5 Growth experiments that broke the internet 🤯
Welcome to the 62nd edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
You curious soul 🙇🏻
If this newsletter has landed in your inbox, we trust that you know growth is not a hack, acquiring users who will never pay for your product is a crime, and that not setting up a growth team to run experiments can be the gravest of gravest mistakes. The idea of this issue is to understand the core insight that could help you solve your own growth problem.
Are you struggling at running growth experiments? 🤐
Then GrowthX experimentation sprint is built for you. Learn the science of generating the right user insight, building conviction, setting the right experiment and prioritising it in the GrowthX way. Plus understand lot more about structured approach to growth with some of the growth leaders from few examples in today’s issue.
GrowthX = {curated community + actionable frameworks + learn by doing}
Let’s get started.
Shazam 🎵
Rumour has it, Shazam used a problem to its advantage. We’ve all had those instances where the background noise is so loud that the app doesn’t catch the song. Right?
So, to spread the curiosity, the brand somewhat nudged the users to keep their phones closer to the speaker, peaking the interest of those who oddly looked at people pointing their phones to a speaker.
What happened?
500 million downloads, Boom!
The insight 💡
Deeply understood what would motivate the ideal user plus a hint of social FOMO.
Buffer 📝
It would have been such a shame had an app made for people who live and breathe content, did not use content for its growth.
We’re glad, Buffer not only just used it, but rocked it. Founder Leo Widrich basically taught marketers how to make the most of social media, ultimately soft launching buffer in all of it.
What happened?
0 to 100,000 users in just 9 months through guest blogging on other websites
The insight 💡
Sometimes selling the product also requires teaching why the user needs the product. Plus, Leo added real value to these learner’s perspective building trust.
Hotmail 📧
Ever sent or received an email with a sign - sent from iPhone? Well, Hotmail did it first. One of the company’s investor then suggested to add a signature, more like sign at the end of every email sent.
What happened?
1000s new signups overnight.
a million+ users in 6 months.
The insight 💡
Think of all the ways you can reachout to your end customer when you are serving an existing customer / user. Intercom did this with. chatbots too.
Facebook 📱
In 2007, Facebook’s growth has plateaued to 90 million users and let’s just say, Mark is not happy about this. He brings Chamath Palihapitiya to the team, he creates his team and names it the ‘growth circle’.
So the team ran many experiments, from SEO to chasing MAU to death, but one of the smartest moves that saved Facebook was launching ‘people you may know’. It stopped people from leaving Facebook.
What happened?
Retention curve flattened.
Casual users got into the power user zone.The insight 💡
With social network effect products → Value of the platform exponentially increases when you have other users who you can relate / know / jam with.
Dropbox ☁️
The genius of this cycle was that it first improved the experience of existing user, rewarded them for being loyal, and then asked them to bring a friend.
So why the hell not? Back in the day, Dropbox offered free 250mb storage to any user who’d bring a friend to the website and to the new user. This helped them increase sign ups by 60%.
What happened?
Dropbox got millions of downloads in first few months.
User retention skyrockets.The insight 💡
Think of what do your customer really value. The platform currency → for dropbox it was the storage space. Think, what is it for your users?
But importantly 🧠
These experiments weren’t hacks.
These were driven by hundreds of failed experiments and user research. Experimentation is hard and scaling successful experimentation is even harder.
Do you want to learn the art of setting the right experimentation and running it successfully ? Open the rabbit hole.