I get it, your absolutely right - there is an opportunistic crowd already exploiting the term, which is a good one.
On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 3:07 PM, D Keith Casey Jr <keith@caseysoftware.com> wrote:
(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.comTo post, send email to washington-dcphp-group@__googlegroups.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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