A talk about growth hacking which focuses on product building as the new marketing

1. I’ve got a product idea, now what?
Ryan Lou
Founder, Krawst
Tweet: @RyanLou

2. Who am I?

3. • Global network of people
• Scalable ideas
• Founders need to be skilled
US$40k Grant, No Equity.

4. “Bringing the startup
community together offline,
getting user feedback and
generating buzz are exactly
what NY’s tech community
needs to do so it can continue
to grow and thrive. ”
~ Harrison Weber
TNW editor, New York office

5. “There is no better
feedback in the world
than hearing right from
your target”
Jared O’Toole
Under30ceo NYC editor

7. Part 1:
Delivering Product Value

8. What is marketing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko

9. Or Hacking Growth?

10. http://www.slideshare.net/mattangriffel/growth-hacking?from_search=1

11. Startup people have an obssession with
hockey sticks

12. “Nothing works better than improving
your product.”
— Joel Spolsky, Stack Exchange

13. First things First
Globally 923 MILLION people
search the term “Google” on
Google each month

14. First things First
Globally 923 MILLION people
search the term “Google” on
Google each month
What happens when they search for you?

15. 3 things you need to focus on
1) Getting people to the door
2) Getting them to the AHA moment!
3) Delivering product value
Credit: Chamath Palihapitiya

17. Another 3 things you should know
• Of course people have problems
(problem hypothesis)
• Sure, everyone will use it
(customer hypothesis)
• I’m smart, my product is exactly what the
world needs
(product validation)

18. What does your
product do for your
users?

20. It’s not magic
Data
Marketing
Product

21. Growth Technique:
Leverage Super Platforms

23. AirBnB

24. AirBnB

25. Growth Technique:
Observe user behavior

26. Youtube Embeddable Player

27. Growth Technique: Focus
on the metrics that count
(Retention First)

28. Early focus was on getting any individual to 7
friends in 10 days.

29. Get users to 5-10 twitter accounts in their
first day on twitter.

30. Hacks that must
not be named

32. Part 2:
Delivering your message

33. How Brand Yourself accidentally went viral
with one feature

34. How Brand Yourself accidentally went viral
with one feature
• Picked up by Mashable (14k shares)
• Total 60K signups
• Conversion on homepage optimized (From 8%
- 30%)
• Proactively pitched media
Read: http://www.growhack.com/2012/10/17/how-brandyourself-unexpectedly-
got-60k-users-in-60-hours/

35. Anatomy of a site design
Source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/landing-page-design-infographic/?wide=1

36. TEST TEST TEST
Source: Designing for social traction http://www.slideshare.net/bokardo/designing-
for-social-traction?from_search=4

37. Which channels?

38. Growth Technique:
Clearly define who you’re
targeting

39. Find your honey hole
Step 1: Follow someone on Twitter
Step 2: Link to landing page in profile
Step 3: Collect email addresses

42. Growth Technique:
Clearly define what you’re
offering

43. http://www.slideshare.net/timhomuth/think-like-a-growth-hacker?from_search=4

44. Pick the channels that get you
EARLY ADOPTERS

45. Source: http://www.slideshare.net/mattangriffel/growth-hacking
Track users through the pipeline

46. Beta Registration page:

47. Exclusivity

49. Pitching journalists
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/adamsmith1/from-zero-to-a-million-users-dropbox-and-xobni-lessons-
learned?from_search=6

50. Tips for pitching the press
1) Pick the right publication
2) Pitch only 1 feature
3) Focus the story on specifics
http://www.growhack.com/2012/10/17/how-brandyourself-unexpectedly-got-60k-
users-in-60-hours/

51. Lastly, provide interesting content

53. Part 3:
Sustainable mktg process

54. 6 Steps to growth
• 1. Track: Figure out what needs to be tracked. Track it.
• 2. Understand: Delve into the data to understand how people are using the
product.
• 3. Prioritize: Evaluate and prioritize the areas most likely to yield growth.
Sometimes they’ll be tweaks, sometimes they’ll be re-architected features,
sometimes they’ll be completely new features.
• 4. Design/Write: In the top area or two, design a few features that are likely to
yield growth. I emphasize writing because the words describing a product often
matter at least as much as any other characteristics.
• 5. Build: Code it up, push it out.
• 6. Measure: Gauge success of new features. GOTO 1, 2, or 3, adjusting strategy
based on the results.
• Then every week or two, we’d run through steps 2-6: finding a problem area,
brainstorming and designing possible improvements, building, and measuring the
results
From: http://numeratechoir.com/six-steps-to-growth-what-i-learned-as-500-startups-growth-hacker-in-
residence/

55. http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-growth

60. Automate the process

61. Link: Designing for social traction http://www.slideshare.net/bokardo/designing-for-social-
traction?from_search=4

62. Keith Rabois, the Former COO of Square
• First grow based on real value
• Growth hacking is an
observational science
• Feature design is the new
marketing

63. I’ve got a product idea, now what?
Ryan Lou
Founder, Krawst
Tweet: @RyanLou