Growth Mindset

Ensure your product-market fit also prioritises market share growth, using features and scale.

Growth is about connecting users to the value of your product — a challenge, since it’s often unclear what motivates users to engage with product propositions. Actual growth happens when users repeatedly experience real value and stay engaged. For subscription products, user retention is the ultimate growth engine; without it, companies rely too heavily on aggressive monetisation from day one. For example, Grammarly gave free users some premium suggestions, giving them a taste of the whole product and doubling conversions. Experimentation is key, and every enterprise and product team must run 100s of tests a year, and apply insights widely across teams to create compounding growth.

The Explore–Exploit framework drives this mindset: explore to find new growth “mountains,” then exploit them efficiently before studying again. He credits rapid experimentation, data-driven learning, and AI automation as key accelerators. Growth is a creative and iterative process—part psychology, part systems design. Teams thrive when they hire for high agency (people who move fast and adapt), build culture around learning from wins and losses, and apply empathy to user journeys. Above all, growth must feel human: every experiment should connect users more deeply to value, not just to metrics.

Actionable Ideas for Powering Product Growth

  • Prioritise retention over acquisition. Keep users engaged; recurring value beats one-time sales.
  • Use the Explore–Exploit cycle. Explore new ideas → double down on proven insights → repeat.
  • Run continuous experiments. Aim for hundreds per year; even failures reveal valuable data.
  • Share learnings across teams. Turn one product win into a 10x organisational impact.
  • Showcase core value early. Let free users experience premium moments (Grammarly model).
  • Leverage AI to speed discovery. Use AI tools for data analysis, prototyping, and idea testing.
  • Design for psychology. Highlight user wins, encourage positive feedback loops, and celebrate progress.
  • Resurrect dormant users. Re-engage past users with new experiences or social triggers.
  • Hire high-agency people. Speed, curiosity, and adaptability matter more than deep experience.
  • Build experimentation culture. Leadership buy-in + fast feedback loops = exponential learning.

Growth isn’t about chasing short-term numbers—it’s about building a lasting connection between user and value. A company that continually learns, tests, and refines its way toward deeper engagement compounds growth faster than any paid campaign ever could. Retention, experimentation, and adaptability aren’t just tactics; they’re what make your product—and your team—resilient in a rapidly changing world.

Leverage Digital Scalability

Once connecting users to value is proven, scaling using a wide range of digital strategies, such as Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, and Digital Marketplaces, can create a further compounding effect.

Digital Marketplaces

Building global two-sided marketplaces powered by AI automation enables businesses to connect supply and demand efficiently across industries and communities, driving both customer value and growth. By integrating AI agents, marketplaces can personalise interactions, strengthen trust, and automate processes that scale network effects while reducing churn and costs. Successful platforms—like Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb—balance value creation for both buyers and sellers by leveraging data-driven insights, strong governance, and customer-centric design to sustain engagement. Marketplaces thrive when they deliver a seamless experience, set shared standards, and leverage algorithms to fuel loyalty and scale. However, challenges such as trust, competition, and the “chicken-and-egg” dynamic require precise focus, especially in early growth stages. The key to marketplace growth lies in specialisation, execution excellence, and designing features that create sticky, trusted ecosystems where users repeatedly return and contribute to organic expansion.

Key Growth-Linked Takeaways:

  • Connect supply and demand with purpose: Design marketplaces that solve real business and community problems.
  • Use AI agents to automate network effects: Let AI personalise user journeys, match supply-demand, and predict churn.
  • Balance both sides of the market: Build features, trust, and incentives equally for buyers and sellers.
  • Focus vertically before scaling horizontally: Specialise in one sector to build credibility, then expand across adjacent markets.
  • Design for retention and switching costs: Create hooks, rewards, and integrations that make users stay and contribute to the network.
  • Leverage trust and transparency: Shared rules, precise data, and quality control drive repeat transactions and word-of-mouth growth.
  • Invest in metrics and algorithms: Use data-driven insights to optimise pricing, discoverability, and engagement loops.
  • Foster viral and social growth: Use referrals, content, and communities to accelerate organic adoption.
  • Guard against disintermediation: Keep platform benefits high enough to prevent off-platform trading.
  • Continuously experiment and evolve: Use agile and AI-driven experimentation to refine CX, pricing, and growth levers.

Because growth in marketplaces isn’t just about user acquisition—it’s about creating compounding value loops. When both sides of the ecosystem gain tangible benefits and AI automates the matching, trust, and retention processes, your marketplace achieves self-reinforcing growth. This turns a simple platform into a living network that scales faster, resists competition, and continuously improves the user experience.

Digital Commerce

Digital commerce encompasses all forms of online buying and selling, from direct-to-consumer (D2C) stores and business-to-business (B2B) portals to marketplaces, social commerce, and subscription or recurring-revenue models. Each method generates value by removing friction between discovery and purchase—making products accessible anytime, anywhere, while gathering rich data on customer behaviour. D2C brands build loyalty through personalisation and storytelling; marketplaces scale reach by aggregating supply and demand; B2B platforms streamline procurement and logistics; and subscription or digital-service models create predictable, compounding revenue. Together, these methods empower businesses to sell smarter, faster, and globally.

Key types of commerce and success factors:

  • Direct-to-Consumer (D2C): Build brand equity and own customer data through your own e-commerce site.
  • Marketplaces (Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba): Access large audiences fast—differentiate with pricing, speed, and trust.
  • B2B Digital Platforms: Simplify bulk ordering, pricing tiers, and account management for enterprise buyers.
  • Social & Conversational Commerce: Sell directly via Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, or chatbots to meet users where they spend time.
  • Subscription & Membership Models: Drive predictable income and loyalty through recurring value delivery.
  • Omnichannel Integration: Connect online, mobile, and physical touchpoints for a seamless buying journey.
  • Data & Personalisation: Use analytics and AI to recommend products, predict intent, and tailor offers.
  • Customer Experience & Trust: Optimise UX, secure payments, and fast fulfilment to convert and retain customers.
  • Automation & Scalability: Employ AI tools, ERP, and CRM systems to streamline inventory, logistics, and marketing.

Turn interactions into transactions and data into long-term relationships. Companies that master multiple digital commerce models can adapt to changing consumer behaviour, expand globally, and build resilient, scalable revenue streams in an increasingly borderless economy.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing campaigns span a wide range of strategies aimed at attracting, engaging, and converting online audiences. Brands can create awareness campaigns (e.g., social media storytelling, influencer collaborations), lead-generation campaigns (email funnels, landing pages, gated content), performance campaigns (Google Ads, Meta Ads, retargeting), and content-driven campaigns (SEO blogs, video marketing, podcasts) to nurture trust and demand. Others focus on brand advocacy or community engagement, where user-generated content, reviews, and referrals amplify reach organically. Each campaign type generates value by connecting the right message to the right audience at the right time—driving measurable outcomes such as traffic, conversions, retention, and lifetime customer value.

Key channels and success factors:

  • Search Marketing (SEO & PPC): Capture intent-driven traffic and boost visibility through targeted keywords.
  • Social Media (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, X): Build brand awareness and engage communities through creative storytelling.
  • Email & Marketing Automation: Personalise journeys, nurture leads, and increase retention through segmentation and timing.
  • Content Marketing: Publish valuable, educational content that positions your brand as an expert and fuels organic discovery.
  • Affiliate & Influencer Marketing: Leverage trusted voices and networks to expand reach efficiently.
  • Video & Visual Ads: Use short-form and visual storytelling to drive emotional connection and conversion.
  • Data & Analytics: Track KPIs like CTR, CAC, LTV, and ROAS to optimise spend and performance.
  • A/B Testing & Optimisation: Continuously refine creatives, targeting, and offers based on real-time feedback.
  • AI & Automation Tools: Enhance audience segmentation, predictive targeting, and content personalisation.

An essential part of your growth engine, Digital Marketing transforms visibility into measurable value. When campaigns are data-driven, well-targeted, and user-centric, they not only attract customers but build long-term trust, enabling sustainable growth and competitive advantage in an increasingly digital marketplace.