What do you think of the term growth hacking?
I've heard mixed opinions on whether growth hacking is considered a legitimate endeavor or is a superficial exercise. The tactics seem logical (eg. publish content or create sharing mechanisms) but wanted to see what others thought on the topic.
The phrase throws most people off. All it means is 'new fangled and innovative ways to convert users to paying customers`. The ultimate goal of a "growth hacker" is to convert users, via some clever way. The obvious techniques like funnels/mailresponders/sharing/retargeting/onboarding do work, but they're not good enough. I know it's cliche - but growth hacking basically means "thinking outside the box" to convert users.
User Personas are the hot new thing now, where startups try to break a userbase into separate 'types' of typical users. E.G; User set A is young, trendy. User set B is hobbyist. User set C is B2B (business to business), etc
Also I think that some of the newer conversion techniques are pushing it a bit, but I see no reason not to default to a baseline level of retargeting/onboarding/mailresponders. At least make the user feel like you're listening!