The four-stage framework behind every growth engagement

Diagnose comes first because most presented growth problems are mislabelled — an acquisition problem that's really a retention problem, a conversion problem that's really a trust or pricing problem. Skipping this stage means solving the wrong problem quickly instead of the right one slowly.

Identify opportunities ranks the possible fixes by expected impact on payback period and lifetime value, not by which channel is most familiar or easiest to resource. This stage often surfaces an unglamorous fix (a broken tracking pixel, a confusing return policy) ahead of an exciting one (a new channel launch).

Build the growth engine is where execution happens — but only on the prioritised list from the previous stage, phased so early results inform later phases rather than launching everything simultaneously.

Scale profitably deliberately comes last and stays gated behind proof: a channel or market only gets more budget once it's demonstrated it can hold its unit economics at the current scale, not on the assumption that it will.