Definitions
What is a growth play?
A growth play is one specific, costed move to get more customers — not a strategy or a channel. Definition, the four parts, and examples.
- 3 August 2026
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What is a growth play?
A growth play is one specific move to win customers, small enough to start today and defined well enough to finish: a name, a reason it should work, a first step, and its cost in hours and money. 'Do content marketing' is not a play. 'Publish one comparison page against the incumbent this week' is.
Last updated 3 August 2026
| Term | Scope | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Why you win | Win on speed of setup for small teams |
| Channel | Where you reach people | Cold email |
| Play | One move you can start today | Email 100 named accounts about one problem |
Do this
The steps, in order.
- Step 1
Name it as an action
A play starts with a verb and names a quantity. If it cannot be marked done, it is a theme, not a play.
- Step 2
Say why it should work here
Not why it works in general. Why it should work for this audience, at this stage, with this product.
- Step 3
Write the first step
The single thing to do next. This is what stops a play from sitting untouched for a month.
- Step 4
Cost it in hours and money
Without a cost you cannot rank plays against each other, and ranking is the whole point.
Worth knowing
The bits people get wrong.
Thinking in plays rather than channels makes prioritisation possible. Channels are too big to compare — 'SEO versus email' has no answer. Two specific plays with costs and expected returns can be compared in a minute.
Plays also fail cleanly. A play that did not work took a known number of hours and produced a known result, which is information. A channel that 'did not work' usually means it was never given a defined shot.
Questions
Follow-up questions.
How long should a growth play take?
Most should fit inside a week of part-time effort. Anything longer should be split, because plays that span a month rarely get finished and never get measured properly.
How many plays should I run at once?
Two or three. More than that and none of them get enough attention to clear their setup cost, which is the most common reason growth work produces nothing.
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