Why building a growth team beats relying on lone marketing geniuses or big ad spend
At BitTorrent, the company was struggling to get traction with its mobile app, despite solid engineering and traditional marketing. Marketing and product teams worked separately, each doing their part but with inconsistent results. Then, Annabell Satterfield, a newly hired product marketing manager, broke tradition by collaborating directly with the product team rather than sticking just to acquisition campaigns. Together, they dove into user surveys and data, discovering millions of users weren’t upgrading simply because they didn’t know a paid version even existed. By adding a simple upgrade button—an idea that bubbled up only because multiple perspectives combined—the team quickly saw a 92% jump in daily revenue. They didn’t stop there: a prompt for positive app reviews, timed at the moment users succeeded, led to a 900% leap in five-star ratings, helping even more new users find and trust the product.
Start by inviting a few colleagues from different departments to join your new growth team—don’t wait for permission, just reach out and make it fun. Once you’re together, pin down which growth number matters most right now, whether it’s customer upgrades or active users. Keep everyone focused by running weekly meetings, always revisiting your main goal and reviewing experiment results honestly. Make sure every voice is heard and encourage everyone to add ideas to a shared list. Whenever you win (even with a tiny test), celebrate as a team—then use that energy to experiment even more. Try this format for six weeks—see what unexpected wins emerge when you all row in the same direction.
What You'll Achieve
Expect to unlock creative solutions that dramatically improve growth results, foster a culture of rapid learning, and bring measurable gains in user acquisition or retention. Internally, you’ll develop stronger collaboration skills, break down communication barriers, and experience the satisfaction that comes from shared victories.
Form Your Own Cross-Functional Growth Team Now
Identify key roles from different departments.
Bring together people with insight into strategy, data analysis, engineering, product design, and marketing. Including a mix—like a product manager, data analyst, engineer, and marketer—ensures the best ideas from all angles.
Clarify your growth objective and chosen metric.
Decide what your team will focus on—like increasing retention or improving new user sign-ups. Choose one central metric as your North Star to align energy and prevent scattershot efforts.
Schedule weekly growth meetings.
Hold regular meetings (ideally weekly) to review test results, brainstorm experiments, prioritize, and keep everyone on track. Use a repeatable agenda so meetings stay disciplined and efficient.
Break down silos and encourage cross-team collaboration.
Actively invite contributions and feedback across teams instead of sticking to traditional boundaries. Make sure everyone has access to the growth ideas pipeline and results.
Reflection Questions
- What’s been holding communication back between departments in your organization?
- Which metric do you truly want your team to improve—and are you all focused on it?
- Where could you invite new perspectives to your current projects?
- How would regular feedback and quick iteration change your results?
- What small experiment could you run together next week?
Personalization Tips
- In an after-school robotics club, form squads with members who like coding, design, and presenting—so everyone’s talents contribute.
- On a hospital quality project, bring together nurses, medical techs, IT, and admins to brainstorm solutions, not just management.
- If managing a church event, recruit a diverse team—food planners, tech-savvy volunteers, and outreach leaders—to plan people’s journeys from sign-up to participation.
Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success
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