Unlocking Growth Building a sustainable growth engine with the new rules of marketing.

“Most startups don’t fail at building a product. They fail at acquiring customers.”

– Gabriel Weinberg

Startup Growth Pyramid

Growth

Stacking the Odds

Product/Market Fit

Source: Sean Ellis

Growth

Stacking the Odds

Product/Market Fit

Source: Sean Ellis

Get to Product Market Fit First

What is Product/Market Fit? A large group wants/needs your product – it’s a ‘must have’.

“Focus obsessively on getting to product/market fit.”

– Mark Andreessen

Do you have PMF? Ask “How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?”

Source: Sean Ellis

“Very Disappointed” 0 – 25%

26 – 39%

40 – 100%

Keep burn low, engage, iterate

Try repositioning, retargeting

Proceed up pyramid

After PMF, transition to

growth

Growth

Stacking the Odds

Product/Market Fit

Source: Sean Ellis

Race to scale Instrument your product Activate users Increase exposure—the race to scale

Instrument your product Source data (referral source in user record) Event & cohorts Conversion rates Engagement/retention Lifetime value

Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue Referral

Find your metric that matters “x people did x searches in past week” “y people visited my site x times last month” “z users send n messages via my app each day”

Source: Josh Elman

Build a Value Delivery Engine

Build a must-have product Understand must-have experience (MHX) Calibrate hook & promise messaging Optimize flows to deliver MHX

Must-Have experience

Hook/ Promise

Source: Sean Ellis

Steps for value delivery engine

Understand MHX

Macro  Optimization

Segment/Personalize

Optimize Value Delivery Engine

Successful optimization process Funnel

Analytics

Insights Test Variations

Max % that reach MH experience Build desire, reduce friction

Must-Have experience

Hook/ Promise Goals

Desire – Friction = Conversion Rate

Source: Sean Ellis

PIE test prioritization Potential Importance Ease

Source: Wider Funnel

A/B test combos Messaging Flows

Hooks based on intent/pain Promise based on MHX Clear description of solution

Flows that reduce friction Flows that frontload MHX

Language market fit What is this thing you’ve built to your users?

Store your photos Share your photos

Find a date Help people find a date

Developing promise statements Focus on a single benefit for each Limit to about 10 words Write wildly different statements

Segment/personalize last Default to macro first, then segment At a minimum manage active vs. inactive Develop programs to manage full lifecycle

Growth

Stacking the Odds

Product/Market Fit

Driving Growth is Last Step

Source: Sean Ellis

Four Types of Growth

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

180000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Topline

Activated

Retained

Monetized

Source: James Currier

“Growth is about taking your product and optimizing it to create compound interest.

There are very few (if any) silver bullets when it comes to growth.”

– Andy Johns

Why Growth Hacking?

$0

$20

$40

$60

$80

$100

$120

$140

$160

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

US Online Ad Spend per User

“Growth hacking: A cool-sounding euphemism for making the doer feel good about using the

same old sleazy marketing tricks.” – David Heinemeier Hansen

“Growth hacking is a recognition that when you focus on understanding your users and how they discover and adopt your products, you can build features that help you acquire and retain more users, rather than

just spending marketing dollars.” – Josh Elman

Don’t delegate growth to a ‘hacker’ Original vision on customer need Don’t abdicate fate to a marketer Growth as an organizational priority

Growth = fx (Probability of Success, Impact, Resources Required)

Source: Brian Balfour

Right marketing mix for you? What are you optimizing for? (Learning, volume, cost) What are your constraints? (Time, money, audience, legal)

Source: Brian Balfour

New User Channels

Email Facebook Twitter

Pinterest Craigslist Google+

iOS Android

Blog widget

Google SEO

Tumblr Twitter WOM

Press

Appstore Featured

TV Apps

Mobile ads

Web ads

Online video

TV ads

Radio ads

SEM

Affiliates

Viral Paid

WOM Source: James Currier

Categories of growth hacks Platform integrations Powered by Instrumented virality Data-driven hacks Igniting word of mouth

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Viral Channel Effectiveness

WOM Email

MySpace

Facebook

Craigslist

Twitter

iOS

Android

James Currier

Growth

Stacking the Odds

Product/Market Fit

Build Growth on a Solid Foundation

Source: Sean Ellis

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