# Growth Flying Formation > A framework for aligning growth teams with product and marketing to prevent growth from feeling like an "extra layer." Use this when starting a new growth team, when product and growth teams are stepping on each other's toes, or when growth metrics are plateauing due to lack of cross-functional support. - Skill: `samarv/growth-flying-formation` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add samarv/growth-flying-formation` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/samarv/growth-flying-formation/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - Author: samarv (https://skillmd.com/u/samarv) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/samarv/growth-flying-formation --- The "Flying Formation" is an operating model designed to integrate growth into the core of a company’s product development. It replaces friction with shared accountability by defining exactly how growth, product, and marketing interact through specific roles, scopes, and rhythms. ## 1. Define High-Ownership Scope To maintain a high-performance culture, each growth owner must have a scope they can run independently. Avoid splitting teams so thinly that they only own "small" optimizations (e.g., just the checkout button). - **Problem-Based Scopes:** Assign teams to solve meaty user problems rather than just managing website sections. - **Funnel-Based Scopes:** Define clear handoff points. - *Example (Webflow):* Growth Marketing owns everything up to the signup (CAC and Signups); Product Growth owns everything downstream of signup (Activation, Monetization, ARR). - **Metric Integrity:** Ensure the scope is large enough for a single PM to drive significant impact (at Dropbox, each growth PM was expected to drive >$1M in ARR). ## 2. Implement the DACI Framework Use the DACI model to clarify decision-making and prevent "stepping on toes" between Growth and Core Product teams. - **Driver (D):** The person leading the project (e.g., the Growth PM). - **Accountable (A):** The final decision-maker. This person has the most context and is ultimately responsible for the outcome. - **Contributor (C):** Teams that provide engineering, design, or data support. - **Informed (I):** Stakeholders who must be kept in the loop but do not have a vote (e.g., Sales or Finance). ## 3. Establish Operating Rhythms Regular cadences ensure the "flying formation" stays in sync without constant ad-hoc meetings. - **Weekly Metrics Review:** A joint meeting between Growth Marketing and Product Growth to look at the full funnel together. - **Quarterly Planning:** Collaborative sessions to identify projects where teams need to support each other (e.g., Marketing needs a new landing page from Product). - **Asynchronous Visibility:** Use tools like Loom to share 5-10 minute project updates or experiment results. This builds visibility with leadership without clogging calendars. ## 4. The "Prep-Call" Interview Workflow High-performing growth teams require "First Principles" thinkers. Use this specific interview step to identify them: 1. **Assign a Presentation:** Ask the candidate to solve a real company problem (e.g., "How would you improve our current pricing page?"). 2. **The Prep Call:** Schedule a 30-minute "support call" with the candidate *before* their final presentation. 3. **Give Direct Feedback:** Provide specific critiques of their draft slides or strategy during the call. 4. **Observe the Pivot:** In the final interview, evaluate how they incorporated your feedback. This provides the ultimate signal for what it’s actually like to work with them and whether they have a "growth mindset." ## Examples **Example 1: Balancing Growth and Core Product** * **Context:** A Growth PM wants to experiment on the onboarding flow, which is technically "owned" by the Core Product team. * **Application:** Set the Growth PM as the **Driver** and the Core Product Lead as a **Contributor**. Use the "Flying Formation" doc to pre-agree that Growth is **Accountable** for the Activation metric, giving them the "right to play" in that code area as long as they provide the Core team with "Informed" status on experiment results. * **Output:** The experiment runs without a month-long debate over "ownership," and the Core team receives data that helps their own roadmap. **Example 2: Identifying First Principles Talent** * **Context:** Interviewing a PM for a new Pricing and Packaging role. * **Application:** During the "Prep Call," tell the candidate, "We are actually moving away from seats-based pricing toward usage-based pricing." * **Output:** In the final presentation, a "Framework-only" candidate will stick to their original seats-based slides. A "First Principles" candidate will have rebuilt their logic to address the nuances of usage-based pricing, demonstrating they can synthesize new context immediately. ## Common Pitfalls * **Treating Growth as a "Layer":** If growth is added after product development is finished, it becomes a band-aid. Growth must be infused into the initial go-to-market strategy and pricing model. * **False Precision (The "Expert" Trap):** Hiring "experts" who rely on "best practices" from other companies. Growth is context-dependent; prioritize candidates who ask "Why?" until they find a first-principles solution for *your* specific data. * **The "Checkout Page" Mistake:** Changing too many variables at once in an experiment (UX, copy, and price). When it fails, you won't know why. Distill every experiment into a single, testable hypothesis. * **Over-Hiring:** Doubling the growth team just because current metrics are good. If you can't define a distinct, meaty "scope" for a new hire to own, the team will become inefficient and lose its ownership mentality.