Don’t be superstitious about Growth Hacking, the source of users should come from something deeper…

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User growth is the lifeblood of startups, what separates Snapchat from the crowd of trendy coffee shops, what differentiates Instagram, which has little revenue, from The New York Times, and why investors are excited about Yo but wary of Apple.

“Startups are designed to grow fast.” – Paul Graham

After being caught up in Intercom’s double-digit month-over-month growth and interacting with Intercom’s amazing growth team, I’m now more convinced that true user growth comes from something much deeper than growth hacking.

As for Growth Hacking, I am not sure if it really exists. If it does exist, then where are the most successful cases of Growth Hacking?

Here’s what we think of Intercom’s growth.

Micro-measurement, micro-definition, micro-effort

From a product metrics perspective alone, “Do I have a good product?” is a very difficult question to answer, especially when compared to “How many users have clicked the signup button?” The depth at which the problem is understood and how it is defined will set an upper limit on the quality of any subsequent solution.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, psychologist Daniel Kahneman shows that when asked a question you don’t know the answer to, your brain quickly comes up with a simpler alternative question and then switches to answering that new question. The same process applies to solving growth-related problems; replace the actual problem with a more solvable one.

At the highest level, these micro-definitions can cause teams to lose sight of the most fundamental question: Does your product solve a real problem? The foundation of user growth lies in the product. In other words, everyone’s work revolves around user growth.

The only difference between a product team and a marketing team in a startup is that one focuses on long-term growth, while the other focuses on immediately measurable growth.

When a product team releases a new feature, they don’t expect to see an impact on user signups or revenue overnight. Conversely, when a marketing team launches a new demand generation campaign, they expect to see immediate or near-immediate results. Both efforts are geared toward the ultimate goal of growing users, the only difference is the time it takes to measure the results.

At a low level, the downside of micro-definitions is that they lead to micro-efforts. In the short term, the focus on immediate, measurable results by growth-oriented product teams (often called “growth teams”) and marketing teams shouldn’t translate into a focus on trivialities. The size of the change you’re willing to make will directly determine the size of the return you’ll get.

A billion dollar company never agonizes over which button color is better.

Real guns and live ammunition

To avoid falling into the trap of micro-metrics, it’s important to pair each metric with its corresponding measurement: sign-ups vs activations, new customers vs churn, or new customers vs total revenue, etc. This has two benefits:

1. Remind you that the product is a system composed of indicators. It is incorrect to focus too much on a single indicator.

2. By identifying and focusing on this system, you will take a more holistic approach to user growth.

A more holistic approach to growth will naturally take your focus off of trivial button colors and title tweaks. Here are some of the questions we’ve been asking ourselves lately that have helped us focus on the big picture and solve core problems related to user growth:

1. When you describe your product to your customers, do you use the same language and terms that they use when they express their problems? If the answer is yes, then it becomes very important for potential customers to remember your product.

2. When was the last time you registered a product? Does anyone in your company have their own registration process? You may be embarrassed by your early assumptions, and it is very likely that no one has paid attention to registration since then.

3. How do you teach your customers to use your product? Do you help them successfully solve their problems? Or do you rarely describe the structure of your product? (“There’s the message button, good luck!”)

Great salespeople and product people can spend their entire lives on this list and working on solving the many problems that come with iteration, even if they are small wins. This is not Growth Hacking, this is Product Marketing, Product Design, and Product Engineering.

Growth hacking is a panacea that always works: the red button increased the number of registrations by 80%, changing the title size to "33px" increased revenue by 30%, and lowering the price reduced user turnover by 27%.

However, user growth does not come from these panaceas, but from winning thousands of small battles: 0.5% here, 1% there. Real user growth comes from a lot of real guns and bullets, from the first line of code, from a great product, and from the sincere cooperation of the team.

This is very important, please don't blackmail it.