10: How to use Growth Driven Design to avoid the pain of Website Builds with Luke Summerfield

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Luke Summerfield is the Growth Driven Design Evangelist at HubSpot. He founded the Growth Driven Design (aka GDD) movement which is transforming the world of web design and fixing the broken traditional models of web design.  Today we talk about what’s broken in the world of web design and how Growth Driven Design solves these problems.

[spp-tweet tweet=”@SavvyLuke shares how to use Growth Driven Design  to avoid the pain of Website Builds”]

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Time Stamped Show Notes

(click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.)

  • [03:40] –  Samantha asks what is wrong with traditional web design and how did Luke came up with the Growth Driven Design methodology. Luke tells us about a time during his previous job at an agency where he saw common threads among their clients where their website builds were frustrating and not delivering the expected ROI.
  • [09:05] – Luke explains how websites are your number 1 marketing asset and the mindset shift that needs to happen.  He says that your messaging doesn’t match who the buyer persona is if you have a website that is outdated or not optimized.
  • [09:58] – Luke also says that a lot of people skip the strategy step and jump right into making a website just to get it done and they want it done cheap.
  • [11:30] – Samantha asks Luke: what should those people do who have the pain-point of having a misaligned strategy to their website . Luke says that the first thing to do is to understand why GDD is important and be 100% bought in. The next step is to see it in an “investor’s lens”.  It’s looking at where you are spending your resources to get the best return which is the impact on the goals your organization is trying to achieve.
  • [14:09] – Samantha asks: what is Growth Driven Design and how is it different to a traditional web design model.
  • [15:25] – Luke says that Growth Driven Design is taking a simpler mentality on web design. Instead of spending 6 months on a website and turns into a nightmare (over-budget, delays, etc. ) and don’t touch it for two years , why not look for a better system that really understands the market we want to communicate in and make website that looks better, performs better, but is not perfect. Growth Driven Design is about creating a launchpad site that is suitable for public consumption, then using the Website Hierarchy to refine and optimise your site based on feedback, data and user interaction.
  • [17:13] – Luke reiterates that we need to collect actual data. Traditional web design sits in a bubble for six months, having assumptions that you hope that would work well after launch.
  • [17:55] – Luke explains that they pulled a lot of concepts from AGILE and Lean methodologies which are the backbone for Growth Driven Design.  In GDD, the users are telling you through their data how to build your website in a more impactful way.
  • [20:10] – Luke says that there are 2 phases on GDD. First is ‘Harvest period’ right after you launch the site. Another one is ‘Continuous Improvement’.
[spp-tweet tweet=”@SavvyLuke: Growth Driven Design is a user driven process where the users are telling us what to build”]
  • [23:20] – Luke explains more about about the ‘Website Hierarchy’.  It’s about focusing on doing one thing really well in a particular order.
  • [24:41] – The first step is ‘Audience’  – are we getting enough unique new people coming to our website?
  • [25:38] – The second step is ‘Value’ – are the people coming to the site finding the contents valuable?
  • [26:20] – The third step is ‘Usability’ – are they finding that value as quick as possible?
  • [26:43] – The fourth step is ‘Conversion Rate Optimization’ – look at paths that users go through and try to streamline the funnel and make it as easy as possible.
  • [28:22] – The fifth step is ‘Stickiness’ – How do we get them coming back to the site all the time?
  • [28:40] – The sixth step is ‘Personalization’ – How do we personalize the experience so that we can start tailoring Value, Usability, Conversion Rate Optimization to your specific audience?
  •  [28:55] – The seventh step is ‘Assets’ – Could you build something on the site that people will be so excited and they will be willing to pay money for but you offer for free?
  •  [30:00] – The last step is ‘Promoters’ – How can you get them to bring their co-workers, friends, etc to your website?
[spp-tweet tweet=”@SavvyLuke: We want to accept that there is no such thing as perfect. Get something out there”]
  • [36:00] – Samantha asks for what tools can be used for gathering data. Luke says that the tools will depend on what questions do you want to answer, who you’re asking, and time frame.
  • [42:00] – Samantha shares the story of Growth Driven Design applied based on a site called Travelling Frogs
  • [45:00] – Luke reiterates that Growth Driven Design is a user driven process where the users are telling us what to build.
  • [49:15] – Growth Driven Design can be used on any CMS eg. WordPress, however there are benefits to using HubSpot with the methodology.
  • [50:25] – To find out more, Luke created 2 courses for Growth Driven Design (see the Resources section below).

Parting piece of guidance

      • “My mantra this year is to simplify and do less things better.”

3 Key Points:

      1. Growth Driven Design is a user driven process where the users are telling us what to build unlike traditional web design where it’s created based on assumptions.
      2. Don’t build in a silo.  Build a launchpad website and let the data and users .
      3. Websites are your number 1 marketing asset.

Resources Mentioned:

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