How to Make an Effective Growth Path (H Prize Related)

We just announced the H prize (link). There are a lot of great questions coming in. One question is:

How do I build a great growth path?

We do a lot of things at 7 Cups that are based on the lean startup methodology. What applies to startups also applies to growth paths. The core of it is to establish a build > measure > learn loop.

Step 1: Build - a basic version of the growth path. They call this a minimally viable product. You don’t want to wait too long or perfect it. You mostly want to get something up that you can present to others in order to learn.

Step 2: Measure - share the link to the growth path with everyone you can. When I first launched 7 Cups I harassed every single person in my family, begged people in chatrooms on other sites to check it out, and called in all my favors to get people to give me feedback. Interview people and ask what can be done better. Also, keep an eye on the number of steps taken (each step will show how many times it was taken on the preview page). Where are people dropping off? Are people doing steps 1-3, but way less are doing step 4? What might be wrong with step 4?

Step 3: Learn - make judgements based on what you figured out on Step 2. Iterate on the path based on the feedback and make it stronger. In the example above, if it seems like few people are taking step 4, then try tweaking it, making it simpler, or maybe moving step 5 down. It is up to you. Just track what you learn.

This is what we do pretty much all day at 7 Cups across the board. Whenever there is a problem, we try to build a solution, measure if it is effective, learn, and then iterate again and again and again.

One key thing to keep in mind is that doing this kind of creative work is H A R D. It is not easy to keep persisting. You just have to keep at it. There are no shortcuts. I shared this video with @ouicherie the other day. When things go good, celebrate! When things are tough, endure and push through with the belief and knowledge that it’ll indeed get better. One step at a time!

On a practical note, I recommend trying to keep steps less than 2 minutes in length. You want the person to be able to do them relatively easily. Longer steps here and there are okay, but I’d keep them brief to keep a sense of momentum going. Last, use a good image to help frame the step. A picture is worth a thousand words and it can help people metabolize the information more readily. Moreover, consider making your steps interactive for users - while this data is not saved, users can find prompts as reflective experiences and can benefit from storing answers privately using other means that they prefer - when creating these steps select “Show Feedback Input” to allow a box for users to engage with your step.

More Resources

• How to Create Growth Paths (Youtube Video)

• How to Build an Effective Growth/Training Path

• Tazzie’s Growth Path Tips Post

Other Notes:

• Set the individual steps to be “Publically Accessible Exercises” when done editing.

• You do not have to build the path in one sitting but do need to fill in the initial page (title, a path description) and add at least one step before “saving” the path which you can later edit within the builder to add more steps.

• If more comfortable, you can consider saving the path as an “unlisted” path while editing or gauging it’s effectiveness: in such cases, you can share the link of the path (preview page URL) and only those with that link can use your path and offer feedback.

Ask questions below and I’ll be happy to answer them! We will be sharing a collection of commonly asked questions with guidance soon, alongside any more!