Quality-Growth Seesaw
Balance acquisition with a downstream signal that proves customers succeed
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The Quality-Growth Seesaw pairs a top-line growth measure with a downstream signal that shows whether the acquired customer or supply actually succeeded. Start with the metric a team is naturally tempted to maximize, such as shops opened, bookings, or revenue. Then identify the earliest credible proof of delivered value, such as a seller's first sale or a guest's positive review. Track both sides together and treat deterioration in the quality measure as a cost of growth, not an unrelated issue. The team may deliberately add friction, coaching, or standards when those interventions improve downstream success. Make the balance visible in cross-functional meetings and reinforce it through direct product use, so product and operations share responsibility for closing quality gaps.
Origin
Skarstad described Airbnb Experiences using review rate as a balancing quality metric alongside bookings and revenue. At Etsy, her onboarding team opened more shops but hurt sellers' time to first sale, then added friction so new sellers became successful faster.
Core principles
- 01Growth without customer success creates hollow supply or demand
- 02A downstream quality metric can counterbalance an immediate conversion metric
- 03The best quality signal reflects whether the customer received the promised value
- 04Improving long-term success may require adding short-term friction
- 05Quality becomes operational when every function reviews and acts on it
How to run it
- 1
Name the growth pressure
Identify the top-line number the team is likely to optimize, such as activated accounts, new listings, bookings, or revenue. Make the incentive explicit before choosing a counterweight.
Pro tip Choose the measure that currently drives roadmap and performance discussions, not a vanity metric nobody acts on.
- 2
Find proof of customer success
Select a downstream event that indicates the customer received real value. Prefer an observable outcome such as a first sale or a strong post-experience review over an internal activity count.
Pro tip Ask what would make a new customer believe the product is working for them.
Watch out Do not assume completing onboarding means the customer became successful.
- 3
Run the metrics as a pair
Review the growth and quality signals together and investigate when one improves at the expense of the other. Aim for a sustainable equilibrium rather than maximizing either side in isolation.
Pro tip Segment the downstream result by cohort so a recent growth change cannot hide inside an aggregate average.
Watch out A growth win can damage the marketplace if low-quality supply or disappointed customers accumulate.
- 4
Intervene across the system
Use product changes, education, coaching, or standards to improve the quality outcome. Add thoughtful friction when rushing customers through the funnel makes them less likely to succeed.
Pro tip Treat operations and product as joint owners when the delivered experience extends beyond the interface.
Watch out Removing every point of friction can improve conversion while worsening the result customers actually care about.
- 5
Experience the failure firsthand
Dogfood the product and bring concrete failures back to the team. Use the firsthand experience to sharpen standards and motivate fixes without replacing the measured quality signal.
Pro tip Give autonomous teams direct exposure to weak experiences so they can own the response.
In the wild
Skarstad's team initially optimized for opening many seller shops quickly. Shop openings rose, but downstream success fell because new sellers did not reach a first sale soon enough. The team slowed onboarding and made sellers more thoughtful about what they listed, improving their speed to a first sale.
→ Added friction produced fewer hollow activations and helped sellers receive an early signal that their business could work.
The Experiences team cared about bookings and revenue but used review rate as its top quality signal. Product and operations discussed the standard, coached hosts who missed it, and regularly took Experiences themselves to discover where the live event failed.
→ Growth remained connected to the quality of the event guests experienced after booking.
Common mistakes
Counting activation as success
A completed onboarding flow or new listing can exist without delivering any value to the participant or marketplace.
Optimizing away useful friction
Making every flow faster can remove the reflection or preparation customers need to succeed downstream.
Leaving quality to one function
When quality lives only in product analytics, operational coaching and the real-world customer experience can remain disconnected.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product teams whose acquisition, onboarding, or supply metrics can rise while the real customer outcome gets worse.
Not ideal for
Products that cannot yet observe a meaningful downstream success event or receive enough usage to interpret one.
From the episode
Nickey Skarstad (Airbnb, Etsy, Shopify, Duolingo) on translating vision into goals, operationalizing product quality, second-order decisions, brainstorming, influence, and much more