Growth Hacking
An experimentation-led approach to finding scalable ways to acquire, activate, retain or monetize customers, often under resource constraints.
Growth hacking gives small teams a structured way to find low-cost acquisition and retention levers by testing many ideas quickly, instead of committing budget to channels before evidence exists.
A startup runs a weekly cycle: it scores 20 ideas using ICE, ships the top 3 as tests, such as a referral reward that gives both users one free month, and keeps only changes that lift activation at a set confidence level.
The label is often used for short-term tricks that harm brand trust, violate platform terms or attract low-quality users. Many tests lack statistical power, and gains found in one product rarely transfer directly to another.
Growth hacking runs a loop of analyzing funnel data, generating hypotheses, prioritizing them with frameworks such as ICE (impact, confidence, ease), running experiments and recording results. It spans the full funnel, often framed as acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. Product changes such as referral programs, integrations and onboarding flows are treated as growth channels alongside marketing.
Experience Design, Performance Advertising
Andrew Chen — Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing — https://andrewchen.com/how-to-be-a-growth-hacker-an-airbnbcraigslist-case-study/; Optimizely — Growth hacking — https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/growth-hacking/
