Growth Hacking - Quiz’s answers

What is this article all about?

Last Monday I shared a Quiz about the book Hacking Growth here on LinkedIn.

The quiz has 10 questions about important concepts taught by Sean Ellis.

?If you want to take it, click here .

And below you’ll find all the answers with the explanation for each question.

Question 1) What is the “Field of Dreams” fallacy?

a- Build a standout product and the customers will come

b- Build a standout marketing strategy and customers will be retained

c- Marketing is more important than product

d- Product is more important than marketing

Answer 1) This term appears on page 7, when Sean talks about his experience at Dropbox.

“Houston [Dropbox founder] had created a product people truly loved, and that they were raving about to their friends, and yet wasn’t coming close to its potential for signing up new customers. This was a striking example of the Field of Dreams fallacy, still too popular in the start-up community; that is, the belief that all that’s needed is to build a standout product and ‘they [the customers] will come.’”

Question 2) Which one of the options below is NOT a core element of the growth hacking process?

a- The use of qualitative research and quantitative data analysis

b- The rapid generation and testing of ideas

c- The long-term strategic planning of experimentations

d- The creation of a cross-functional team

Answer 2) On page 13, Sean comments the core elements of the method:

“- the creation of a cross-functional team, or a set of teams that break down the traditional silos of marketing and product development and combine talents;

- the use of qualitative research and quantitative data analysis to gain deep insights into user behavior and preferences; and

- the rapid generation and testing of ideas, and the use of rigorous metrics to evaluate–and then act on–those results.”

So there is no long-term strategic planning for experimentation. Actually, such planning can hurt the process because the team needs the flexibility to change routes since each discovery brought by constant data analysis and the results of the experiments can point to a new direction.

If you already decided on all the experiments that will be running in the next 12 months, the team will be locked in it.

Question 3) Which role below is NOT mandatory for the growth team

a- Data Analyst

b- Product Manager

c- Software Engineers

d- Marketing Specialist

Answer 3) On pages 37-42, Sean tells who should be on the Growth teams. They are:

Growth lead, mandatory.

Product manager, mandatory, but depending on the size of the organization, this position may be filled by other staff.

Software engineers, mandatory.

Marketing specialist, not mandatory, but highly recommended for optimal results.

Data Analysts, mandatory, but some companies cannot afford someone full time.

Product designers, not mentioned, I believe it varies from company to company.

Question 4) What are the steps of “the growth hacking process”?

a- Analyze, Discuss, Prioritize, Test

b- Map, Ideate, Prioritize, Test

c- Analyze, Ideate, Plan, Test

d- Analyze, Ideate, Prioritize, Test

Answer 4) On page 44, Sean shares the steps of the growth hacking process that consist of:

Analyze: data analysis and insight gathering

Ideate: idea generation

Prioritize: experiment prioritization

Test: running the experiments

The other alternatives: Discuss, Map, Plan, I’ve just made it up.

Question 5) According to the first question of “the must-have survey,” which is

"How disappointed would you be if this product no longer existed tomorrow?

a) Very disappointed

b) Somewhat disappointed

c) Not disappointed (it really isn't that useful)

d) N/A - I no longer use it",

what has to be the product’s result to achieve must-have status?

a- 40% or more of responses “very disappointed”

b- 40% or more of responses “somewhat disappointed”

c- 25% or more of responses “very disappointed”

d- 25% or more of responses “somewhat disappointed”

Answer 5) On page 66, Sean teaches how to interpret the results:

“If 40 percent or more responses are ‘very disappointed,’ then the product has achieved sufficient must-have status, which means the green light to move full speed ahead gunning for growth”

“If 25 to 40 percent of respondents answer ‘very disappointed,’ then often what’s needed are tweaks either to the product or to the language used to describe the product and how to use it.”

“If less than 25 percent answer ‘very disappointed,’ it’s likely that either the audience you’ve attracted is the wrong fit for the product, or the product itself needs more substantial development before it’s ready for a growth push.”

Question 6) Which is the second measure to achieve must-have status?

a- LTV (Lifetime value) higher than CPA (Cost per acquisition)

b- NPS (Net promoter score)

c- retention rate

d- conversion rate

Answer 6) On page 69, Sean says:

“the second measure to use in assessing whether or not you’ve achieved must-have status is your product’s retention rate”

LTV higher than CPA is something that fluctuates and is not reliable for deciding about a must-have status.

NPS could possibly replace the must-have survey, but it’s not mentioned in Hacking Growth.

Conversion rate is not related to must-have status.

Question 7) What is the “fundamental growth equation”?

a- The North Star Equation

b- The core set of growth levers

c- All the funnel indicators

d- The Jaccard index

Answer 7) On page 91, Sean says:

“The first step in determining your growth strategy and figuring out where to focus is to understand which metrics matter most for your product’s growth. The best way to do this is to craft what Johns dubbed a company’s fundamental growth equation. This is a simple formula that represents all of the key factors that will combine to drive your growth; in other words, your core set of growth levers. This equation is different for every product or business”

Example, the eBay formula:

NUMBER OF SELLERS LISTING ITEMS ? NUMBER OF LISTED ITEMS ? NUMBER OF BUYERS ? NUMBER OF SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTIONS = GROSS MERCHANDISE VOLUME GROWTH

About the other options:

The North Star Equation: I’ve just made up this name. It doesn’t exist.

All the funnel indicators: this is another topic not related to this equation.

The Jaccard Index: this is a formula to determine how similar two products are to each other. Not related to the topic.

Question 8) What is the limit of user data?

a- Data can’t tell what people are doing

b- Data can’t tell why people behave the way they do

c- Data can’t be stored for a long period of time?

d- Data can’t be used to make strategic decisions

Answer 8) On page 101, Sean says:

“user data does have limits, even remarkably detailed data. After all, even the most sophisticated analysis can really only tell you definitely what users are doing, not why they’re behaving that way.”

Question 9) How long should the growth hacking process cycle take to be completed?

a- 1 or 2 weeks

b- 2 or 3 weeks

c- 3 or 4 weeks

d- 2 to 4 weeks

Answer 9) On page 113, Sean says:

“No matter what your product or what aspect you are testing, each turn through this cycle should be completed on a consistent interval, preferably in one or two weeks.”

I’m not helping you with question 10.

Because of this question, I told you you’d never score a 10.

It’s in the book, though. Good luck finding it!