Project Background

Pulse is a B2B SaaS startup that sells workflow software to small businesses. Growth has slowed for two consecutive quarters, and the founder has asked for a single-slide recommendation on what growth initiative the company should prioritize next quarter. You are the program manager coordinating product, growth, sales, and data inputs to turn a broad idea into an executable recommendation.

Key Stakeholders

The founder wants a crisp answer with a clear decision, not a long strategy deck. The Head of Growth wants to prioritize self-serve onboarding improvements, while the VP of Sales wants more budget and engineering support for outbound lead tools. The Head of Product is concerned about disrupting the current roadmap, and the Finance lead needs confidence that any recommendation can fit within the approved quarterly spend.

Constraints

• You have 5 business days to prepare the recommendation for the Monday leadership review.
• You can use only 1 slide or less, plus speaker notes if needed.
• The company has $120K of unallocated quarterly budget and 6 engineering weeks available this quarter.
• The growth team has data from the last 2 quarters, but attribution is incomplete for roughly 18% of new signups.
• Any proposed initiative must show a credible path to impact within 90 days.

Complications

1. The founder has already mentioned in passing that referrals "feel underinvested," creating potential bias before the review.
2. Sales has promised investors that enterprise pipeline will improve next quarter, increasing pressure to support outbound initiatives.
3. Data quality issues make it hard to compare paid, referral, and onboarding initiatives with full confidence.

Your Task

1. Define the process you would use to arrive at a single growth recommendation under these constraints.
2. Outline the one-slide structure, including what decision, evidence, trade-offs, and ask you would include.
3. Propose a delivery plan for validating the recommendation and launching the chosen initiative within 90 days.
4. Identify the key risks, stakeholder conflicts, and how you would handle them before the founder review.
5. Specify the success criteria you would attach to the recommendation so leadership can evaluate progress objectively.