Building a growth team: what to own and what to outsource
Deciding which growth capabilities to build in-house versus outsource depends on identifying how your product fundamentally acquires users. Growth advisor Phil Carter outlines frameworks for focusing internal hires on your primary growth engine, leaning on external specialists for supporting channels, and evaluating new growth leadership.
By NewForm · Updated
Key takeaways
- Identify your primary acquisition loop before attempting to define a job description for a growth leader.
- Internalize the competencies that power your hero channel—the mechanism driving the majority of growth—and outsource secondary functions initially.
- Look for T-shaped growth leaders who combine broad literacy to evaluate talent with deep spikes aligned to your primary channel.
- Evaluate a growth leader within their first month or two by early progress in their specialty and their plan for recruiting talent across other channels.
Align team design with your primary growth loop
Founders frequently ask how to define a head of growth job description before identifying how their business actually acquires users. Team design cannot precede channel reality. Because an organization can maintain excellence across only a limited number of competencies, hiring priorities should reflect how the product actually grows.
Carter illustrates the choice by contrasting a paid-acquisition-led business, using MasterClass as his example, with an organic-led business, using Duolingo. These examples explain his hiring framework rather than establish the companies’ current channel mix. Match the internal capability to how your business actually grows.
The hero-channel heuristic for internal hiring
To determine what to build internally versus what to outsource, Carter advises identifying the company's 'hero channel'—a heuristic for the primary growth loop driving roughly 70 percent or more of acquisition. Internalizing the day-to-day operation of that dominant engine ensures direct control over your most critical growth driver.
Secondary channels, exploratory efforts, or auxiliary tasks can be outsourced to agencies or external partners. As the company expands, additional channels can be layered on and brought in-house once their sustained impact and operational volume justify dedicated internal teams.
Hiring and evaluating a T-shaped growth leader
When recruiting growth leadership, Carter references the 'T-shaped' professional model discussed by Reforge founder Brian Balfour. A T-shaped growth leader possesses broad literacy across multiple channels to recognize talent and hire effectively to fill gaps, coupled with deep functional spikes in one or two specific areas.
Carter recommends that a growth leader's deep spike ideally align with the company's primary growth loop. To evaluate a new head of growth during their first month or two, he suggests assessing two initial indicators:
- Immediate progress in core areas: Putting a notable number of points on the board and securing early momentum within their personal area of expertise.
- Channel scaling strategy: Articulating a clear plan to build a broader growth team and identifying the talent necessary to acquire users through channels outside their specialty.
Adapted from NewForm’s original videos on creative strategy and paid social.
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