More on growth hacking.

They make it sound easy:

Just as a software engineer builds technology in a logical flow, a growth hacker uses data to build (“bakes in”) growth into a product. A growth hacker’s process is diligent, thoughtful, and purposeful. Traditional marketing skills do not lead to this engineering perspective on virality. A product goes viral through baking in growth mechanics – it is hardly ever random.

If it were that straightforward, every product would have a billion users.

Most products cannot be growth hacked.

Jargon is anathema to me and "growth hacker" is no exception. That said, if the whole "growth hacker" trend means marketers get a bigger seat at the product table, then I'm all for it ... but one thing I find disturbing is that the "growth hacking" movement seems to willfully flaunt its desire to bend or break the rules of professional conduct to grow the business. I don't disagree that grey-hat and black-hat tactics work but would we tolerate "finance hacking" or "regulatory compliance hacking" as laudable endeavors? I sure hope not.

I agree. There's an inherent problem that if you "just go by the numbers" you can end up in black hat territory even if you never intended to:

http://pandawhale.com/convo/5384/a-list-apart-articles-dark-patterns-deception-vs-honesty-in-ui-design

Awesome sauce (to quote Mr. Panda himself). THIS is why I'm a whaler. I never would have found my way to that A listapart.com site. Thank you again, Eric!

Peter Drucker says What gets measured gets managed.

Tom Peters says What gets measured gets done.

Therefore, be very careful what you measure.