Growth Hacking

AARRR Framework (Pirate Metrics)

Focus on fixing the leakiest stage first.

Viral Loop Design

Types of viral loops:

1. Inherent: Product requires sharing (Slack, Zoom, Dropbox shared folders)
2. Incentivized: Reward for referring (Dropbox storage, Uber credits)
3. Word-of-mouth: Product so good people talk about it
4. Content: User-created content gets shared (Canva, Spotify Wrapped)

Viral coefficient K = invites × conversion rate. K>1 = exponential growth.

Design details: references/viral-mechanics.md

Product-Led Growth (PLG)

Key principles:

• Free tier or trial with real value (not crippled)
• Self-serve onboarding (no sales call needed)
• Aha moment within first session
• Usage-based expansion (natural path to paid)
• In-product sharing and collaboration

PLG playbook: references/plg-playbook.md

Experimentation

ICE Framework

Score each experiment 1-10:

• Impact: How big is the potential upside?
• Confidence: How sure are you it'll work?
• Ease: How easy is it to implement?

Total = I + C + E. Run highest scores first.

RICE Framework

• Reach: How many users affected per quarter?
• Impact: Minimal (0.25) → Massive (3)
• Confidence: Low (50%) → High (100%)
• Effort: Person-weeks to build

Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Details: references/experiment-frameworks.md

Retention Hooks

• Habit loop: Trigger → Action → Variable Reward → Investment
• Progress mechanics: Streaks, levels, completion percentage
• Loss aversion: "You'll lose your streak" / "Your data will be deleted"
• Social proof: "Your team is using this" / "3 colleagues joined"
• Notification strategy: Email, push, in-app — context-dependent timing

References

• references/viral-mechanics.md — Viral loop templates and examples
• references/plg-playbook.md — PLG implementation guide
• references/experiment-frameworks.md — ICE, RICE, PIE frameworks with templates