Revenue growth has slowed from 8% to 2% per month over two quarters. How would you find out why and what to do?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Break revenue into components: new, expansion, contraction, churn
- Analyse funnel and cohorts by segment and channel
- Check external factors: market, competitors, seasonality
- Talk to customers, lost deals and churned users
- Prioritise the biggest levers and test fixes
Model answer
I would start by decomposing revenue growth into new customer revenue, expansion, contraction and churn, because each points to a different problem. Then I dig into the weakest component. If new revenue fell, I look at the acquisition funnel by channel and segment: traffic, trial starts, activation and conversion, and whether a channel such as paid search got more expensive. If churn or contraction rose, I look at cohorts, product usage and reasons for cancellation. I check external factors: a new competitor, pricing changes, economic conditions or market saturation in our core segment. Data shows where, so I also talk to recently churned customers, lost prospects and sales to learn why. I then list hypotheses, size them, prioritise the biggest levers and run focused experiments, reporting progress to leadership.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed hard round and get scored on every answer.
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