Just nobody ask me what the term means, ok?
growth hacker (noun) - one who’s passion and focus is growth through use of a testable, empirical, and scalable methodology.
Basically, a growth hacker is the blend of a product, marketing, and data. They sort of operate as R&D within a startup.
Resources: http://www.quora.com/Growth-Hacking/What-is-growth-hacking/a... http://startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hacker... http://www.vlaskovits.com/2012/07/youre-a-growth-rookie-not-... http://www.aginnt.com/growth-hacker#.UDvRGmPlWPI
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4309345 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4436034 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4069417 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4059580 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4104510 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4297857 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4069417 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4104510
HN is so averse to anything related to marketing, conversion optimization, or anything else similar to such practices that a whole new title has emerged simply so no one has to grimace when saying they need to hire a "marketer".
Call a spade a spade: growth hacker == marketer. Yes, they use data to lead their decision making process and are more empirical than traditional mad men style marketers, but that by no means warrants a whole new job title.
Growth hackers are just good marketers using the data and tools available to them.
This is not inbound marketing but building product that, at its core, is focused on growth. LinkedIn, Zynga, Quora, Twitter, and Facebook all have growth teams.
Do you know Dropbox's brilliant referral strategy? That was the brainchild of Sean Ellis (growth hacker), Ivan Kirigin (growth hacker), and Dropbox leadership.
Referral strategies have been around for decades, the Dropbox guys didn't hack anything they just applied an old principle to a new technology.
Growth hacker and marketer are synonymous titles.
