My slides from my session at Adobe User Group Amsterdam 2015. Theme was "Hack your Growth" and a follow up of the Lean Analytics workshop from Alistair Croll at April 21st in Amsterdam. The talk is about why we need Growth Hacking to stimulate (corporate) innovation, from innovation dilemma, to lean analytics and various examples on growth hacking...

1. @jeroentjepkema
Adobe User Group Ap(p)ril 2015
#GrowthHacking

3. Part 1: The Innovation Dilemma

5. (http://csinvesting.org/2012/01/06/fortune-500-extinction/)
F500 Life
Expectancy 75years 15years
1950 2010

6. The slow death of corporates...

7. “Let’s cut
prices to
accelerate our
growth.”
“Time to enter
the mainstream.
Cut prices.”
“We may miss the
quarter. Let’s do a
price promotion.”
“That wasn’t
supposed to
happen. We’ll
have to lay some
people off.
Model 1: Revenue over time

8. Model 2: The Adoption Curve
Early adopters Late adopters

9. Model 3: Gross Margin percent

10. Most companies die because
they fail to move to new
business models...

11. Often, this isn’t about lack of resources

14. http://www.flickr.com/photos/maladjusted/5207565912

16. Optimizing the probable means
discounting the possible?
The problem is framing.

17. YOU ARE
HERE

18. LOCAL
MAXIMUMOPTIMIZATION
OF CURRENT
METRICS
YOU ARE
HERE

19. YOU ARE
HERE
GLOBAL
MAXIMUM
INNOVATION
WITH NEW
RULES

20. YOU ARE
HERE
INVESTORS & MANAGERS
HATE GOING DOWNHILL

21. Three kinds of innovation

22. Sustain
(optimizing for more
of the same)
Improve along
current metrics...
...or alter
the rate of
improvement

23. Innovate
(introduce nearby product,
market, or method)
Switch to a new
value model
Sustain
(optimizing for more
of the same)
Improve along
current metrics...
...or alter
the rate of
improvement

24. Innovate
(introduce nearby product,
market, or method)
Switch to a new
value model
Sustain
(optimizing for more
of the same)
Improve along
current metrics...
...or alter
the rate of
improvement
Disrupt
(Fundamentally changing
the business model)
Change the business
model entirely

25. Experiment with product, market,
and method.

26. Product
(new “what”)
Market
(new “who”)
Method
(new “how”)

27. A three-maxima model of
(enterprise) innovation

28. Current
state
Business
optimization
A three-maxima model of
(enterprise) innovation

29. Current
state
Business
optimization
Product,
market
innovation
You can convince
executives of this
because some of it is
familiar.
A three-maxima model of
(enterprise) innovation

30. Current
state
Business
optimization
Product,
market
innovation
Business
model
innovation
You can convince
executives of this
because some of it is
familiar.
This is terrifying
because it eats the
current business.
A three-maxima model of
(enterprise) innovation

31. Sustaining
Next year’s car

32. Sustaining Innovative
Next year’s car Electric car,
same dealer

33. Sustaining Innovative Disruptive
Next year’s car Electric car,
same dealer
On-demand, app-based
car service

34. ...then disruptive innovation
produces exponential growth.
If sustaining innovation produces
linear growth...

35. Part 2: Enter Growth Hacking

36. An exploit (from the verb to exploit, in the
meaning of using something to one’s own
advantage) is a piece of software, a chunk of
data, or sequence of commands that takes
advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability in order
to cause unintended or unanticipated behaviour to
occur on computer software, hardware, or
something electronic (usually computerised).

37. Every successful startup has
benefited from an exploit...

38. AirBnB and Craigslist

40. If an exploit is part of a system, then
Growth Hacking is to get the system to
do something it’s not designed to do.
In other words, to hack an exploit.

41. So,your growth problem is probably
a marketing problem.

42. Sergio
Zyman’s
5 “mores”
More things
To more people
For more money
More often
More efficiently
‣ Supply chain optimization
‣ Per-transaction cost reduction
‣ Loyal customer base that returns
‣ Demand prediction, notification
‣ Maximum shopping cart
‣ Price skimming/tiering
‣ Highly viral offering
‣ Low incremental order costs
‣ Inventory increase
‣ Gifting, wish lists

43. What are
you
growing,
anyway?
What are we growing, anyway?

44. $

45. @

46. !

47. GROWTH
HACKING
$
Money
!
Attention
@
Reputation

48. GROWTH
HACKING
$
Money
!
Attention
@
Reputation
Sales/Conversion
Advertising

49. GROWTH
HACKING
$
Money
!
Attention
@
Reputation
Sales/Conversion
Advertising
Perceived value
Search, Virality

50. GROWTH
HACKING
$
Money
!
Attention
@
Reputation
Sales/Conversion
Advertising
Perceived value
Search, Virality
PREndorsement

51. Growth Hacking is always
an exchange between these 3
elements...

52. If you have a ‘Growth’ problem...

53. http://solveforinteresting.com/hacker-hustler-designer-analyst/
Hacker
Makes it real,
finds the
exploit.
Hustler
Builds buzz,
validates
customers
demand
Designer
Designs
compelling
customer
experience
Analyst
Tracks
growth, drives
experiments
and keeps
you honest.

54. Keyword: subversiveness
Think subversively.

55. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/why-waiting-in-line-is-torture.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

56. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1005081200005

58. GROWTH
HACKING
Guerrilla
marketing
Data-driven
learning
Subversiveness

59. Part 4: The Nigerian Scam

60. Why is Nigerian spam so badly
written?

61. Aunshul Rege of Rutgers University, USA in 2009
1000 emails
1-2 responses
1 fool and their money, parted.
Bad language (0.1% conversion)
Gullible (70% conversion)
1000 emails
100 responses
1 fool and their money, parted.
Good language (10% conversion)
Not-gullible (.07% conversion)

62. Nigerian spammers
really understand their target
market and ‘customers’

63. One Metric That Matters

64. Every website has goals

65. Your Analytics measures the
movement towards these goals

66. Importance of correlation vs. causation

67. 1
100
10000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Relation between Ice cream and drownings?
Ice cream consumption Drownings

68. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25159787@N07/3766111564

69. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25159787@N07/3766111564
1
100
10000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
True causality
Ice cream consumption Drownings Temperature

70. Holy causation, Batman...

71. A leading, causal, connection is
the analytics superpower...

72. That’s why we pick one at at time...

73. ‣ A Facebook user reaching 7 friends within 10 days of signing up
(Chamath Palihapitiya)
‣ A Dropbox user who puts at least one file in one folder on one
device (ChenLi Wang)
‣ Twitter user following a certain number of people, and a certain
percentage of those people following the user back (Josh
Elman)
‣ A LinkedIn user getting to X connections in Y days (Elliot
Schmukler)
Some examples
(From the 2012 Growth Hacking conference. http://growthhackersconference.com/)

74. Landing page design A/B testing
Cohort analysis General analytics
URL shortening
Funnel analytics
Influencer Marketing
Publisher analytics
SaaS analytics
Gaming analytics
User interaction Customer satisfaction KPI dashboardsUser segmentation
User analytics Spying on users

75. Part 4: Experimentation

76. A wealth of information creates a
poverty of attention...
(Computers, Communications and the Public Interest, pages 40-41,
Martin Greenberger, ed., The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.)Herbert
Simon

77. Focus on the desired behavior, not
just the information.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/yes/200808/changing-minds-and-changing-towels
26% increase in towel re-use with an appeal to social
norms; 33% increase when tied to the specific room.

79. Set your thresholds...

80. ...find your stickiness

81. Validating experiments:
B.R.A.S.S. framework

82. Blink Relevance Availability Scalability Sum

83. Blink Relevance Availability Scalability Sum
5-second rule
Gut feeling
Instinct score
Don’t overthink it

84. Blink Relevance Availability Scalability Sum
5-second rule
Gut feeling
Instinct score
Don’t overthink it
Do we have the
available
resources?
Do we have the
skills?
Do we have the
tools?
Is it expensive?

85. Blink Relevance Availability Scalability Sum
5-second rule
Gut feeling
Instinct score
Don’t overthink it
Is this Channel
relevant to your
product/service?
Does your
audience hang out
on this channel?
Can you target
them effectively?
Do we have the
available
resources?
Do we have the
skills?
Do we have the
tools?
Is it expensive?

86. Blink Relevance Availability Scalability Sum
5-second rule
Gut feeling
Instinct score
Don’t overthink it
Is this Channel
relevant to your
product/service?
Does your
audience hang out
on this channel?
Can you target
them effectively?
Do we have the
available
resources?
Do we have the
skills?
Do we have the
tools?
Is it expensive?
How scalable is
this channel?
Can we easily
increase it?
Law of diminishing
returns

87. Blink Relevance Availability Scalability Sum
5-second rule
Gut feeling
Instinct score
Don’t overthink it
Is this Channel
relevant to your
product/service?
Does your
audience hang out
on this channel?
Can you target
them effectively?
Do we have the
available
resources?
Do we have the
skills?
Do we have the
tools?
Is it expensive?
How scalable is
this channel?
Can we easily
increase it?
Law of diminishing
returns
1-5 1-5 1-5 1-5 BRASS score

89. bit.ly/brassframework

90. Growth hacking, demystified.
Find correlation Test causality
Optimize the causal
factor
Pick a metric
to change
behavior

91. Experiment:
Do AirBnB hosts get more
business if their property is
professionally photographed?

92. Gut instinct (hypothesis)
Professional photography helps AirBnB’s business
Candidate solution (MVP)
20 field photographers posing as employees
Measure the results
Compare photographed listings to a control group
Make a decision
Launch photography as a new feature for all hosts

93. 5,000 shoots per
month by February
2012

94. Defining moment:
Hockeystick growth

95. Part 5: Some examples

96. 1. User Acquisition

97. Get to know your users..
‣ Where do they hang out online? What websites?
‣ What apps and social networks does they use?
‣ What events do they attend?
‣ Which newspapers/magazines do they read?
‣ What communities online and offline are they part of?

98. Watch the competition

99. • http://www.similarweb.com/

100. Watch my friends...

101. • http://graph.facebook.com/nameofpage

102. https://www.facebook.com/pages/?frompageid=ADD ID Here

103. Branding & Messaging...

105. Ask your top users:
What value do we offer, that no-one else does?

106. Emailing...

107. Guess email addresses

108. App store marketing...

110. App Store Review Trick (Chinese Style)

111. App store marketing...

112. 1. Feature-based landing pages
2. Adapted onboarding

114. • Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ex. Paid ads, Adwords, Linkedin
ads…
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ex. Google organic searches
• Social Ads ex. Facebook sponsored posts
• Affiliate Marketing ex. Placing ads on other websites
• Retargeting ex. Display ads for people who have already visited your
site
• Offline Ads ex. Billboards, Bus ads, Taxi ads, TV, Radio
• Organizing events ex. Meetups, Conferences, Workshops
• Speaking engagements
• BizDev ex. Partnerships, Joint Ventures
• Email Marketing
• Traditional PR ex. Getting featured, Press Releases
• Unconventional PR ex. Stunts, Oprah’s free car give away
• Existing Platforms ex. Google Play Store, Marketplace, App store
• Content Marketing ex. Blogging, Infographics, Webinars, Twitter
posts..
• Guest Content Marketing ex. Guest blogging = other people’s
audience
• Sales ex. Cold Calling 2.0 (Aaron Ross)
• Taking part in events ex. Having a booth in a large conference
• Community building ex. Yelp, Wikipedia, Quora
• Inherent Virality ex. A project management tool requires invitations
Artificial Virality ex. Dropbox’s 2-sided referral programme
Customer Acquisition Channels

116. 1. Double Down on what works

117. 1. Double Down on what works
2. Diversify your portfolio

118. 1. Double Down on what works
2. Diversify your portfolio
3. Find 2/3 channels that work for you

119. 2. On Boarding

120. “Show the Core Value in the first 5 seconds of
a visit. There can be as much value in the blink
of an eye as in months of rational analysis.”

121. Core Value Proposition...

122. Test that it works with a 5-second test:
usabilityhub.com

126. Competitive advantage...

127. Mobile app? Check out uxarchive.com

128. First user experience...

129. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669788/the-3-white-lies-behind-instagrams-lightning-speed

130. The kayak effect: http://bit.ly/UgTneD
People prefer to wait for up
to a minute to get what they
want from an app rather
than get it instantly – if, and
it’s an important if, they
believe the app is working
for them

131. Iz overwhelmed?

132. Recommended reading

133. http://www.meetup.com/Growth-Hackers-Amsterdam
Join the meetup!

134. Thanks! More questions?
M: jeroen@growthtribe.nl
T: @jeroentjepkema
W: www.growthtribe.nl
View slides: bit.ly/MW-AUG15