Approaches to product growth changed when growth hacking came onto the scene more than a decade ago. But like any influential concept, growth hacking has inspired criticism, diverse schools of thought, and more than a few misconceptions.

As we describe here, there is no authoritative, one-size-fits-all definition of growth hacking. But in the most general terms, it is a process aimed at communicating the key value of a product to the largest possible audience. These efforts span the entire product and marketing funnel and involve software engineers, designers, and analysts. A number of spin-off methodologies and frameworks have emerged containing many of the same principles.

In this article, we’ll cover:

  • Where growth hacking came from
  • First examples of successful growth hacking
  • Myths surrounding growth hacking
  • Legacy and evolution of the growth hacking concept

Follow along for a chronological look at the events, talks, and key essays that have shaped the history of growth hacking.

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Why growth hacking was needed

Growth hacking started as a reaction to the problem of how to divide responsibilities between product and marketing teams. Historically, product and marketing have been siloed off from each other. The product team would work on the core value of the product, which is to say on achieving and strengthening product/market fit. In parallel, marketing, PR, and sales teams would surface this value to users from the target market through traditional promotional channels.

But with digital products, these boundaries began to blur. Some tasks straddled these silos and it wasn’t clear who to assign them to. Things became even more complicated with viral mechanisms and large platforms, which were simultaneously an important part of the product and a channel for distributing it.

One attempt to solve this problem, before growth hacking came along, was Facebook’s growth team in 2007–2009.