
The Growth Hacker's Dilemma: Process vs. Tactics - bronsontaylor
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/101283/The-Growth-Hacker-s-Dilemma-Process-vs-Tactics.aspx
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ThomPete
The attempt to turn Growth Hacking into a discipline will fail exactly because
it attempts to put a formal framework and language around something that is
ultimately un-formal and all encompassing.

Its going to experience the same slow death as the UX discipline has. It's too
wide a definition for its own good and those who know how to do it, know it
because they know something else (design, programming etc)

Its like saying there are is a dilemma for hackers with regards to process vs.
tactics.

~~~
jamiequint
I hate the term "Growth Hacker", but there is certainly a ton of demand for
full stack marketers. The role may seem vague because it is definitely cross-
functional but almost always has the following requirements:

\- Product Competency (ability to product manage and make sensible product
decisions)

\- Marketing Competency (knowledge of all possible marketing channels and
enough understanding to prioritize marketing efforts across them)

\- Engineering Competency (ability to work directly with engineers and ability
to do basic statistical analysis)

This basically describes a Product Manager who also has an in-depth
understanding of marketing, which is not really that vague at all.

~~~
tosh
Very well explained Jamie.

I think the growth hacking/engineering role/persona is especially now building
up as a core skillset as product decisions need to be made way faster and way
often than ever before (thanks to realtime usage data and very short release
cycles).

This basically puts way more pressure on making the right decisions for the
product & its marketing (in a holistic cross-functional way). A thing that
traditionally was handled 'well enough' with several people/departments that
communicate.

In a nutshell it is a product management position but with emphasis on
marketing and growth. Depending on the lifecycle of your company this is the
job of the founders/CEO or the product manager or a dedicated CMO. All in all
the skillset in itself is very very valuable and there is not enough good
material on product management and cross-functional agile marketing.

I am contributing content in this area and hope more and more people will
follow. There is a ton out there that solely focuses on marketing (low barrier
to entry) but not much quality content on the intersection of marketing &
engineering & ux.

If you are interested in growth hacking feel free to check out my upcoming
book:

[https://www.blossom.io/growth-engineering](https://www.blossom.io/growth-
engineering)

Also very happy to help anyone who'd like to grab a coffee/tea with me in San
Francisco or Bay Area or via email, twitter, hangout. Feel free to get in
touch.

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costapopescu
>Put another way, some startups have a process, other startups just implement
the tactics (best practices) that are the results of someone else’s process.

Yes, but you still need to test other people's best practices. What works for
some, might not work for you. I remember when Etsy introduced infinite scroll
because everyone were doing it; they soon found out that it affected their
conversions negatively and returned to old style.

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mohamedzahid
There's no dilemma, you can and should do both! It's just a link-baity title
(that I fell for)

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tlarkworthy
The smartest don't share their tactics, why would you give away competitive
advantage?

~~~
bronsontaylor
The smartest know that dialog, discussion, and cooperation, can bring about a
sum of possibilities that will easily dwarf any small-minded collection of
tactics. By taking part, your part is enlarged.

~~~
AznHisoka
Sounds good on paper, possibly disastrous in practice.

