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The 'gaming the system' section gave me insight into both why 'growth hacking' is such a popular idea and why I hate the term. Founders know they need growth,

The 'gaming the system' section gave me insight into both why 'growth hacking' is such a popular idea and why I hate the term. Founders know they need growth, so they ask themselves "How do we...", and "Hire a Growth Hacker!" is an easy response. It sounds like a way to game the system. After all, growth is right there in the job title, and we all know hackers game systems. The appeal of a 'hacker' for growth is that it sounds like it solves the hard work of growing by building something people like. We'll just game around it with our hacker! I don't think that's the conscious intent, but I do think it's the subconscious intent. And both why the term is appealing to founders and why it bugs the hell out of me. It's the subliminal implications of gaming the system.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
Honestly, with fierce hatred I hate that term. It basically means "word 'hacker' sounds cool, so let's make marketing cooler by renaming it to 'growth hacking'". Seriously, just look at the Wikipedia article[0] and see how meaningless this term is. The whole text is just basically pile of buzzwords. But you're right. Growth is hard, and if you're a hacker at heart, focused on developing your idea/product, someone specialized in "all that murky businessy client-getting stuff" is godsend. You don't want to distract yourself with it, you have better things to do. I also think that it can sometimes be a way to out-source conscience. You pay the growth hacker to do "the magic", and you don't care what it is that he is actually doing. You can hire one that will do black-hat SEO and abuse social networks without feeling any guilt, by simple virtue of not thinking about it. [0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hacking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hacking
- jacques_chester 12y ago
  The people being "hacked" by the title "growth hacker" and the folks who do the hiring.

TeMPOraL 12y ago

Honestly, with fierce hatred I hate that term. It basically means "word 'hacker' sounds cool, so let's make marketing cooler by renaming it to 'growth hacking'". Seriously, just look at the Wikipedia article[0] and see how meaningless this term is. The whole text is just basically pile of buzzwords. But you're right. Growth is hard, and if you're a hacker at heart, focused on developing your idea/product, someone specialized in "all that murky businessy client-getting stuff" is godsend. You don't want to distract yourself with it, you have better things to do. I also think that it can sometimes be a way to out-source conscience. You pay the growth hacker to do "the magic", and you don't care what it is that he is actually doing. You can hire one that will do black-hat SEO and abuse social networks without feeling any guilt, by simple virtue of not thinking about it. [0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hacking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hacking

jacques_chester 12y ago
The people being "hacked" by the title "growth hacker" and the folks who do the hiring.