Growth Hacker is the New VP Marketing - Andrew Chen

Growth Hacker is the New VP Marketing - Andrew Chen(andrewchenblog.com)

53 points by mattgratt 14 years ago | 18 comments

jpzeni 14 years ago |

Everything seemed to be flowing logically until I got to this statement "No traditional marketer would have figured this out" (referring to integrating a Craigslist post into Airbnb). To that statement my question is why couldn't a traditional marketer imagine that functionality? They probably wouldn't have been able to create the actual implementation themselves but that would be a job for an engineer regardless of who came up with the idea. If the marketer happened to be an engineer great, if not, it seems like something that would just be delegated to a technical member of the team.

From what I understand Airbnb did a fair bit of spamming to craigslist prior to the very slick layout you see there so the idea of marketing via craigslist was already baked into their strategy regardless of it's implementation.

malandrew 14 years ago | |

I wouldn't say that they couldn't figure it out, but it wouldn't be an intuitive solution for someone who doesn't hack. We want marketers that can code for the same reason that we want designers that can code. We want that because some of the most important design decisions happen in code. A corollary to this would be that some of the most important marketing decisions happen in code.

The most obvious of this would be recognizing how you can programmatically hook your application with 0 users to another system with thousands to millions of users. An obvious solution that a regular marketer may recognize is simple address book integration. A less obvious solution that a hacker with API experience would recognize is how to hook into the Twitter search API, programmatically recognize hashtags and generate responses that appear legit from a real user.

Any sufficiently advanced spam is indistinguishable from content. It often takes a hacker to make the decisions that further advance field of spam to the level of content.

dean 14 years ago | |

I agree. In fact, I would go even further and say that a non-technical person could come up with even better ideas because they are not constrained by what is technically possible. They think you can do absolutely anything with software. Whereas an engineer might (even subconsciously) be discouraged because they know it would take a lot of hard work to do the thing.

chrissanz 14 years ago | | |

that could be true in some instances, in my experience (and the majority of the time), traditional marketers are not always thinking about the more technical opportunities (and more often than not, they are coming up with awful+old school initiatives). hackers on the other hand are always trying to figure out how to hack something for their own benefit... looking at packets to see if something can be reversed engineered or scanning services that are relevant + popular and could help grow your company. I've been in situation (multiple times) when the marketing person is not even aware of such places. This is why someone who has the technical chops and is dedicated to growth could be very interesting. I would not hire a marketing guy without tech experience

Timothee 14 years ago |

Doesn't this fall under the already-existing title of Product Manager?

The way I look at what a PM does, this is exactly it: knowing the technical aspects enough to figure out what is possible and detail it for engineering to build. It doesn't have to be the same person that specs it and build it.

That being said, I'd be very happy to get a job as "growth hacker" for I believe I'm better at thinking that kind of integrations through, than at what is on the "marketing side" of product management.

sigil 14 years ago |

Marketing is becoming hacking, but then again it seems like everything is becoming hacking.

laconian 14 years ago | |

Oh, I am so burned out from that word. Everybody wants a piece of the community and tries to be authentic by adopting its lingo. But it feels so goddamned forced.

sigil 14 years ago | | |

I only use it for lack of a better one; "programming" seems too specific. What would you suggest?

carlsednaoui 14 years ago |

"The fastest way to spread your product is by distributing it on a platform using APIs, not MBAs." As a marketer, this is why I am learning to code. Great article!

aorshan 14 years ago | |

Same here!!

elchief 14 years ago |

"It is expressly prohibited to post content to craigslist using any automated means."

http://www.craigslist.org/about/terms.of.use

Companies have lost their domains due to this.

oijaf888 14 years ago | |

How exactly do you lose your domain by violating a terms of service? Does Craigslist file a complaint with ICANN or something? I can see a lawsuit and prohibition against accessing their service.

slewis 14 years ago | |

From the article, it looks like they don't actually post. They create the post, but it's up to the user to click the send button.

dean 14 years ago | |

I don't know how open Craigslist is, but reading things like "you have to write a script that can scrape Craigslist" and "build a bot that visits Craigslist", all I kept thinking was : "violation of terms of service".

paulsutter 14 years ago |

Heh, some of the most effective marketing can be done by introverts who are good with numbers. Understanding both customers and code is more achievable and fun than finding just the right "business" cofounder.

Great article.

sandieman 14 years ago |

For me this falls under same category as a "designer who can also code". It's great when you can find them but they are harder to find.