Growth 101

What is the typical career path in Growth? What are the skills required at each level?

The skills required to get in a Growth Associate v/s Manager v/s Leader role. And the skills required to excel in such a role.

Growth Associate / Senior Associate: 0-2 years of experience

Growth is a multi-disciplinary field. A Growth Manager is more likely to have started as an associate in one of the disciplines below, than as a Growth Associate.

  • Marketing Associate, or
  • Data/Business Analyst, or
  • Product Analyst, or
  • Sales/Business Development Associate.

If you are starting out in the above roles, you will be judged on some basic aptitude and attitude for the role, but will generally not be expected to have any functional skills beforehand to break into the role.

Once you are in an associate level role, to excel in it, some common requirements from the manager/company would be:

  • Being consistent and predictable for your executional deliverables
  • Strong and proactive written and spoken communication

Over and above these, you should begin to develop an overall understanding of the common work streams in the function, as well as understand the value chain in the domain your company operates in.

Growth Manager / Senior Manager: 3-6 years of experience

To get the role of a Growth Manager, you will have to be:

  • well-versed in one of the fields (product, marketing, analytics, sales), depending on the domain of the company
  • or one of the sub-fields: organic marketing, growth products, e-commerce account management, user lifecycle
  • while having working knowledge of other fields
  • outcome oriented mindset, rather than functional excellence one

Once you are in the role, to be in the top bracket, you will have to start building managerial muscle. Delivering expected business outcomes as well as contributing to organisation itself will both be required from a manager.

Growth Leader (Director / VP / Head of Growth): 7-10+ years of experience

To become a Growth Leader, you will need

  • to be an expert in one of the disciplines
  • to have a few years of experience being in-charge of a business/revenue/product line
  • to have experience in building and managing a cross-functional team

In such a role, to stand out from the peer group, the key skills required will be decision making and communication.

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