The Reality of Growth Hacking: Bridging the Gap Between Testing and Cross-Functional Collaboration

As Sean Ellis, author of Hacking Growth, I've learned that most companies fail to achieve growth hacking due to a lack of cross-functional collaboration and experimentation, not a dearth of ideas or hypotheses.

1. Many companies fail at growth hacking due to various reasons.
2. The primary reason is that most tests are run by marketing teams, while product team involvement can significantly improve results.
3. Growth hacking focuses on optimizing all stages of the customer journey, from acquisition to monetization, not just awareness or marketing.
4. Cross-functional collaboration is essential for successful growth hacking; companies often struggle with this as they grow and become more specialized.
5. Testing and analyzing different growth levers can help improve customer acquisition, activation, retention, and monetization.
6. Activation is a crucial step, as it significantly impacts retention and engagement. A great first experience for users is key to successful growth hacking.
7. Growth hackers often find ways to simplify confusing aspects of a product or service, improving the overall user experience.
8. Running a high volume of experiments is essential for growth hacking success; not every test will be successful, but learning from each test is important.
9. The best growth hacks are not tricks but rather improvements in the customer experience that lead to increased engagement and retention.
10. Understanding product-market fit is crucial before focusing on growth hacking; it's essential to know what benefits users love about your product.
11. To determine if you have product-market fit, ask users how they would feel if they could no longer use your product; a significant portion should express disappointment.
12. Retention cohorts are another way to measure product-market fit by tracking user retention over time.
13. Growth hacking requires humility and a willingness to learn from failures, fostering a culture of curiosity rather than arrogance.
14. Successful growth hackers look for companies with signs of product-market fit but no growth yet, allowing them to join at an opportune time.
15. Testing and analyzing various growth levers can help improve customer acquisition, activation, retention, and monetization.
16. The growth hacking process involves analysis, generating ideas, prioritizing tests, running tests, and analyzing results in a continuous cycle.

Source: EO via YouTube

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