Growth in your country (then anywhere else) 1: Setting the right mindset is the foundation

Our founder Doan Kieu My (Kimiko) was honored to be the keynote speaker at Quest for Growth — Vietnam Global Innovation hosted by Quest Ventures. She shared her thoughts on the topic “Growth hacking in Vietnam and Southeast Asia” — how to build relations in new markets, achieve real product-market fit & create a strong brand to drive business growth.

The very first step is setting the right mindset as the foundation to grow. From Kimiko’s point of view, there are 10 questions as the blueprint to make sure every member of your team has the whole same picture.

1. What is the utmost purpose of your business?

Profit — of course, we all need money for our stakeholders, but then is this the highest priority for your company? Or is it the Lifestyle — the mission and the vision for the team? Which type of business are you? The Legacy one — you are a family business and you want to build it as the incremental value; the Momentum type with a clear goal to sell it within 3 years; or Authority type — a media business, to build a strong share of voice first, then create other different businesses from it.

2. Do you update your one-page Lean Canvas?

The north star metric for every business!

Hint: Lean Canvas is a 1-page business plan template created by Ash Maurya that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions. It replaces elaborate business plans with a single page business model.

3. What is your one-sentence positioning?

For example, YellowBlocks is the trusted Vietnam tech gateway to provide local insights, premiere networks, and business / marketing / tech strategies for leading companies in emerging tech.

4. Why do you want Growth? What does growth mean to you?

Look back on your one-page Lean Canvas to find an answer and stick to it!

For example, with Airbnb, the number of users is not as important as the number of quality/ nice bookings. The growth for them is to increase the number of nice bookings.

5. What are you willing to sacrifice?

Time, Money, or Opportunities?

Ask the hard question and make a hard decision. In every opportunity for growth, something is gained and something else is lost.

6. Describe Alice and Bob

“Who is your targeted customer? I think it’s the most important question that most startups will overlook which is also the most valuable aspect I have learned from the FMCG days.

They have a detailed description of Alice and Bob.” — said Kimiko.

Since the clear map you have of Alice and Bob, you will know where you can find Alice and Bob and also what their Touchpoints & Customer Journey are.

7. What can you learn from your success and failure in your market?

There is a saying that relates to this concept ‘If you can’t succeed in your own house, you can’t do big things in the society’. Try to convince Alice and Bob in your market, first.

8. How are Alice and Bob different when they are in Vietnam?

Seek the answers from others — your partners, your clients, your core team members, and the most important ones — the locals.

From 5–10 different points of view, you can draw out the map where to catch Alice and Bob in Vietnam.

9. Who can you partner with?

All startups need the right partnerships and ecosystems to survive.

Prioritize who you should partner with — the importance to choose opportunities wisely to stay focused on current company goals.

10. From all of the above, now you can Set the Focus / OKRs and Experiment list for the next 6 months in Vietnam.

To conclude, there is a friendly reminder: Make sure you have everything in one document and share it with members of your team!

🌟 About YellowBlocks

YellowBlocks is the trusted Vietnam tech gateway to provide local insights, premiere networks, and business / marketing / tech strategies for leading companies in emerging tech (ABCD — AI/ML/Robotics, Blockchain, Cloud, Data).

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