7 Growth Lessons from Silicon Valley - and why they don't call it "Growth Hacking"

Andy Young // @andyy // andyyoung.co
7 Growth Lessons
from Silicon Valley
and why they don’t call it “Growth Hacking”..
Andy Young
@andyy

Hi, I’m Andy!
@andyy
#fb
PhotobyDanTaylor-dan@heisenbergmedia.com

So what is this about
“Growth” anyways?

● Typically growing our active customer/user base
● Growing whatever drives value in our business
● Not necessarily growing revenue $$$
● Growing whatever’s most strategically important to
us right now
What do we mean by Growth?

So WTF is this
Growth Hacking thing?

Let’s talk about something REAL

Growth Hacking..? Technical Marketing..?
Call it what you want, teams at high-growth companies
are scaling to millions of users without major use of
traditional mass advertising/marketing techniques.

Some examples..

Engineering-driven Growth
AirBnB built on top of Craigslist

Product-driven
Growth
Dropbox succeeded with
a Referral Scheme

Viral Growth
Hotmail put
“P.s. I love you. Get your free email at Hotmail.”
in the footer of every email.

Companies are achieving scale in new ways:
● Modern, data-driven online marketing channels
● Growth channels embedded within the product
Common Theme

Companies are achieving scale in new ways:
● Modern, data-driven online marketing channels
● Growth channels embedded within the product
“The best startups grow super fast not because
of traditional marketing or online marketing, but
because they tune the product to drive growth”
- Casey Winters, Pinterest/Greylock
Common Theme

Growth
via the intersection of
Product, Marketing & Engineering

● SEO
● Content Marketing
● Performance Marketing (Paid search & display, retargeting)
● Conversion Optimisation (CRO) & A/B Testing
● User testing & UX
● Viral Loops
● Strategic Pricing
● …
The Growth Toolbox

What Growth is NOT

What Growth is NOT
There are loads of great tips and hacks out there
Subscribe to 500’s “DISTROSNACK” newsletter!
But following all these cool tips will not itself bring
success.

Things with big impact:
● Top of funnel
○ How to reach HUGE new audiences in a cost-effective way
● Middle of funnel
○ Attracting and drawing people deeper into engaging with you
● Bottom of funnel
○ Close to the $$$ - convert higher % and simply make more money!
Things that WILL make a difference

Growth Marketing is finding growth that is:
● Measurable
● Predictable
● Repeatable & Scalable
Growth is a mindset, and a process.
Growth Truths

7 Growth Lessons

#1 - nail down your
value proposition
& messaging

- 10,000 ft view exercise -
- bit.ly/10kftview -

What product/service, for which target market?
Why do our customers love us?
Why do they choose us over the competition?
How do we make money?
What is our primary way to get new customers?
Our business will become a huge, runaway success if…
During the next 3 months we need to focus on…
What ONE target do we want to hit?
10,000 ft view
bit.ly/10kftview

#2 - get Product/Market fit
before you try and grow

Early stage Growth stage
Goal Product/Market fit
Scalable, repeatable,
predictable growth
Metric Engagement Growth rate
Primary Data Qualitative Quantitative
Growth
Strategy
Hustle
Build a growth
machine

#3 - build a Model
to understand your business

bit.ly/kpi-sheet

Not an operational dashboard:
metrics related to growth
1. Identify top-level KPI
2. Add nuance
3. Add drivers
4. Add funnel for these drivers
Template Google Sheet: bit.ly/kpi-sheet

#4 - identify Levers
and prioritise your backlog

Levers:
things you can push
to get growth

Identify your
One Metric That Matters (OMTM)
to get everyone pushing
in the same direction

Prioritise using ICE
framework:
-Impact
-Chance of Success
-Effort (time/resources)

#5 - drive growth via
experimentation
and learnings

“Learning is the essential unit
of progress for startups”

Make predictions in advance!

#6 - it’s a Mindset

The world is constantly changing
(channel efficiency/effectiveness, etc)
Experimentation & learnings
Build a machine
Naturally curious
Motivated by helping the customer achieve their goals
Growth Mindset

#7 - maintain discipline with a
Weekly Growth Meeting

Agenda
1. Review KPIs
2. What did we learn last week?
3. What experiments are we running this week?
No work is to be done during the meeting!
Weekly Growth Meeting

BONUS #8
Talk to your users

User testing script - cheers Steve Krug!
www.sensible.com/downloads/test-script.pdf

7 Growth Lessons from Silicon Valley - and why they don't call it "Growth Hacking"

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to 7 Growth Lessons from Silicon Valley - and why they don't call it "Growth Hacking"

Similar to 7 Growth Lessons from Silicon Valley - and why they don't call it "Growth Hacking" (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

7 Growth Lessons from Silicon Valley - and why they don't call it "Growth Hacking"