Founders waste time seeking tactical solutions for growth plateaus. The real breakthrough comes from correctly diagnosing the root cause. Once the specific reason for the plateau is identified—of which there are only a handful—the necessary actions become clear.

As articulated by Eric Ries in 'The Lean Startup,' raw speed of shipping is meaningless if you're building in the wrong direction. The true measure of progress is how quickly a team can validate assumptions and learn what customers want, which prevents costly rework.

When business metrics are flat, motivation can be sustained by chipping away at a genuinely hard technical problem that the founder finds satisfying. Tela's team stayed motivated during slow years by focusing on solving difficult rendering bugs, a challenge they were passionate about, which ultimately unlocked growth.

A perfectly clean GTM process at a startup is a red flag indicating over-engineering and a lack of real-world traction. True growth creates chaos and pain points ("dumpster fires"). RevOps should let these constraints emerge naturally before attempting to solve them, avoiding premature optimization.

Founders often seek a silver-bullet growth strategy. The most effective approach is tactical and relentless: identify every small point of friction in your product and funnel, fix them, and repeat the cycle. This operational excellence *is* the strategy.

Figma's CEO Dylan Field now realizes that a user sending a 14-page feedback document after a buggy, non-performant product demo was an unmistakable sign of strong demand. Intense engagement with a flawed product indicates a deep user need that founders should act on decisively.

Figma learned that removing issues preventing users from adopting the product was as important as adding new features. They systematically tackled these blockers—often table stakes features—and saw a direct, measurable improvement in retention and activation after fixing each one.

Founders often over-index on early user complaints. However, if a product addresses a powerful, unmet demand, users will endure significant flaws. The existence of strong market "pull" is a more important signal than initial product imperfections. The market will effectively fund the product's improvement.

Mature software products often accumulate unnecessary features that increase complexity. The Bending Spoons playbook involves ruthless simplification: eliminating tangential projects and refocusing R&D exclusively on what power users "painfully needed." This leads to a better, more resilient product with a lower cost base.