growth strategies, better team coordination, and more efficient use of resources. However, achieving this alignment is often a challenging task. Obstacles include resistance to change, communication gaps, and conflicting departmental goals. Therefore, many organizations struggle to align their growth strategies with their organizational structures effectively. Alignment of growth strategy with organizational structure is crucial for a successful growth leader.
*Question*: Have you previously aligned a growth strategy with an organizational structure?
- – *Yes* – Their approach to ensuring optimized alignment reveals their understanding of organizational dynamics and ability to align strategic goals with operational realities.
- – *No, but has a plan* – Their approach to aligning a growth strategy with your organizational structure shows their ability to understand and adapt to your organization’s unique structure and needs.
- – *No, and no plan* – This might indicate a lack of experience or adaptability. Further questions may be necessary.
6. Hiring Growth Hackers
*Question*: Have you hired growth hackers before?
Growth hackers are professionals skilled in driving rapid growth within an organization by finding innovative, often low-cost, alternatives to traditional marketing. They combine marketing, data, and technology elements to achieve growth objectives.
Hiring growth hackers is crucial to establishing a successful growth unit as they bring a unique set of skills and a mindset geared towards growth. However, finding, attracting, and retaining such specialized talent is a challenge that many organizations face. Common hurdles include:
- Understanding the unique skillset of a growth hacker.
- Creating a work environment that fosters creativity.
- Keeping them motivated in a rapidly changing growth landscape.
A candidate’s experience hiring growth hackers gives a glimpse into their talent acquisition strategy and their understanding of the unique skills that growth hackers bring.
*Question*: Have you hired growth hackers before?
- – *Yes* – Their experience securing, retaining, and motivating growth hackers reveal their talent acquisition strategy, retention skills, and motivational tactics.
- – *No, but has a plan* – Their approach to hiring growth hackers provides insights into their understanding of the unique skills that growth hackers bring and their strategy for attracting and nurturing such talent.
- – *No, and no plan* – This might suggest a lack of experience or strategic thinking in talent acquisition. Further probing may be required.
Rounding it all up for hiring your first head of growth
Embarking on the journey to hire your first Head of Growth might seem daunting, but armed with the right questions and an understanding of what their answers might indicate, you are well-equipped to make an informed decision.
Remember, the aim is not only to find a candidate with the right skills and experience but also one who aligns with your company’s culture and values. Hiring a Head of Growth is crucial to driving your company’s expansion.
It’s about choosing a leader who can build and steer a growth unit, create effective growth strategies, foster a growth-oriented culture, and recruit the right talent to fuel this growth. Navigate carefully, and you’ll set sail on a good voyage of growth and success.
