(Once again, I'm say this as myself, not on behalf of my employer. Sorry for
the disclaimer but a good portion of the things that come into play here are
my job and my former boss was one of the people who coined the term.. so this
is a little close to home.)
It's less about web pages and more about asking the right questions,
collecting the data to answer those questions, adjusting as you learn more,
and repeating. Obviously that includes A/B testing, but the front end is just
the easiest place to see this.
To give you a tangible example.. we have two options:
a) I tell you about Twilio; OR
b) A live-coding Twilio demo:
http://readwrite.com/2010/08/05/perfect-pitch-twilios-john-bri
Which is more interesting? Which is more descriptive? Which is more inspiring?
Which gives you a better explanation of how things work?
But the questions "growth hackers" would be a little different *and* should be
backed up by hard data:
- Did this generate signups? How soon after the event? What about longer term?
Does this video have staying power?
- Did this generate upgrades? How soon after the event? How long had they been
users? What had they done as users before upgrading?
- After upgrade, did they actually use the system? How much? How often? Which
products? What technologies?
My 0.02.
On 04/11/2013 01:50 PM, Memo wrote:
> 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
> <mailto: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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>
>
> --
> D. Keith Casey, Jr.
> http://CaseySoftware.com
>
>
>
>
> --
> ~M
--
D. Keith Casey, Jr.
http://CaseySoftware.com
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