Hacking suggests there’s some kind of spontaneity to growth — an idea strikes you out of the blue one day and you’re suddenly growing like crazy.
Growth doesn’t work that way anymore.
I’m firmly in the camp of the Reforge team, who argue that we should think about growth as a system with 3 specific components — acquisition, monetization, and retention.
You don’t work on growth, you work on these 3 elements and growth is what you get as a result.
So, to answer your question, we need to consider some avenues you can pursue, where your work will have an effect on all 3 elements mentioned above.
Customer research touches on all 3 elements of growth
If you aren’t talking to customers you’re missing out on a serious opportunity.
Every time I talk to a customer, I learn something new — about the problems they are facing and what their thinking was behind “hiring” our product to solve it for them, how they use it on a day-to-day basis, or where it’s still falling short and what they hope to get from it in the future.
I suggest checking this out if you’d like to learn a bit more about using customer interviews in marketing.
Originally published on Quora.
