How to be a growth hacker • Hacker News Board

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#41

Post by freshhawk » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:26 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #35

freshhawk wrote: post #23

As software integrates into everything more deeply are we going to get childish names for every profession? Marketers are growth hackers, doctors will be health hackers, lawyers will be justice hackers? Then we can ensure that even when software is as fundamental to our society as law or transportation or materials engineering there will still be a nice sheen of hucksterism and bullshit on top. Good job software peop…

That means that technical marketers are not growth hackers, they are good marketers who are keeping up to date with what's needed to do their job. But it's more than that. A growth hacker invents hacks as a way to grow - clever, non obvious methods that drive adoption. Things like the Reddit sockpupperts, the Dropbox two-sided incentive system or the Yammer variation of the Freemium business model are all things wher…

It's called marketing, those are just new techniques. The goals are still the same, the things that work well are just changing a lot.

Remember the distinction a few years ago when marketers using the internet were called Internet Marketers? How many people in marketing don't touch the internet with any of their campaigns now? Now that's just called marketing.

It's perfectly fine to be interested in the new marketing techniques being developed, especially if you're the HN crowd. That's not what I'm saying.

You aren't understanding marketing if you can't see that "growth hacker" is a branding play. It's good to learn to recognize when marketing techniques are being used to appeal to your demographic if you want to get any skill at using it for yourself.

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#42

Post by akshxy » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:27 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #35

freshhawk wrote: post #23

As software integrates into everything more deeply are we going to get childish names for every profession? Marketers are growth hackers, doctors will be health hackers, lawyers will be justice hackers? Then we can ensure that even when software is as fundamental to our society as law or transportation or materials engineering there will still be a nice sheen of hucksterism and bullshit on top. Good job software peop…

That means that technical marketers are not growth hackers, they are good marketers who are keeping up to date with what's needed to do their job. But it's more than that. A growth hacker invents hacks as a way to grow - clever, non obvious methods that drive adoption. Things like the Reddit sockpupperts, the Dropbox two-sided incentive system or the Yammer variation of the Freemium business model are all things wher…

It's about obsession and love for growth, whether optimization or acquisition either by growth hackers or technical marketers.

Everything else is secondary.

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#43

Post by jfarmer » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:28 AM UTC

jfarmer wrote: post #37

orangethirty wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it has been around for a long time. Deal is that these people decide to build a business for themselves and not others. Counterexample? Dan Kennedy is a good and recent one (recent as in still alive). His partner, Bill Glazer, is also a good example.

No, growth hacking is something new. Or rather: "growth hacking" is a term people are using to describe a genuinely new phenomenon. You can trace this phenomenon back maybe 10-12 years, but there is something interesting happening -- interesting enough that people feel the need to coin a term to describe it. Andrew's example is a good one. AirBnb grew in part by piggy-backing off a pre-existing platform (Craigslist)…

It's not entirely new, no, but it's new like the iPhone was new. None of the component ideas in the iPhone were 100% new, but it wasn't possible to build one at a consumer price-point until certain preconditions, both technological and economic, were met.

I'd claim this: marketing more than most disciplines lives or dies by the state of communication technology. The best marketers in any generation know how to use that technology to their advantage.

But communication technology is radically different today than it was even 20 years ago, let alone 120 years ago when PT Barnum was alive. For one, it's more digital and more technological. It's also changing at an accelerating pace. 10 years ago neither Facebook nor YouTube existed. 6 years ago Twitter didn't. Tumblr, 5. Pinterest, 2. Instagram, 1.

Or, think of it this way (as a marketer might): the rate at which new marketing channels are being created is accelerating. We're talking channels that can potentially reach 1MM, 10MM, 100MM people sprouting afresh every year. That's not the world PT Barnum lived in.

Why is is so crazy to think that this new environment results in a new breed of marketer, more at home in bits and bytes than in creating hoaxes which spread through poorly fact-checked newspapers and traditional marketing "stunts?" And that therefore engineers -- the same people who are creating these new channels -- are perhaps best adapted to this new environment?

It's also presumptuous to think that growth hackers -- and I'd include myself in that lot -- aren't familiar with PT Barnum, David Ogilvy, Jack Trout, or other famous marketers.

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#44

Post by akshxy » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:29 AM UTC

spitfire wrote: post #25

dictum wrote: post #21

People who were around technology businesses in the 1990s, please illuminate me: wasn't it common for pretentious managers to adopt fancy job titles? (I may have read too much Dilbert.) This is really just marketing with a better knowledge of the technical possibilities. Do we really need a new job title?

Yup. Back then it was "guru", "evangelist", and "ninja" (perl ninja, etc).

Yes. People do resist change but it happens.

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#45

Post by akshxy » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:32 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #39

jfarmer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, growth hacking is something new. Or rather: "growth hacking" is a term people are using to describe a genuinely new phenomenon. You can trace this phenomenon back maybe 10-12 years, but there is something interesting happening -- interesting enough that people feel the need to coin a term to describe it. Andrew's example is a good one. AirBnb grew in part by piggy-backing off a pre-existing platform (Craigslist)…

It's absolutely not new. Read a biography of P.T. Barnum, if nothing else. It's like the old cliche that every generation thinks they're the ones that discovered sex.

Finding the right channel that will scale a startup is an experiment and a process.

If you knew what was going to scale your product, you would of done it by now.

Growth hackers do whatever it takes to find growth and that might require a range of skills for user awareness, acquisition, retention, engagement and resurrection.

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#46

Post by akshxy » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:34 AM UTC

true_religion wrote: post #22

akshxy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am yet to graduate as an engineer but I am damm good as a leader and passionate about growth hacking this is what defines me. I am learning rails, javascript these days and will be glad to get associated. That was my first ever submission to the Hacker News. Sorry i didn't get, what is that email??

Take each letter he wrote and subtract one.

Thank you :) It wasn't that difficult

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#47

Post by freshhawk » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:35 AM UTC

_gd3l wrote: post #20

The last thing the tech world needs is people walking around calling themselves "growth hackers". Actually, the last thing the tech world needs is stuff like this, from the article: If a startup is pre-product/market fit, growth hackers can make sure virality is embedded at the core of a product. After product/market fit, they can help run up the score on what’s already working. Stop making up "markets" and "niches",…

This attitude annoys the creative person in me as well, who loves writing software.

But you can't be mad at the business people moving in, optimizing the process because they got into the business because they saw an opportunity to make money.

I'm sure tv writers felt the same way about the first rise of infomercials and televangelists. Hucksterism works and it's good capitalism. And it always annoys the creative people who see themselves as artists or artisans.

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#48

Post by akshxy » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:39 AM UTC

nrmehta wrote: post #40

why-el wrote: post #16

I am a little confused by the wording of this. I usually think of a growth hacker as somebody who helps scale an app, like an Instagram engineer for instance. Is anybody else confused by the naming?

Good question. In the last few years, the term has been overloaded to talk about a new engineering-like approach to marketing and user acquisition. But the confusion is understandable. I personally think it's kind of cheesy but whatever works for people :)

Often confusion and anxiety is the best way to get early traction :)

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#49

Post by akshxy » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 5:41 AM UTC

ph0rque wrote: post #36

mattdeboard wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget top-notch geologists will be called "rock" stars.

And the rare geologist astronomer will be called a "rock" "star" I guess...

And soon "star" "trek"

Re: How to be a growth hacker

#50

Post by adamnemecek » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 6:03 AM UTC

This is kind of unrelated but has anyone bought this? http://www.appsumo.com/appsumo-growth-action-video . I'd prefer not to spend $80 to find out that it's full of cliches.