kienbui1995 Growth Hacking
When to Use
When trying to accelerate user acquisition, activation, or retention through product-led, data-driven experiments.
Core Jobs
1. Diagnose with the Pirate Funnel (AARRR)
- Acquisition: how are users finding you? (by channel)
- Activation: % reaching "aha moment" (first value experienced)?
- Retention: % returning after day 1, 7, 30?
- Revenue: conversion rate, ARPU, expansion rate?
- Referral: % of new users from existing users?
Find the biggest leak in the funnel — that's where to focus.
2. Design Viral Loops
Built-in virality:
- Collaboration: invite teammates to use product together
- Social sharing: results naturally shareable ("I just got X on [product]")
- Incentive referral: "Give $10, get $10" (Dropbox, Uber model)
- Content virality: user-generated content that markets product by existing
Viral coefficient K > 1 means exponential growth.
3. Improve Activation
Find the "aha moment" (first time user experiences core value):
- Map the onboarding flow step by step
- Find where >20% of users drop off
- Reduce steps to aha moment (remove friction)
- Guide users there faster (tooltips, email sequences, in-app nudges)
4. Retention Experiments
Tactics:
- Habit triggers: notifications at the right moment, not mass blasts
- Streak mechanics: daily engagement incentive
- Progress indicators: show users how far they've come
- Win-back campaigns: reactivate churned users with targeted message
Key Outputs
- Funnel analysis (AARRR metrics by channel)
- Viral loop design
- Activation experiment backlog
- Retention experiment results
Anti-Patterns
- Growth hacking before product-market fit (leaky bucket)
- Optimizing for acquisition while retention is poor
- Dark patterns (fake urgency, misleading copy) — destroys trust
- Running too many experiments simultaneously (can't attribute results)