Over the past decade, the rise of the Internet has blurred the functional lines between product and marketing. Some companies formed in the post-internet era have optimized their organizational structures by combining product and marketing in to a single function called “growth”. The “growth” operating strategy was invented at Facebook and popularized at companies like Pinterest, Lyft, and LinkedIn. While the discipline originated in the consumer tech sector of Silicon Valley, it has spread to entrepreneurial cultures such as New York, Berlin, and Singapore and to companies from non-tech industries, such as Disney, the NBA, and Adidas. Located at the intersection of experimentation, analysis, and strategy, the MBA uniquely prepares students for careers in this expanding discipline.

However, what exactly is a “growth” operating strategy? Current definitions and best practices have not been codified. DGSV provides students with the opportunity to explore this rising discipline by exposing them to the best growth teams in Silicon Valley and applying their learnings to an early stage venture.

Specific learning objectives include:

1. What are the best practices of a “growth” operating strategy?
2. How are the implementations of “growth” across Silicon Valley’s most successful companies the same? How are they different? What drives these differences?
3. Which best practices of “growth” operating strategies are universal and which components need to consider the context of the firm, such as the stage, industry, buyer, product complexity, etc.?
4. How should “growth” be implemented in a startup context? How does the team makeup and priorities evolve as the venture matures?

The course is primarily focused on a field project with a late-stage startup, specifically in the area of the venture’s “growth” operating strategy. In the Fall while on campus, student teams will conduct a series of virtual meetings, research, analysis, and project execution with the project sponsor and other company resources. Students will then spend 10 days in Silicon Valley, with a substantial portion of the visit dedicated to on-site project work. At the conclusion of the trip, the student team will deliver a final presentation to their executive sponsor. Outside of project work, students will conduct site visits to best-in-class “growth” teams, providing students the opportunity to observe techniques used to maximize learning and collaboration. These site visits enable students to view the “growth” team through lenses beyond the growth leader, such as front-line employees like product managers, designers, engineers, and marketers as well as executive sponsors like the CMO, CRO, COO, and CEO.

The class will meet four times in the Fall for two hours each. Class time will be a mix of discussing a case simulation on components of the “growth” operating strategy, framework discussions with growth thought leaders, and Q&A with leaders from most successful growth implementations. Prior participants were from Pinterest, Facebook, Lyft, LinkedIn, and Shopify. The class session objectives is to expose the students to the operations of the most successful growth companies, challenge them on best practice pattern recognition, and provide them with the opportunity to implement the appropriate best practices in their field project. There will also be two one-on-one reviews between the faculty instructor and each project team during the Fall.

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