A simple strategy to supercharge growth

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In today’s whiplash business environment of change and uncertainty, there are a few simple, timeless strategies that consistently rank among the best for accelerating growth. No reinventing the wheel required.

One such strategy is test-to-scale—close cousin of the venerable test-and-learn approach that’s long been a startup staple. Both can play a key role, depending on the stage of your company, industry, size, growth curve, and—importantly—internal culture.

Basically, test-and-learn uses small scale, iterative experiments to see what works best. Testing different messaging in a marketing campaign, for example, or perhaps different product features.

The idea is to gather data, analyze the results, and learn quickly what works…or doesn’t.

Test-to-scale ups the ante by taking things to another level. These tests aim to discover whether a product, system, or process can withstand the “stress test” of large-scale rollout or production. This might include manufacturing capacity, supply chains, distribution channels, sales transactions, user adoption, and data collection.

The benefits of making test-to-scale part of your go-to strategic arsenal will accrue from multiple directions, including:  

• Faster time to market: By testing concepts early, you can identify solutions and innovations most likely to succeed, and launch them quickly and confidently.
• Data trove: Experimentation generates valuable real-time customer data that is super helpful for making quick scaling decisions.
• Innovation and agility: Testing fosters an entrepreneurial mindset that enables continuous improvement, better informed decisions, and rapid adjustments.
• Risk reduction: Experiments also lower risk by identifying possible pitfalls and pointing to alternative solutions early. 

Entrepreneurial DNA

In a hypergrowth environment—like the one Liquid I.V. has been navigating for years—things must happen quickly. The entrepreneurial spirit baked into our rapidly growing company’s DNA is a major factor in helping us achieve the kind of growth and expansion we could scarcely have imagined 5 years ago.

For us, one way this entrepreneurial spirit plays out is how we choose to invest and what we prioritize. This is where test-to-scale enters the picture.

We follow the 80/20 rule. While about 80% of our investments are proven and measurable, the other 20% goes to experimentation. You never know where that experimental fifth will take you. In our case, the answer has been “A long, long way!”

Our experimentation with TikTok Shop, for example, resulted in a wealth of e-commerce knowledge and data that helped our team open a new, high-potential channel. Experimentation with gaming yielded Twitch as a high ROI media channel for us.

Those are just two among many mainstream Liquid I.V. products, processes, sales channels, and marketing tactics that began as tests, but are now integral to our success.

Learn from test-to-scale

Below are three key learnings, ingredients, and benefits of test-to-scale that can help any company use this simple strategy to supercharge growth:

1. Commitment to learning: The means and ability to test are, of course, a requirement. But more importantly, you must also be willing and able to learn from the results. This is more difficult than it sounds. There’s a natural tendency to bury failure rather than learn from it.

The learning side of the equation is valuable payoff. Remember, finding out that something doesn’t work is just as important as learning that something does.  

2. Relentlessly prioritize: At Liquid I.V., we invest considerable time and effort into prioritizing our chosen experiments and potential lessons. There’s an endless list of things we could test, but only a few we truly should.

Areas we prioritize include go-to-market capabilities and capacity, customer relationship management (CRM) engagement and personalization, R&D and innovation in new product development, omni-channel demand generation, and different combinations of in-house/outsourced resourcing that prioritize speed and expertise. The areas you choose may be totally different. The important thing is to make the hard choices.

3. JTBD: The “jobs-to-be-done” way of approaching experimentation is based on research showing that people buy products and services mainly to get some type of “job” done. Jobs-to-be-done might include staying properly hydrated, booking travel, building a deck, or thousands of other tasks that consumers need to regularly accomplish.

Centering your test-to-scale approach around JTBD helps make innovation more predictable and marketing more effective. At Liquid I.V., it’s been one of the key drivers helping our brand awareness and household penetration numbers skyrocket.

There’s no such thing as failure in a culture that values experimentation. There is only feedback. Your odds of success will directly corollate with your ability to embrace that feedback.

Mike Keech is CEO of Liquid I.V.

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