

Ask HN: When is a “growth hack” appropriate or inappropriate? - pccampbell

1. Today, @Jason&#x27;s voicemail got &quot;hacked&quot; by a YC-alum looking to get attention for his new product in the name of a growth hack. (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;webcache.googleusercontent.com&#x2F;search?q=cache:QkTa-zWgIh8J:https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;%40avizolty&#x2F;my-investment-hack-jason-calacanis-voicemail-e4b414659ad7)<p>2. We&#x27;ve seen plenty of stories about growth hack spamming of all sorts, especially for mobile virality.<p>There are plenty of details we could debate about specific nuances, but at a high&#x2F;paradigm level, when is a &quot;growth hack&quot; appropriate or inappropriate?
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minimaxir
Most growth hacks are inappropriate. It's not a risk-free endeavor. It hedges
on whether the customer would actually be annoyed enough to stop using the
service in disgust, which is uncommon. (of course, hacking a voicemail would
have expected consequences)

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pccampbell
I'd push back on that first part. I think there are plenty of appropriate
marketing tactics you could put under the growth hack umbrella.

To me, things are inappropriate when:

1\. They're blatantly illegal 2\. They cause damage or mental anguish to
another (revenge, gossip, etc.)

Even with both of those though we're looking at some grayness, especially with
measuring #2.

I do like the measuring stick of: would individuals be
annoyed/disgusted/pissed enough to stop using.

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downandout
If you ask the HN crowd, effectively all growth hacks will be considered
spam/inappropriate. Case in point:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8455138](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8455138)

In general, tech people believe that any message of any kind that may result
in revenue, clicks, or new users for the sender is spam. I think real users
consider unsolicited messages that don't deliver value to them to be spam, and
welcome things that do deliver some value to them.

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loqqus
Most "growth hacks" are not "hacks" in the malicious sense but rather hacks in
the sense of doing something clever. (see "life hack", etc.) This clearly
crosses that line and even though they claim it wasn't malicious, it's an
invasion of someone's personal space. I'd expect this to backfire massively,
it shows a tremendous lack of judgment.

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cblock811
If you have to question it then it's probably inappropriate. That's how I look
at it personally.

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jpetersonmn
Wow, I'd think it would be illegal to change someone's voicemail greeting.

