| name | growth-strategy |
| description | Builds a go-to-market plan for a product — positioning, ICP, channel mix, messaging, and campaign calendar. Use when launching a product, planning marketing, choosing channels, or aligning the growth team on what to say and where. |
Growth Strategy
Marketing without strategy is random posting. Before content, ads, or outreach, define who you're
for, what problem you solve, where they hang out, and what success looks like. This skill
is the planning layer for the Grow phase — it hands a campaign brief to [[content-marketing]],
[[social-distribution]], [[seo-growth]], and [[community-engagement]].
Pairs with [[product-brief]] for product truth, [[launch-readiness]] when GTM aligns with a ship date,
[[idea-shaping]] when positioning is still fuzzy, and [[observability]] for funnel metrics.
When to Use
- Product just launched or about to launch — need a marketing plan
- Traffic/engagement is flat — revisit positioning and channels
- Starting a new campaign (feature launch, seasonal push, rebrand)
- Onboarding a marketing team or agents — need shared brief and calendar
- Choosing between channels (social vs SEO vs community vs paid)
Skip when you already have an approved campaign brief and only need execution (load the channel skill
directly).
Process
Work in order. Don't write posts until positioning and ICP are written down.
1. Clarify the product and goal
Document:
- Product name + one-liner — what it is in ≤15 words
- Problem solved — the pain before your product existed
- Primary outcome — sign-up, install, profile complete, first connection, etc.
- Campaign goal — traffic, engagement, sign-ups, retention (pick one primary metric)
- Timeline — launch window, sprint length, or 30/60/90-day horizon
- Constraints — budget, team size, brand voice, regions, languages
If any of these are unknown, ask — do not invent positioning.
2. Define ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
For developer products, be specific:
| Field | Example (developer-connection) |
|---|
| Who | Mid-level devs, bootcamp grads, career switchers |
| Job to be done | Find mentors, collaborators, or job referrals |
| Where they are | LinkedIn, X, Reddit (r/cscareerquestions), Discord, Dev.to |
| What they search | "developer networking", "find coding mentor", "dev community" |
| Objections | "Another LinkedIn?", "No one will respond", "Spammy" |
| Trigger moment | New job search, learning a stack, moving to a new city |
Write 1–2 ICP personas max for the first campaign — not five vague segments.
3. Positioning and messaging
Fill the positioning canvas:
- For [ICP]
- Who [situation / pain]
- Our product is a [category]
- That [key benefit]
- Unlike [alternative]
- We [differentiator]
Draft 3 message pillars (themes every piece of content reinforces):
- Pillar — proof point — example hook
- Pillar — proof point — example hook
- Pillar — proof point — example hook
Define voice: technical but friendly, no hype, show-don't-tell, developer-respectful.
4. Channel mix and priorities
Score channels for this ICP and goal (High / Medium / Low / Skip):
| Channel | Best for | Effort | Priority |
|---|
| SEO / blog | Long-term traffic, intent | High | |
| X / Twitter | Dev audience, threads, launches | Medium | |
| LinkedIn | Professional networking, B2B dev | Medium | |
| Reddit | Authentic discussion, feedback | Medium | |
| Dev.to / Hashnode | Technical tutorials | Medium | |
| YouTube / Loom | Demos, walkthroughs | High | |
| Discord / Slack communities | Engagement, support | Ongoing | |
| Hacker News / Product Hunt | Launch spikes | One-shot | |
| Email / newsletter | Retention, nurture | Medium | |
| Paid ads | Scale (when organic works) | $$$ | |
Pick 2 primary channels and 1–2 secondary for the first 30 days. Spreading across six
channels with no depth fails.
5. Campaign calendar (30-day starter)
Build a week-by-week plan:
| Week | Theme | Content (→ content-marketer) | Social (→ social-media-manager) | SEO (→ seo-strategist) | Community (→ community-manager) |
|---|
| 1 | Launch / awareness | Launch blog post | Daily posts + launch thread | Landing page + meta | Intro post in 2 communities |
| 2 | Problem education | "Why dev networking fails" | Pain-point threads | Target keyword article | AMA or office hours |
| 3 | Social proof | User story / case study | Testimonial clips | FAQ page | Highlight member wins |
| 4 | Activation | "First connection in 5 min" guide | Demo GIF / video | Long-tail how-to posts | Engagement challenge |
Each row must have owner agent, deliverable, and success metric.
6. Metrics and feedback loop
Define north-star and supporting metrics:
| Metric | Tool | Target (30 days) |
|---|
| Unique visitors | Analytics | |
| Sign-ups / installs | Product analytics | |
| Activation (first key action) | Product analytics | |
| Engagement (DAU/WAU, posts, replies) | Platform + social | |
| Content performance | Views, time on page, shares | |
| SEO | Impressions, clicks (Search Console) | |
Schedule weekly review: what worked, what to cut, what to double down on.
7. Hand off execution briefs
Produce one brief per channel agent:
- Content brief → [[content-marketing]]: topics, keywords, format, CTA
- Social brief → [[social-distribution]]: platforms, cadence, hooks, hashtags
- SEO brief → [[seo-growth]]: target pages, keywords, technical fixes
- Community brief → [[community-engagement]]: communities, rules, engagement playbook
Common Rationalizations
- "We'll figure out positioning as we post" — Inconsistent messaging confuses users and wastes
content. Strategy first, even if it's one page.
- "We need to be on every platform" — Two channels done well beat six abandoned accounts.
- "Developers hate marketing" — They hate bad marketing. Useful content and honest demos win.
- "Virality will save us" — Plan for steady compounding (SEO, community), not one HN spike.
Red Flags
- No defined ICP — content speaks to "everyone"
- No primary metric — can't tell if marketing worked
- Calendar has posts but no CTAs or landing paths
- Messaging promises features the product doesn't have
- Same launch post copied to Reddit, LinkedIn, and X with zero adaptation
Verification
Strategy is done when:
