"Growth Hacking" & "virality" have become annoying buzzwords now, and I like how he slices through the bullshit and clarifies the simple basic principles of growth.
My notes:
Forget "virality" - first get product market fit. Focus on:
- How do you acquire users?
- How do you get them to their first aha moment ASAP?
- How do you keep delivering core product value (which leads to user engagement)?
Once you've answered these, i.e. you have product market fit + user retention, only then, think
about “virality” – how will users invite other users.
Simple steps:
- Measure: Instrument your product, and see how user's use it
- Test: Try out different ideas.
- Learn. Refine. Repeat.
Figure out the activation “Aha” moment for
users:
For FB, they figured out that they if they got a new user to 7 friends in 10 days, that user became engaged & retained.
How do you figure it out for your product?
Quantitatively: analyze the patterns of usage of engaged users, and refine the analysis/cohort.
Qualitatively: What is the
thing that users are looking for? How do I get it to them ASAP?
Also - gut feeling without data is useless/negative. Don't believe your own bullshit - always be cynical, test your assumptions & validate with data.
Focus on long term strategic goals, not random short term metrics.
How can I apply this?
For Windows 10 Upgrade Satisfaction:
We need to think more clearly about how we can speed up the "aha" moment for Windows 10? What is this AHA moment for Windows 10?
For StepUp:
We need to figure out the user aha moment -
Self tracking: Tracking your own steps is inherently addictive - so that helps. And the clean & simple UI seems to be a big winner.
With Friends? Some possible hypotheses:
- When you have a conversation with a friend based on something you saw on the StepUp leaderboard?
- When you actively compete - walk more just to beat your friend?
I need to do some user interviews to find this out qualitatively.
