Hacking Growth
Building Growth Teams
At BitTorrent, they seem to have done some very meaningful experiments and bets with very little actual "tracking". they just asked their users.
p.33
Get a marketing specialist on the team
p.33
BitTorrent used the event of 'battery is at 35%' event to trigger an upgrade moment
p.34
Growth team wasn't some kind of VST in an existing structure. It lived outside of the VSTs
p.35
The Growth Lead
Seems like the description would naturally fall into a PM role, but does it have to be? p.37
"A strong Growth Lead keeps enthusiasm going while providing air cover for the team to be experimental and fial witout undue scruteny and pressure from management to deliver more wins"
p.38
Marketing Specialists
"Marketers can also be brought in for the stints of focusing on an aread of their expertise and then leave the growth team once the main goal is achieved" -p.41
But then dont you lose the benefit of them being part of the process for identifying the opportunities?
Data Analysts
You should have one on the team.
Yes we have them at the company, but not one a dedicated one that spendsd their time digging into that space
p.42
Dismiss the Lore
Is the product a must-have?
Cardinal Rules
Do not push for high growth until you know:
your product is a must-have
why it is a must-have
to whom it is a must-have
"But the hard truth is that no amount of marketing and advertising--no matter how clever-- can make people love a substandard product. If you havn't created and identified core value before you make your push, you'll either end up with illusary growth at best, or market rejection at worst."
p.60
This makes me think that the tiny, if any, upswing we had from all that Apple press is a bit of a red flag.
It should have done more, if we had a better product-market fit.
The Aha moment
How do you actually find those loved, but hidden features
"This is the moment that the utility of the product really clicks for the users; when the users really get the core value--what the product is for, why they need it and what benefit they derive from using it."
p.63
"Thus the key to knowing when it's time to start a high-tempo push for growth is simple: can you identify an aha moment that users love?"
p.64
No. I would say at TrainingPeaks, as of 2024-04-29, we cannot.
User interviews are a way of prospecting, then data mining is how you follow the vein
p.65
./_resources/Hacking_Growth.resources/Snapshot.1.jpg
The "must-have" survey
(Is your product a must-have for enough users)
how disappointed would you be if this product no longer existed tomorrow
Very disappointed
somewhat disappointed
Not disappointed
I no longer use it
What is the primary benefit you receive from (product)?
Have you recommended (product) to anyone?
No
Yes (please explain how you describe it)
What type of person do you think would benefit most from (product)
How can we improve (product) to better meet your needs?
Another survey
For dormant users that have come back:
Can you tell us why you signed up in the first place?
What didn't work for you?
What caused you to come back and try again?
What worked this time?
./_resources/Hacking_Growth.resources/Snapshot.png
p.71
"In many cases, improvement comes from what you rewove, not what you would add on."
p.71
"...less battle-tested changes such as substantial redesigns or building of new product features should be done only on the basis of a string hypothesis, formed through the analysis of user research and data"
p.79
Pivoting to the unexpected
"you often dont know what you're looking for until you find it"
p.82
How can we find that stuff on our own without a data person?
"[Burbn/Instagram] chopped everything out of [the app] except the photo, comment, and like features"
p.82
Driving to the AHA
"Once the conditions that create that magical experience have been identified, the growth team should turn it's attention to getting more customers to experience that moment as fast as possible"
p.84
"James Currier, a successful entreprenuer and growth expert-turned venture capitalist, suggests that one-third of a company's engineering time goes to getting the new user experience down just right. Twitter, facebook and Pinterest even treat these new user experiences as different products from their main product offering."
p.85-86
2. Identifying your Growth Levers
Everpix failing to leverage the enthusiasm of their early adopters to drive faster growth
Hacking your Growth Strategy
"Speed of testing alone isn't the goal; scattershot experimentation is a sure way to waste time and effort, and that's true even if you're testing at a high tempo"
p.89
The metrics that matter
What is your growth equation?
Inman News:
(Website Traffic X Email Conversion Rate X Active User Rate X Conversion to Paid Subscriber)
+ Retained Subscribers
+ Resurrected Subscribers
= Subscriber Revenue Growth
eBay
Number of Sellers Listing Items
X Number of Listed Items
X Number of Buyers
X number of Successful Transactions
= Gross Merchendise Volume Growth
Amazon
Vertical Expansion
X Product Inventory per Vertical
X Traffic Per Product Page
X Conversion to Purchase
X Average Purchase Value
X Repeat Purchase Behavior
= Revenue Growth
"You want to track at a minimum , the metrics for each of the steps a user must take to reach the aha moment and how often they are taking those steps"
p.93
Driving to The Aha
"Once the conditions that create that magical experience have been identified, the growth team should turn it's attention to
"A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." - General Patton
p. 99
Cohorts & Correlations
cohort analysis
divide up your customers into distinctive groups by a common traitCorrelation Analysis
After breaking them up, find for what is common among them.
Twitter and the golden ratio
Twitter not only found that 30 follows was correlated with higher retention, they also found that there as an ideal ratio of followers to following.
1 to 3
If they were following more than 1/3, it just felt like a news site
If more than 1/3 were following them, then it felt like any other social media platform.
3. Testing at High Tempo
Baylor's no-huddle offense
"The companies that grow the fastest are the ones that learn the fastest"
> "While we understand why [running a test longer] is tempting, when results are inconclusive, the best course is to stick with the original, or control version. That's because even though the results may be inconclusive, the new variant could actually be a loser in the long term, a potentially costly risk. Think of it this way: in case of a tie, the win should go to the control."
p.131-132
Tie goes to the control
P.131
5 Hacking acquisition
Language/market fit
P.143
6. Hacking activation
98% of traffic does NOT lead to conversion and 80% of app users never return
Why do we still not know our AHA moment!!!??
define what the steps are in the user journey that get then to that aha moment
Never assume you understand the reading behind customers behavior
Once you have identified the path, the stumbling blocks in the way
Create a funnel report of conversions and drop offs
We spend a lot of time thinking of our traffic as either web or mobile users, but maybe you should start thinking of them as part of the same user journey.
Analyze the quantitative data
confirm with the qualitative data
Use this to create growth ideas
p. 176