Top 20 Growth Hacks You Can Use For Your Product
There’s no magic wand in growth. As Brian Balfour puts it, “The reality of growth is that there is never a silver bullet.” Your job is to run a rigorous system of ideas → tests → learnings that compounds over time. (Brian Balfour)
Before you dive into the list, lock in three foundations: a crisp definition of your ideal customer and the pain you solve; a single North Star metric with a few guardrails (e.g., activation, retention, payback); and instrumentation that lets you see the full funnel in real time. Commit to a weekly experiment cadence with pre-registered hypotheses and “kill/scale” thresholds, and write down what you learned whether the test wins or loses. Steal ideas liberally, but tailor them to your audience and business model—the tactic isn’t the strategy, and copied hacks without context become noise rather than compounding advantage.
1) Prove product‑market fit with the 40% rule
Before you “step on the gas,” validate pull. Use the Sean Ellis PMF survey: “How would you feel if you could no longer use [product]?” If ≥40% of respondents say “very disappointed,” you likely have early PMF. Rahul Vohra’s Superhuman popularized a step‑by‑step engine around this metric to iterate features and messaging until they crossed the threshold. (First Round)
Try this week: Send the one‑question PMF survey to your active users and segment the “very disappointed” cohort to learn what they love (and what holds others back).
2) Design your growth system (North Star + loops), not random tactics
Anchor the team on a North Star metric tied to long‑term value (e.g., weekly active teams, not raw signups). Map how acquisition, activation, retention, and monetization reinforce each other via growth loops—and instrument each step. As Balfour frames it: “Growth is a system between acquisition, retention, and monetization. Change one and you affect them all.” (Lenny's Newsletter)
3) Build an experimentation engine (A/B tests as a habit, not a stunt)
Booking.com runs 1,000+ experiments concurrently and tens of thousands annually, letting the data—not opinions—decide. That culture helped transform it from a small startup to the world’s largest accommodation platform. Start smaller, but adopt the same principles: hypotheses, guardrails, pre‑analysis plans, and ruthless documentation. (Booking Partner)
Quote to post in the team Slack: “It’s actually less risky to run a large number of experiments than a small number.” — Stefan Thomke (HBR) (Harvard Business Review)
4) Speed up your site and app—milliseconds make millions
Deloitte analyzed billions of visits and found that a 0.1s speed improvement lifted retail conversion rates by 8.4% (and 10.1% for travel). If you do only one technical project for growth this quarter, make it performance. (Deloitte)
Try this week: Ship critical‑path performance fixes (image compression, lazy loading, HTTP/2, preconnect), and watch conversion at constant traffic.
5) Strip friction from sign‑up and checkout
The average cart abandonment rate hovers around ~70% across studies. Baymard’s research shows smaller, clearer forms and hiding non‑essential fields can materially lift conversion (e.g., delaying account creation, collapsing “Address Line 2,” removing coupon distractions). (Baymard Institute)
Actionable: Audit your forms; aim for a single “Name” field, delayed billing fields, and as few visible inputs as possible on each step.
6) Beat competitors with speed‑to‑lead
In one of HBR’s most‑cited studies, firms that contacted web leads within 1 hour were ~7x more likely to qualify them than those that waited longer; MIT/InsideSales data shows contact odds fall 100x between 5 and 30 minutes. Embed instant scheduling and live chat at “Request a demo” and measure response time. (Harvard Business Review)
7) Use cross‑channel lifecycle messaging to lift retention
Don’t rely on one channel. Braze’s analysis shows brands see an average 56% uplift in 90‑day retention for each new channel added (up to six). Orchestrate in‑product prompts with email, push/SMS, and messaging apps to guide users to “first value,” then to habit. (Braze)
8) Personalize experiences where it matters
McKinsey’s research found companies that excel at personalization drive 40% more revenue from those activities than average players; typical revenue lift from personalization is 10–15%. Start with triggered messages based on behavior and role. (McKinsey & Company)
9) Put social proof to work (reviews, ratings, “as used by …”)
Spiegel Research Center showed that showing reviews can increase conversion dramatically for many products, and that a modest number of reviews often beats a perfect score with no reviews (because perceived authenticity matters). If you sell B2B, case studies and logos play a similar role. (Medill Spiegel Research Center)
10) Engineering as marketing: ship a free tool
HubSpot’s Website Grader is the classic example—first grading 1M sites, then 4M+ a couple years later—fueling a massive top‑of‑funnel awareness and leads. Ask: what calculator, grader, or template gives your ICP instant insight and naturally tees up your product? (HubSpot)
11) Own high‑intent SEO (because most pages get no traffic)
Ahrefs observed that 96.55% of pages get zero search traffic from Google. Translation: focus on topics with search demand, match intent precisely, and build internal links. Publish fewer, better pages that solve real jobs to be done. (Ahrefs)
12) Scale programmatic SEO (carefully)
Programmatic SEO creates thousands of high‑quality, templated pages from a structured dataset (e.g., integration pages, templates, locations). Zapier and others have documented the approach—use it where queries are long‑tail and intent is transactional. Quality and uniqueness still rule. (Zapier)
13) Install a two‑sided referral loop
Academic research tracking ~10,000 bank customers found referred customers are at least 16% more valuable on average (higher margins and retention). Dropbox’s referral program “permanently increased signups by 60%,” proving that clear incentives + seamless UX can turn word‑of‑mouth into a machine. (Wharton Faculty Platform)
Design tip: Reward both referrer and referee; surface referral CTAs at moments of delight (after achieving first value).
14) Qualify and route PQLs (product‑qualified leads)
OpenView observes that PQLs often convert at 15–30%, far outpacing traditional MQLs. Feed sales with product usage signals (e.g., crossing a usage threshold, hitting a paywall, inviting collaborators). (OpenView)
15) Test a reverse trial to 2–3× conversion
In a reverse trial you default new users to premium for a short period, then roll them down to free unless they opt‑in to pay. OpenView reports reverse trials are often 2–3× more effective than freemium at converting users because value is experienced up‑front.
16) Add a sales‑assist motion on top of PLG
Product‑led ≠ sales‑less. The highest‑growth PLG companies pair self‑serve adoption with a product‑led sales (PLS) team that engages at the right moment based on usage and firmographics. OpenView’s blueprint details the plays used by Slack, Atlassian, and Figma.
17) Treat pricing & packaging as a core growth lever
ProfitWell/Paddle’s analyses argue monetization changes can dwarf acquisition—e.g., “monetization has nearly 8× the impact of acquisition,” and updating pricing quarterly can deliver 2–4× higher ARPU. Simon‑Kucher’s global studies likewise underscore that pricing power is a primary driver of profitable growth. Iterate tiers, price metrics, and localization. (Paddle)
18) Localize to unlock new markets
CSA Research found 76% of online shoppers prefer products with information in their own language, and 40% will never buy from websites in other languages. Start with marketing site pages, onboarding flows, and help docs for your top 1–3 growth geographies. (CSA Research)
19) Run win‑back sequences for inactive users/customers
Don’t let churned or lapsed users fade away. Return Path/Validity’s research shows win‑back emails can be effective, and other analyses report that ~45% of recipients of a win‑back email go on to open subsequent messages. Use a short series with a tangible “come back” incentive. (Validity)
20) Engineer onboarding to first value (and make it delightful)
Superhuman famously ran a high‑touch, white‑glove onboarding to get new users to their “aha” moment fast—and used PMF survey insights to tighten every step. Even if you’re self‑serve, you can borrow the principle: guided checklists, default data, empty‑state examples, and a single clear success path for the first session. (First Round)
A simple operating cadence to make these stick
Weekly: Review a single growth board with your input metrics (traffic by source, signups, activation rate, TTV), output metrics (retained WAU/MAU, expansion, ARPU), and a 3–5 experiment backlog. Tie every experiment to a hypothesis and a target metric. (Harvard Business Review)
Monthly: Ship at least one pricing/packaging experiment (positioning, fences, add‑ons) and one lifecycle experiment (new trigger or channel). (Paddle)
Quarterly: Do a friction audit—speed (Core Web Vitals), forms, localization, and help content; refresh your SEO map (what you should rank for vs. what you do). (Deloitte)
Key quotes to rally the team
“The reality of growth is that there is never a silver bullet.” — Brian Balfour. Build the machine. (Brian Balfour)
“Personalization leaders drive 40% more revenue from those activities.” — McKinsey. Don’t spray and pray. (McKinsey & Company)
“Referral program… permanently increased signups by 60%.” — Dropbox slide (Drew Houston). Loops beat lines. (waitlist-image-bucket.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com)
Conclusion
Validate PMF (40% rule).
Build the system: North Star, loops, experimentation.
Attack the compounding fundamentals: speed, friction, lifecycle, personalization, social proof.
Layer on programs: SEO (including programmatic), referrals, PQL/PLS, pricing, localization, win‑back.
Do this, and you’ll give yourself not just a set of “hacks,” but a growth engine that compounds.