Think Stability before Growth

Archive Kept as written Not revised, not endorsed.

Published 2012

2 min read

From the archive, fourteen years ago This post appears as it was first published. It records what I thought in 2012 and has not been revised. Where my view has since moved, a later post says so.

Most people consider growth to be the most important metric in a startup. Lets face it, running experiments and seeing the graph react gives us a certain kick and brings out that inner scientist. Despite that, what most companies fail to realize is, in Operations, growth isn’t the only metric that counts.

Quantifying stability equates to very basic metrics that current everyday companies use but tends to get ignored as time goes by. Examples include capacity (normal and at max), efficiency, cost of current operations which includes infrastructure and how much does it take to scale, production costs which includes manhours, any physical costs eg: ink for a print startup and so on. Grouping these metrics into a few key areas and monitoring their key numbers is important to Management as it helps them make decisions that drive growth based on all-things-equal and if-then-so scenarios.

Stability and full realization of your current business operations always comes first, without which, all experiements moving forward become null and void, because all other control variables are not constant. Running growth experiments is crucial towards the success of the company, there’s no denying that, but, without knowing the current operations and ensuring stability, your growth experiments will not be able to deliver accurate results thus resulting in a failed strategy.

Tags growth The mark 5×3 grid, diamond, one line. Archive All forty-six, by year