Lecture Notes: Alex Schultz, VP of Growth at Facebook
Introduction
Speaker: Alex Schultz, VP of Growth at Facebook
Topic: Insights into growth, retention, and tactics from Facebook's growth team
Importance of Retention
Key Points from Adam D'Angelo's Talk
Metrics are crucial.
Retention is the most important factor for growth.
Calculating Retention
X-axis: Days from acquisition
Y-axis: Percent monthly active users (prefer monthly active over daily or weekly).
Calculate the retention curve by tracking the percentage of users active on subsequent days.
Important for this curve to stabilize above zero.
Types of Retention Curves
Flattens towards X-axis: Common in many companies and games.
Stabilizes and maintains: Seen in successful platforms like Minecraft or World of Warcraft.
Re-accelerates and grows: Driven by factors like network effects, new platforms, or adding new categories (example: Amazon).
Growth Accounting
Dividing growth into net growth, new users, churn, and resurrection.
Helps identify where to focus efforts for reducing churn and improving resurrection.
Importance of Magic Moments
Magic Moment: Key moments that lead to user retention.
Examples:
Facebook: Connecting with friends.
Airbnb: First reservation.
eBay: First purchase.
Identify magic moments through user feedback and metrics.
Growth Strategy
Clear Goals and Unified Vision
Align company goals around a single metric (e.g., Monthly Active People).
Everyone should focus on driving towards this unified goal.
Company-wide Growth Focus
Growth should be a company-wide responsibility, especially for startups.
Iterative Process (Naomi's Approach)
Understand: Analyze data and user feedback.
Identify: Find opportunities and gaps in user behavior.
Execute: Implement strategies to address identified gaps.
Role of Data
Data for Empathy
Data helps understand user behaviour and needs (example: Ticker feature problematic in small screens in the Philippines).
Predictive Power of Data
Data can forecast future outcomes (example: AB test predictions).
Swift Decision Making
Data allows faster decisions and operational agility.
Tactics for Acquisition and Retention
First 100 Users
Friends and Family: Get initial users from personal network.
Research Target Users: Outreach based on research.
Social Media and PR: Initial growth spikes from PR.
Ads: Can be an effective growth leader.
Fueling Growth
Product-market fit is essential; successful retention allows growth tactics to magnify impact.
Email, SMS, and Push Notifications
Optimize notifications for marginal users, not just power users.
Key elements: Delivery, opening rate, click rate.
On-site Merchandising
Use on-site media effectively to promote actions, like inviting friends or completing transactions.
Creativity in Targeting and Conversion
Use personalized and context-driven creatives.
The right call to action (e.g., from 'Advertise' to 'Create an ad' in Facebook's case).
Channel Selection and Incrementality
Different channels (SEO, SEM) need distinct strategies.
Measure incremental impact to ensure effectiveness of paid campaigns.
Conclusion
Importance of retention, magic moments, clear goals, iterative processes, and data.
Employ diverse tactics for growth but focus on user retention as the foundation.
Final Thoughts
Operate with agility and make data-driven decisions.
Moving fast and having a clear, shared goal is critical for success.
Q&A
Magic Moments: Creating magic moments involves removing friction and focusing on key actions that drive retention (e.g., importing contacts immediately in social networks).