# Growth Hacking

> Use when designing viral loops, improving activation rates, running retention experiments, or building growth models

- Skill: `kienbui1995/growth-hacking` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kienbui1995/growth-hacking`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kienbui1995/growth-hacking/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Marketing & Growth
- Author: kienbui1995 (https://skillmd.com/u/kienbui1995)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kienbui1995/growth-hacking

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# 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)