What Is Growth Hacking?

Growth hacking is the practice of running many quick, low-cost experiments across marketing, product and sales to find repeatable ways of gaining customers.

Category: Product, growth and team · Reviewed 11 November 2026 · 2 min read

How it works

The term was coined around 2010 by Sean Ellis to describe people whose entire focus is growth. A growth team picks a measurable goal, such as more signups or more referrals, lists ideas, ranks them by expected impact and effort, runs small tests, then keeps what works and drops what does not. It borrows the mindset of the lean startup.

Typical experiments include changing a signup page, adding a referral reward, tweaking onboarding emails, trying a new channel with a small budget or building a free tool that attracts the right audience. Good growth work depends on tracking: if you cannot measure a change, you cannot learn from it.

Example

Suppose a note-taking app sees 1,000 weekly signups, and 300 finish setup. The team tests a shorter onboarding flow for half of new users. If 360 of every 1,000 finish setup in the test group, the change worked and ships to everyone. Next week they test the welcome email. Many small wins add up, but each one is checked.

Why founders care

Growth hacking is valuable when you already have a product people want, because it finds efficient ways to reach more of them. It is not a substitute for that fit (see product-market fit). Our guide to growth hacks covers specific tactics.

Common mistakes

Hoping for a magic trick. Sustained growth usually comes from many modest improvements.
Growing a leaky product. If users churn quickly, new signups just refill the bucket.
Optimizing the wrong metric, such as signups that never become customers.
Using tactics that annoy users or break platform rules.

Frequently asked questions