What Does the Head of Growth Actually Do?

The real job at $1M, $10M, and $100M ARR

The title Head of Growth shows up everywhere.

But depending on your environment…

Early startups.
Mid-stage scale-ups.
Late-stage, well-funded businesses.

It’s a completely different job.

This is why the role turns over so often.

And why so many smart, capable growth leaders end up frustrated, burned out, or quietly pushed out.

Most people apply for Head of Growth roles without really understanding what they’re signing up for.

And most founders hire for the title they want - not the work they actually need done.

So in this post, I’ll do my best to clear this up, based on my experience leading growth at Wistia and Postscript - and coaching 85+ other growth leaders.

Here’s what the Head of Growth actually does at:

• $1M ARR

• $10M ARR

• $100M ARR

And why getting this wrong can stall, or even derail, your career.

First: Why “Head of Growth” Is a Tricky Title

On paper, the role sounds simple.

Drive growth.
Run experiments.
Build systems.
Scale the business.

But growth isn’t a fixed function. It changes as the company changes.

What a company needs from growth at $1M ARR is nothing like what it needs at $100M ARR.

If you operate like a $100M growth leader inside a $1M company, you’ll fail fast.

If you operate like a scrappy early-stage builder inside a $100M company, you’ll stall just as quickly.

Stage matters more than title.

Let’s break it down.

Head of Growth at $1M ARR: You’re a Builder, Not a Leader

Here’s the part most founders don’t want to hear:

At $1M ARR, you don’t really need a Head of Growth.

What you need is someone who can do growth work.

Because at this stage, the company is still figuring out:

• Do we even have a real business?

• Who are our best customers?

• Why do people sign up - and why don’t they?

• Which acquisition channels might work?

• Is our early data actually meaningful?

You’re not ready to scale, because you’re still building the foundations.

What the Job Actually Is

Despite the title, this is an individual contributor role.

There’s almost nothing to “lead” or be “head of” yet:

• Tiny team

• Founders deeply involved

• No reliable testing volume

• No real systems to scale

• Limited access to data

The job is about shipping, learning, and iterating - fast.

How Your Time Is Spent

A strong growth leader at $1M ARR usually spends:

• ~80% shipping scrappy, unscalable programs, projects, bets, and (maybe some) experiments

• ~10% talking to customers

• ~10% helping wherever needed

This is not a dashboard job.
It’s not meeting-heavy.
And it’s definitely not a systems-design role.

What Success Looks Like

Success here doesn’t mean “scaling growth.”

It means:

• Learning why users buy

• Identifying 1–2 acquisition channels that might scale

• Understanding friction in activation and conversion

• Moving fast without overthinking polish

Who Thrives at This Stage

• Scrappy generalists

• Builders who like chaos

• People comfortable without clear answers

• Strong ICs with range across marketing, UX, copy, and analytics

Why This Role Fails So Often

Most failures at this stage come down to misalignment:

• Hiring a senior leader when you need a builder

• Expecting systems before the growth model exists

• Spreading effort across too many channels

• Optimizing for polish instead of speed

The title says Head of Growth.
But the job is really elastic generalist.

(by the way, if this feels familiar: I put together a free Growth Leadership Toolkit that breaks down the systems I teach at each stage - from early discovery to scaling teams. You can grab it here.)

Head of Growth at $10M ARR: The Player-Coach Phase

Once a company hits roughly $7–12M ARR, things finally start to click.

Now you:

• Have real customers

• Have meaningful volume

• Know what’s working (at least a little)

• Can start to scale intentionally

This is where the real Head of Growth role begins.

The Big Shift

The job moves from figuring out what works to making it work better.

Your focus becomes:

• Turning scrappy wins into repeatable processes

• Strengthening activation, retention, and monetization

• Building a growth operating system

• Creating leverage through people and process

Leadership Persona

This is the classic player-coach stage.

Typically, you have:

• A small team (2–5 people)

• Some engineering and design support

• A real (but still constrained) budget

• Enough volume to test with confidence

How Your Time Is Spent

A common breakdown looks like:

• ~50% execution (you’re still running experiments)

• ~20% strategy and planning

• ~20% cross-functional collaboration

• ~10% people leadership

You’re still doing the work.
But you’re also starting to lead your growth team.

What Success Looks Like

• Predictable output from 1–2 core acquisition channels

• Early definitions of new user activation and “good” usage

• A reliable a/b testing cadence

• Early forecasting confidence

• Less chaos, more focus

Skills That Start to Matter

This is where systems thinking becomes non-negotiable:

• Prioritization frameworks

• Roadmapping and sequencing

• Documented decision-making

• Clear KPIs and ownership

• Strong cross-functional communication

You’re probably still the best IC on the team.
But your leverage now comes from designing the machine - not being the machine.

Where People Get Stuck

Common breakdowns at this stage:

• Trying to do everything yourself

• Avoiding process in the name of speed

• Running too many experiments at once

• Struggling to align product and engineering

• Lacking a clear strategic narrative

This stage is the proving ground.

It determines whether you grow into a VP-level leader - or get someone hired above you.

This is the stage where most growth leaders get stuck.

(and if that’s you, take a peek at my Growth OS program which is designed to solve this exact challenge)

Head of Growth at $100M ARR: Executive, Not Operator

At $100M ARR, the job changes again - and this is where many growth leaders hit a ceiling.

You are no longer managing experiments and the day to day.

You are managing the growth model and the growth capability.

The Core Shift

This is no longer a “growth tactics” role.

It’s an executive and leadership role.

Your focus shifts to:

• Forecast accuracy

• Annual and quarterly planning

• Cross-functional alignment

• Resource allocation

• Organizational design

What the Team Looks Like

At this stage, you usually have:

• Multiple growth pods

• Dedicated product growth and growth marketing teams

• Embedded design, BI, and engineering

• Real budgets and real expectations

How Your Time Is Spent

A typical breakdown:

• ~50% leadership alignment and decision-making

• ~30% strategic planning and modeling

• ~20% people management

If you’re still doing meaningful IC work here, something’s off:

• The team

• The systems

• Or both

What Success Looks Like

• Accurate forecasting

• Improving LTV:CAC ratios

• Scaling without losing efficiency

• Strong cross-functional trust

• Clear strategies executives can repeat

Skills That Actually Matter Now

This is where the job stops being about growth tactics.

The real differentiators are:

• Executive communication

• Strategic clarity

• Judgment under pressure

• Coaching and delegation

• Translating complexity for non-growth audiences

Growth becomes your second team.

The executive team becomes your first team.

Why People Stall Here

The most common reasons:

• Poor communication

• Missed forecasts

• Hanging onto “hero” habits from earlier stages

• Inability to scale through others

The leaders who thrive here are calm, structured, high-judgment system designers.

Same Title. Completely Different Jobs.

At:

• $1M ARR → You’re a builder

• $10M ARR → You’re a player-coach

• $100M ARR → You’re an executive system designer

The title doesn’t change.
The job does.

If you align your skills to the stage, your career can accelerate faster than almost any role in tech.

If you don’t, you’ll probably be job-hunting within a few months.

If you’re in the middle of one of these transitions - or feel like your role expectations don’t match your company’s stage - this is exactly the work I do with growth leaders. I coach Directors, VPs, and Heads of Growth to increase clarity, influence, and impact without burning out.

You can learn more about working together here.

…

(this post originally published on deliveringvalue.co)