Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how people in SaaS talk about “growth” and how often it gets confused with product development (and even Sales 🙄 ).
So here’s my take.
Growth is not product development (or sales)
Product development is about building new core value.
It asks: what should we make next?
It leans on frameworks like design thinking, lean startup, agile, all that good stuff.
It solves problems by creating new things.
GROWTH IS DIFFERENT....
Growth is about connecting people to the value that already exists.
It asks: how do we get more of the right people to experience this thing we've already built?
It works within the constraints of what’s already live—product, brand, team dynamics, timelines.
It solves problems by shifting messaging, positioning, pricing, timing, UI/UX, onboarding, sales materials, email automations... sometimes all of the above. Sometimes none of the above. It’s messy.
It’s also way harder to define and often harder to execute.
You can’t just A/B test your way to clarity. It’s not clean. It’s not predictable.
It’s about making smart bets in complex, ever-changing environments and learning fast with limited resources.
