Re: [dcphp-dev] New Silicon valley trend: Growth hacker

You aren't kidding, I found a per minute consultation service online, with one of these guys (to his credit, he is an ex-successful startup guy) asking for $19 a minute.

Wasn't the true meaning of the term to include some tangible engineering?  Does that 1.2k per hour include some code?

Even if you did get to hire someone to write a social wrinkle into the fabric of the web in your favor, that is a far far cry from a good strategic web design firm who helps you pivot your business as you learn, reposition as needed and grow stable.  These people have no vestment in your survival if a consultant unlike the web firm.  If you pay me for a stampede and you can't wrangle them, I still get to point at the stampede and say I was effective.

In today's software world we can march as a whole a lot faster with scale and social equity, but there are no shortcuts to good business.  Each development cycle, each business feedback loop is an approximation to a stalwart business pattern sensitive to an ever changing market.

On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 2:12 PM, D Keith Casey Jr <keith@caseysoftware.com> wrote:

(I say this as myself, not on behalf of my employer.)

I'm in the thick of this one for a variety of reasons..

Unfortunately, the way "growth hacker" has been taken over by the marketing wonks has started to destroy the term. Yes, I see the irony in that.

The way it was originally defined was closer to applying scientific principles (think: Lean) to the marketing process.. rigorous A/B testing over guessing, hypotheses over guessing, and data over instinct. While those are all Good(tm), I think they leave out the key aspect that we're not hacking the Gibson.. we're interacting with the human mind.


What this means to me personally is understanding how the human mind works, how a given market looks at the world, and how individuals' goals line up with my own or those I represent.

kc

On 04/11/2013 12:20 PM, Memo wrote:

I know of a few firms in the area that sell strategy with their PHP products
and services as a package deal.

Seems the latest trend in Silicon Valley is to couple engineering expertise
with marketing strategy resulting in:

The new beast - the "growth hacker".  Let the search engine be your guide.

This has created a whole new breed of engineers ready to consult with you to
provide unique opportunities to find a disruptive marketing techniques to
compensate for what they present as the law of "diminishing clicks".

For firms that don't just create websites but offer strategic consulting (such
as a few on this list), I think its time to prepare your understanding of this
trend and be prepared to demonstrate how you already think disruptively and
account for the "law of diminishing clicks" when it makes sense.

That said, uniquely acquiring volume spurts doesn't secure a product/service
with good usability, privacy, security, policies or retention strategies.
What is more is that every company pivots its services as it learns - trying
to hack growth I imagine negates a critical feedback loop if successful.
Without these things it just seems like a new way to burn investment money
potentially prematurely.

If you ask me, startups are their prey; the idea that even a ten percent
increase in success is worth the money, and I think for what it is worth it
may be a dangerous game.  I'd rather brainstorm with folks at SCORE working
with the SBA or someone with domain expertise before anyone else, but hey that
is me.

Any thoughts? Have I missed anything?  How do you feel about this?

--
~M

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~M

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