Growth Engineering
Engineer growth loops.
Marketing teams lose hours to ad-hoc, inconsistent growth engineering work — Engineer growth loops. Use when: building referral programs, viral loops, or product-led growth strategy. This playbook turns the process into a repeatable, brand-aware workflow.
Who it's for: digital marketers, marketing managers, growth marketers
Example
"Run /growth-engineering for our brand" → Growth Engineering workflow output with brand context, structured inputs captured, process steps executed, and a complete deliverable ready for review.
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# Growth Engineering
# Growth Engineering
## When to Use This Skill
Activate this skill when the user's request involves any of the following:
- Designing or improving a product-led growth (PLG) motion
- Building or optimizing referral programs (customer referral, partner referral, ambassador programs)
- Creating viral loops or increasing organic sharing mechanics
- Planning a product or company launch (Product Hunt, beta launches, waitlists)Get new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Engineer growth loops.
Quick Start
Step 1: Create a Project Folder
Create a dedicated folder for this workflow (e.g. ~/marketing/growth-engineering).
Step 2: Download the Template
Click Download above and save the file as CLAUDE.md in that folder.
Step 3: Run the Workflow
Open the folder in Claude Code and describe your goal. Claude will prompt you for any missing inputs, follow the structured process, and produce a complete deliverable.
Inputs You'll Need
Claude will prompt for the brand context, objective, and any asset references needed to produce the deliverable.
How It Works
PLG Implementation (Most Common Use Case)
- Map the user journey -- Document every step from first awareness to paid conversion. Identify where users currently drop off and where they experience value.
- Define the activation metric -- Determine the specific action or combination of actions that correlates with long-term retention. This is the "aha moment" the entire PLG motion revolves around.
- Design the free offering -- Structure the free tier or trial to give users enough value to experience the activation moment while creating natural upgrade triggers. Reference common models: feature-limited freemium, usage-limited freemium, time-limited trial, reverse trial.
- Optimize time-to-value -- Redesign onboarding to get users to the activation metric as fast as possible. Remove unnecessary steps, add templates/sample data, implement guided tours, and offer quick-start paths.
- Build PQL scoring -- Define the behavioral signals that indicate a free user is ready for a sales touch or upgrade prompt. Combine usage frequency, feature breadth, team size, and engagement depth into a composite score.
- Implement expansion loops -- Design in-product mechanisms for organic growth: team invites, shared workspaces, public outputs, integrations that touch other teams, and usage-based upgrade paths.
- Measure and iterate -- Track activation rate, free-to-paid conversion rate, time-to-activation, expansion revenue, and viral coefficient. Run experiments on each stage of the funnel.
Referral Program Build
- Assess viral potential -- Determine whether the product has inherent sharing mechanics or requires incentive-driven referrals. Analyze NPS data to identify promoter concentration.
- Design incentive structure -- Choose the referral model (give-and-get, tiered, milestone) based on product type, customer LTV, and competitive benchmarks. Set incentive values at 10-25% of customer acquisition cost.
- Build referral mechanics -- Create unique referral links, sharing interfaces, tracking infrastructure, and reward fulfillment flows. Make sharing frictionless (one-click, pre-written messages).
- Integrate referral touchpoints -- Embed referral prompts at high-satisfaction moments: post-purchase, after achieving a milestone, after a positive support interaction, at NPS survey completion.
- Launch and promote -- Announce the program to existing users, feature it in onboarding, add it to account dashboards, and include it in email communications.
- Monitor and optimize -- Track share rate, invite conversion rate, referral revenue, and fraud signals. A/B test incentive types, sharing copy, and prompt placement.
What You Get
A complete, brand-aligned deliverable ready to review, share, or hand off to execution.