The Growth Lab Team (GLT)
The Growth Lab Team (GLT) is the cross-functional team inside the company that owns the 2Y3X Roadmap. It is the locus of company change during the 2Y3X programme.
Who is in it
Three to seven people. Felix's specific recommendation:
- The founder or CEO. Always.
- The head of the largest revenue-generating function (usually client services or delivery).
- The head of new business or sales.
- The head of operations or finance.
- One or two rising stars from outside the existing leadership team.
The GLT is intentionally not the same as the existing leadership team. It is picked for change-making capacity. Some senior people make excellent operators but indifferent change-makers, and vice versa.
What it does
- Owns the Strategy Map as a living artefact, reviewed annually.
- Owns the 2Y3X Roadmap as a living artefact, reviewed quarterly.
- Allocates each task to a single accountable owner.
- Meets weekly for one hour to review progress, surface blockers and re-allocate as needed.
- Runs a monthly progress update with training.
- Runs the quarterly Roadmap forward-planning session (one day).
The weekly check-in
The weekly check-in is the heartbeat of the programme. Standard agenda:
- Round-the-room status on each in-flight task.
- Cross-segment dependencies that need attention.
- Blockers needing decisions or resource.
- Brief tactical commitments for the coming week.
Felix is clear that the weekly check-in is one hour, not three. If it is running long, that is a signal that the tasks are too vaguely defined or the ownership is unclear.
How tasks land back in the business
The GLT designs a process; it does not own the process forever. Once a Roadmap task moves through Implement, ownership is handed off to the head of the relevant department (head of sales for the weighted pipeline; HR director for the hiring process; head of IT for a CRM rollout). That head then owns the process for ongoing improvement and reporting.
The risk: the Pied Piper
"I've had brilliant people who disagreed with my vision and leadership so violently that they became a 'Pied Piper', turning entire departments against the company's leadership." — Chapter 3
A GLT seat in the hands of someone whose values diverge from the company's direction is the single most dangerous appointment a founder can make. The GLT is the team that will shape the next version of the company; the people in it have to be the people you want shaping it.