engine-of-growthlisted

Diagnose which growth engine a product runs on — sticky, viral, or paid — and audit the one governing metric that engine depends on: churn for sticky, viral coefficient for viral, LTV to CAC for paid. Use when growth is slow and the cause is unclear, when planning growth experiments, when acquisition works but the numbers never compound, or when the user says engine of growth, why aren't we growing, sticky viral paid, growth engine, or which growth model. Not for choosing marketing tactics, running acquisition campaigns, or analyzing products with proven product-market fit and established growth loops.
karozi/awesome-product-management-skills · ★ 2 · AI & Automation · score 56

Install: claude install-skill karozi/awesome-product-management-skills

# Engine of Growth Every sustainable startup grows through one of three engines (Ries): sticky, viral, or paid. Each engine has exactly one governing metric. Most growth failures are engine confusion — running paid-engine playbooks on a product whose churn eats every cohort, or chasing virality before anyone sticks around. This skill diagnoses the engine and audits its governing metric. ## The Three Engines - **Sticky:** growth comes from retention. Governing metric: churn. If churn exceeds acquisition, the engine runs backward. - **Viral:** growth comes from users recruiting users. Governing metric: viral coefficient (k) — invitations sent times acceptance rate. Above 1.0, the product grows on its own; the cycle time decides how fast. - **Paid:** growth comes from buying it. Governing metric: LTV:CAC. Above 3 with an acceptable payback period, spend is a machine; below, it is a leak. ## Modes ### Diagnose mode (default — user describes the product and growth situation) 1. Read `references/engines.md` before naming an engine. 2. Extract the evidence: acquisition trend, retention curve shape, any organic referral behavior, unit economics if known. UNKNOWNs are marked, not guessed. 3. Diagnose the engine the product's behavior actually fits — not the one the founders wish for. A product with flat retention and no viral loop is on the paid engine whether or not anyone budgeted for it. 4. Name the governing metric and its current value (or UNKNOWN plus how to