Understand exactly what a Growth OS is, how it differs from project management solutions, and why you should consider a Growth OS for your business.
A Growth OS is a cloud-based software platform encompassing goals, project management and many other business productivity tools. Just like Windows or macOS allows you to run your computer, a growth OS helps you manage your work, teams and company.
Growth OS’s are inherently flexible. They can accommodate any workflow, process or project, and work for organisations of all sizes and sectors. Growth OS’s are where ideas become reality, teams collaborate and communicate, work gets done, and businesses grow and flourish.
A Growth OS embraces the following key concepts:
#1 All-inclusive: A Growth OS coordinates the work of every team in the organisation. Every employee should manage their work in the Growth OS.
#2 Flexible: A Growth OS accommodates any workflow, processes or project and works for organisations of all sizes and sectors.
#3 Cross-team: A Growth OS breaks down organisational silos, allowing individuals across teams to come together to get stuff done.
#4 Goal-focused: A Growth OS is built around goals: setting, tracking and delivery, all in one app.
#5 Priority-driven: A Growth OS helps you decide exactly what to work on next and prioritise that work in relation to your other assignments.
#6 Growth experimentation: A Growth OS lets you plan, execute and deliver marketing experiments, not just projects.
#7 Lean thinking. A Growth OS stays true to the concept of lean thinking: putting the end user first, eliminating waste, and continuous improvement.
A project management solution, sometimes referred to as a work management platform, focuses on delivering work. As such, it greatly emphasises team coordination, time tracking and reporting.
It is common for different teams in an organisation to use various project management tools; for example, the development team might use an agile-based project management platform like Pivotal Tracker, while marketing and other teams might use a project management tool like Wrike.
A project management solution will represent one tool in your tech stack. However, as these tools become increasingly more sophisticated, they naturally expand beyond project management to include features like goal and document management. In this respect, they are more akin to a Work OS, which we explore next.
Both Work OS and Growth OS contain multiple tools to help you manage your company. This may include tools to help you deliver projects, coordinate your teams, and analyse performance.
While a Work OS goes all out to replace multiple tools in your tech stack and integrate others, a Growth OS will replace several, but not all. A Growth OS adheres to lean principles, striving for clarity and simplicity while providing the core functionality you need to make informed decisions and grow your company. Think stripped-out racer Vs luxury limo.
But unlike productivity-focused Work OS’s and project management solutions, a Growth OS is growth-centric. It reflects lean thinking, embraces growth experimentation, and places great emphasis on goals and prioritisation. Productivity is a byproduct of this focused approach.
The mantra of a Growth OS is all about continuous improvement. A Growth OS is a good fit if your organisation adheres to lean principles or you’re just starting out. Crucially, a Growth OS will grow with your company and often provide additional functionality at higher pricing tiers.
Growth OS’s have been a long time in the making. They evolved from humble to-do and project management tools like Trello. (Which itself is evolving into a Work-OS under the Atlassian umbrella). But these tools came about themselves due to dramatically changing working practices:
#1 The rise of agile working. To stay competitive, businesses large and small must respond quickly and adapt to changes in the market, customer needs, and technological advancements. This leads to…
#2 Digital Transformation. Companies turn to technology to streamline processes and enhance collaboration. They increase efficiency and get more done, but it’s not without problems. This causes…
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#3 Autonomous teams: Teams adopt tools to suit their specific needs. This causes data and communication silos in the business as each team effectively operates independently.
#4 Lean movement: Businesses began embracing a philosophy of learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement, which led to an increased focus on data analysis and reporting.
Though the above process has been ongoing for a decade or more, Covid-19 accelerated digital transformation at an unprecedented rate, as entire organisations were forced to move their operations online in the face of lockdowns. This also gave rise to a 5th trend…
#5 Remote working: Globally distributed teams working together virtually are now the norm rather than the exception. They rely on software to ‘be present’ and do their job. This further exacerbated organisational silos and made cross-team collaboration challenging.
Consider moving to a Growth OS if three or more of the following statements ring true:
A Growth OS can be introduced in any business, at any stage. Whether you’re a startup with an idea looking to go to market, or an established company seeking to increase market share or expand into new, a Growth OS can transform your business operations into a lean, learning growth machine.
Wowzers was designed from the ground up to help tech companies engineer extraordinary growth. Our Growth OS helps tech founders, product managers and executives:
Unlike other project management solutions and Work OS’s, Wowzers goes beyond productivity to encompass strategy and prioritisation. Because your team doing their best work on initiatives that help the business achieve its goals is the greatest productivity hack out there.
You can learn more about how Wowzer helps tech companies engineer extraordinary growth or try 23 days free and see for yourself.
