# 4 Ps Growth Framework

Choosing where to begin with growth initiatives can be challenging for marketing leaders. In an online content delivered by Holly Chen, former marketer for Google and Slack, I encountered a powerful framework called the 4P Growth Strategy Framework that provides a structured approach to growth planning.

## Summary

<table><thead><tr><th width="239">Product Market Fit Stage</th><th width="397">Growth Levers (4Ps)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Pre-PMF </td><td><mark style="color:blue;"><strong>Product:</strong></mark> Invite, Share, Word of Mouth</td></tr><tr><td>Post-PMF</td><td><mark style="color:blue;"><strong>Public:</strong></mark> PR, SEO Content, UGC/Communities</td></tr><tr><td>Scale</td><td><mark style="color:blue;"><strong>Paid:</strong></mark> Ads, Sales Teams, Partnerships</td></tr><tr><td>Maturity</td><td><mark style="color:blue;"><strong>Platform:</strong></mark> APIs/SDK, Integrations, Marketplace</td></tr></tbody></table>

### Pre-Product Market Fit (PMF)

*You're just starting out or validating product-market fit.*&#x20;

<mark style="color:blue;">**1)**</mark>**&#x20;Growth Lever**: <mark style="color:blue;">**Product**</mark> - Design viral mechanisms

* **Tactics**:
  * Use *Invite* features if your product benefits from network effects (e.g., Slack grew team-by-team using invites).
  * Enable *Share* mechanisms for products where users gain value from sharing (e.g., Dropbox, Figma).
  * Focus on *Word of Mouth* when customer experience is the differentiator.
* **Possible Success Metrics**:
  * User activation rate
  * Referral rate
  * NPS score
* **ExampleMo:** Slack: Used invite system to grow team-by-team

### Post-Product Market Fit

*You have happy customers and clear product value.*

<mark style="color:blue;">**2)**</mark>**&#x20;Growth Lever**: <mark style="color:blue;">**Public**</mark> - Build the public growth machine

* **Tactics**:
  * Use *PR* for newsworthy milestones or unique stories.
  * Invest in *SEO Content* when users actively search for solutions in your space.
  * Develop *UGC/Community* where users are passionate, and knowledge-sharing is valuable (e.g., Notion's public templates marketplace).
* **Possible Success Metrics**:
  * Organic traffic growth
  * Community engagement
  * Content reach
* **Example:** Notion: Built public templates marketplace

### Scale

*You have strong unit economics and market presence.*

<mark style="color:blue;">**3)**</mark>**&#x20;Growth Lever**: <mark style="color:blue;">**Paid**</mark> - Accelerate growth with paid mechanisms

* **Tactics**:
  * Deploy *Ads* when you can predict customer lifetime value (CLTV).
  * Build *Sales Teams* for deal sizes justifying personal outreach.
  * Develop *Partnerships* for win-win distribution deals (e.g., Salesforce’s AppExchange ecosystem).
* **Possible Success Metrics**:
  * CAC/LTV ratio
  * Sales efficiency
  * Partnership ROI
* **Example:** Salesforce: AppExchange ecosystem

### Maturity

*You have significant market presence and developer interest.*

<mark style="color:blue;">**4)**</mark>**&#x20;Growth Lever**: <mark style="color:blue;">**Platform**</mark> - Dominate with platform strategies

* **Tactics**:
  * Build *APIs/SDKs* when others want to build on your infrastructure.
  * Create *Integrations* for users needing your product to work with other tools.
  * Launch a *Marketplace* to attract suppliers and buyers.
* **Possible Success Metrics**:
  * API adoption rate
  * Integration usage
  * Marketplace GMV
* **Example:** Stripe: Developer-first API platform

## More Examples:

#### Invite/Share Tactic:&#x20;

Notion (Enterprise) launched their AI feature in early 2023 with a workspace-wide free trial strategy: the number of complimentary AI responses increased with more workspace members, incentivizing existing users to invite colleagues to join their workspace to get more collective AI credits. This helped drive bottom-up enterprise adoption. \[Ref: [Notion's Official AI Launch Blog, February 2023](https://www.notion.so/blog/notion-ai-is-here-for-everyone)]