Shafaat Choyon.
Free tools · Growth

The growth operating system

34 free tools in the order a growth team actually works: plan, execute by channel, then measure and optimize, and loop back. For each stage: what the team should look after, what usually goes wrong, and where I did it. Every tool loads examples from 15 industries: the nine I have worked in, and six more.

Then loop back: what you learn in Measure sets next quarter’s Plan.

Pick your industry once. Every tool below will open with a worked example from it. The examples are illustrative, not benchmarks.

Where I have workedOther industries, examples only
New · Tool advisorNot sure where to start? Answer a few quick questions.Get a three-step plan using these tools, each one filled in with your numbers.Open the advisor →

1Plan

Planning decides where growth will come from before money is spent: how big the prize is, how loud you need to be, how much to spend, and what the brand must stand for. Most growth problems I have been asked to fix started as planning shortcuts.

What the team should look after

  • Growth lead: a revenue target broken down into customers, leads and traffic, so everyone can see the math.
  • Finance partner: the budget as a share of revenue, and the margin assumptions behind it.
  • Brand lead: one insight and one positioning the whole team can repeat.
  • Strategy or insights: a market size built bottom-up, not borrowed from a report.

What usually goes wrong

  • A target with no funnel behind it, so the budget is a guess.
  • Spending to hold share when the plan says grow: share of voice below share of market.
  • A brief with five messages, which means none.

The tools, in working order

  1. Market size (TAM, SAM, SOM) calculatorBottom-up market sizing for a pitch, plan or new category, in dollars or taka.
  2. Product-market fit surveyScore the "very disappointed" survey against the 40% line, with the margin of error and what to do next.
  3. Share of voice (ESOV) calculatorIs your ad spend big enough to grow market share, or just to hold it?
  4. Marketing budget plannerSet a budget from revenue and split it between brand building and activation.
  5. Revenue goal funnel plannerWork backwards from a revenue target to the customers, leads, visitors and budget you need.
  6. Cash runway and burn calculatorNet burn, months of cash left, the month it runs out, and the growth or cost cut that gets you to break-even first.
  7. Fractional vs full-time cost calculatorA fractional CMO, COO or CFO against a full-time hire: the cost of each and the days a week where full-time wins.
  8. Consumer insight statement builderTurn an observation into a usable insight with the human tension inside it.
  9. Competitor positioning mapPlot your brand against rivals on two axes and spot the white space.
  10. Brand positioning ladderClimb from what you make to what you stand for, and write a positioning statement.
  11. Value exchange checkerWill people take part? Weigh what you ask of them against what they get back.
  12. Creative brief builderA one-page creative brief with a single-minded proposition, ready to copy or print.

Where I did this

At ACCA I designed a member-growth ecosystem that hit 100% of its targets and doubled approved employers from 8 to 16.

Read the case: Designing a member-growth ecosystem, not a calendar of events →

2Execute by channel

Execution is where budget turns into customers, one channel at a time. The job is to know, every week, what each channel costs per customer, whether it pays back, and where to move money next.

What the team should look after

  • Performance lead: CAC and ROAS by channel, against break-even.
  • Media planner: reach and frequency, so the audience sees enough without waste.
  • Campaign manager: pacing against plan, every week.
  • Content and social lead: engagement on reach, and a content program with a point of view.
  • Creative lead: ideas scored before production, in one consistent voice.

What usually goes wrong

  • Judging channels on a blended number, which hides the one burning money.
  • Underspending all month, then dumping budget in the last week.
  • Counting media only, so sales-heavy channels look free.

The tools, in working order

  1. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) by channelBlended and per-channel CAC, so you can see which channel really brings customers cheaply.
  2. ROAS and break-even calculatorDid the campaign actually make money once margin and other costs are counted?
  3. Reach and frequency plannerBudget and CPM in; impressions, GRPs, estimated reach and frequency out.
  4. Campaign pacing calculatorAre you overspending or underspending against plan, and what should daily spend be now?
  5. Social media engagement rate calculatorEngagement rate by followers and by reach, for a post or a whole month.
  6. Content marketing scorecardRate your content program on eight essentials and get the top three fixes.
  7. Content reuse plannerOne essay, report or video in: a schedule of posts, clips and newsletters out, with the views each adds.
  8. Marketing idea scorecardScore an idea on seven tests and find the weakest link before you spend a cent.
  9. Brand personality and tone of voice builderSet six personality sliders and get a tone-of-voice guide with do and don't examples.

Where I did this

I built Praava Health’s corporate-sales engine from zero, growing corporate clients from 342 to about 1,400 and corporate programs 3.1 times.

Read the case: Building the corporate-sales engine from zero →

3Measure and optimize

Measurement closes the loop: did it work, why, and what changes next quarter. It covers three things at once: the campaign, the customer and the economics.

What the team should look after

  • Analyst: a measurement plan from awareness to business effect, and tests read for significance.
  • CRM or retention lead: lifetime value, NPS and where the journey leaks.
  • Commercial or finance: price, margin and break-even, so growth stays profitable.
  • Growth lead: return on marketing from incremental profit, fed back into the next plan.

What usually goes wrong

  • Declaring a test winner on noise.
  • Reporting revenue as return, instead of incremental profit.
  • Chasing new customers when retention is the cheaper lever.

The tools, in working order

  1. Campaign measurement plan builderLink communication, attitude, behavior and business effects with the right measures.
  2. Growth rate calculatorCAGR, the monthly rate behind it, where revenue lands in a year, and the rate a target needs.
  3. A/B test significance calculatorIs variant B really better, or is it noise? Confidence, lift and the sample you need.
  4. Marketing ROI calculatorReturn on marketing investment based on incremental profit, not total revenue.
  5. LTV to CAC ratio and payback calculatorDoes each customer pay back what it cost to win them, and how fast? In dollars or taka.
  6. Churn and retention calculatorMonthly churn, customers kept after a year, average lifetime and the revenue churn takes.
  7. Recurring revenue bridgeNew, expansion, downgraded and lost recurring revenue in one view, with net revenue retention and quick ratio.
  8. Customer journey mapperFrom trigger to repeat purchase: map each stage, its barrier, and find the biggest leak.
  9. NPS calculatorNet Promoter Score from your survey counts, with the margin of error most reports leave out.
  10. Price increase calculatorHow many customers can you lose after a price rise and still earn the same profit?
  11. Cash-pay price setterThe self-pay price at your target margin, against the insured rate and local cash prices, with monthly profit.
  12. Break-even calculatorUnits and revenue needed to cover your fixed costs, and your margin of safety.
  13. Profit margin and markup calculatorMargin versus markup, and the price you need to hit a target margin.

Where I did this

At Praava Health I built a data engine for product and growth decisions, behind about 57% compound annual growth in the consumer business.

Read the case: A data engine for product and growth decisions →
The health operating system →Public health and systems, population health and health communication: 9 tools for program and health teams.

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Questions

What is a growth operating system?

A shared sequence of decisions and numbers a growth team works through every quarter: plan where growth comes from, execute channel by channel, measure what worked, and feed it back into the next plan.

Which industries do the examples cover?

Nine I have worked in: telecom, FMCG, advertising, fintech, e-commerce, consumer tech, education, logistics and healthcare. Six more as examples only: SaaS and B2B software, pharma and medtech, insurance, retail and QSR, hospitality and travel, and nonprofits. All examples are illustrative, not benchmarks: replace them with your own numbers.

Is anything I type stored?

No. Every tool runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored.