To hack growth, you first need lots of ideas. Here are some sources of inspiration.
Note, growth hacks do not have to be ground-breaking. Stacking small gains can also achieve big results
1. Users
I know, obvious.
But how many users have you actually spoken with in the last week? It’s easy to get so distracted with fancy tools and analytics. Remember the basics.
2. Colleagues
Especially the ones you don’t often interact with. And in different departments.
The more diverse the perspectives, the better.
3. The competition
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has said that Meta constantly watched and replicated every new feature that his companies released.
It seems to have worked.
4. Analytics
Tools like Hotjar and Twipla can provide “video recordings” that show how users interact with your site. This can be a super simple and effective way to discover friction points, bugs, and more.
They also let you analyze funnels to see where users are disappearing.
5. Business brokerages
Online business brokerages list a huge amount of information about the financial performance and revenue sources of the businesses they sell.
This can be a great source of inspiration for your project. At a minimum, have a look at empireflippers.com and flippa.com.
6. Business podcasts
Often one of the most up-to-date free sources of information about business tactics. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
- Authority Hacker
- My First Million
- Brett Malinowski
- Breakout Growth Podcast
7. Become a user
Use the product that you’re working on. What do you find annoying? What do you wish was different?
8. List presumptions of what won’t work
Make a list of things that you “know” (without having run a test) won’t work. Add these items to your ideas list. Because untested presumptions are the enemy of the scientific method.
9. Past experiments
You should keep a record of all your past growth hacking experiments, or use a tool like Test10x that does this for you automatically. Look to those that performed best, or most out-performed your expectations, as inspiration for new ideas.
Next Steps
After generating ideas, grade them all in one big bunch as a separate step, and then sort them by grade.
Test10x makes this process as easy as possible, with a simple interface and inbuilt automation. Register your free account now.