Hacking Growth
by Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown
Key Concepts
North Star Metric
A single, unifying metric representing the core value delivered to customers and driving long-term growth.
Growth Team
A dedicated, cross-functional team focused solely on identifying and executing growth experiments.
Rapid Experimentation
Continuously testing hypotheses with small, fast experiments to quickly learn what drives growth.
AARRR Funnel
A framework (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) for optimizing the entire customer journey.
Product/Market Fit
The essential foundation where a product satisfies a strong market demand before scaling growth efforts.
Growth Loops
Sustainable, compounding mechanisms where new users or actions lead to more users or actions.
Action Items
Form a dedicated, cross-functional growth team with clear ownership.
Define and relentlessly optimize a single North Star Metric.
Implement a rapid experimentation cadence, testing hypotheses weekly.
Systematically analyze and optimize each stage of your AARRR funnel.
Prioritize growth experiments using a framework like ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease).
Focus intensely on user retention, as it's the foundation for all other growth.
Core Thesis
Growth Hacking is a systematic, data-driven process of rapid experimentation across the customer lifecycle to identify scalable growth opportunities.
Mindset Shift
Shift from sporadic marketing campaigns to a continuous, data-driven, and systematic process of rapid experimentation for sustainable growth.