Growth hacking is bullshit

Step 1: Build a product. Step 2: Release a product. Step 3: Growth Hack your way to success. It all smells too strongly of a “get rich quick” scheme.

“A startup is a company designed to grow fast.” – Paul Graham

Defining “growth”

I’ve come to believe real growth comes from somewhere deeper than Growth Hacking.

Growth hacking vs. micro metrics, micro definitions, micro efforts

At the highest-level, these micro definitions can cause teams to overlook the most fundamental of issues: is your product solving a real problem? The foundation of all growth is product

When a product team releases a new feature, they don’t expect to see overnight impact on signups or revenue. marketing team starts a new demand generation campaign – immediate or near-immediate results are expected. The only difference is the period in which results can be measured – both are working on growth.

A billion dollar company was never built off better button colors.

Growth hacking dissuades a holistic approach

This achieves two things:

  • It recognizes that your product is a system of metrics, highlighting that focus on any metric in isolation is incorrect.
  • By recognizing and forcing focus on the system, it encourages a more holistic approach to growth.

that have helped us focus on the bigger picture and solving core problems related to growth:

  1. Are you describing your product in the same language and terms that prospective customers are using to articulate their problems? If questions are where answers fit, this is critical to prospective customers finding a place for your product in their head.
  2. When did you last signup for your product? Does anyone in your company own the signup flows?
  3. How do you teach customers about your product? Are you helping them towards success in solving their problems?

Growth hacking implies silver bullets. Real growth is product.

Growth Hacking is the continual promise of silver bullets: red buttons increase signups 80%, headlines with font sizes of “33px” increase revenue 30%, cutting prices decreases churn 27%.

growth doesn’t come from silver bullets, growth comes from winning a thousand tiny battles: 0.5% here, 1% there. Real growth needs a whole load of lead bullets.