Growth Hacking verses User Experience. How the 2 disciplines can work together and be aligned.

1. Marcella Missirian
@Marcella_UX
Growth Hacking & User Experience:
A love story?

2. Not quite…

3. Marcella Missirian
President UXPA of Los Angeles
CEO Media Mash UX, Inc.
CEO Marcella Creative, Inc.
Entrepreneur, UX fanatic, designer, mentor and cook.
Marcella's work has been seen globally and has inspired an
entire generation of UX professionals. She continues to set
the standard for usability and UX that is functional, delightful
and rich in emotional experience!
Marcella is the President of UXPALA (User Experience
Professional Association of Los Angeles) and active
participant at many design, ux and technology events
throughout the world.
http://www.meetup.com/UXPALA/
@Marcella_UX
Linkedin
WHO IS MARCELLA & WHY SHOULD
YOU LISTEN TO HER?

4. Growth hackers
find creative solutions
to growth and user
acquisition-related
goals within a product.
User Experience iterates
and tests to engineer
solutions for user needs.
UX solves problems for
“personas” or aggregate
traits of the majority of
users.
Digital marketers
promote brands and
increase conversions
through targeted,
measurable,
and interactive
techniques.
Digital Marketing Growth Hackers User Experience
SO… WHICH CAME FIRST?

5. ORIGINS
Sean Ellis coined the term "growth hacker" in 2010
Growth Hacking
Don Norman popularised the term “user experience”
while working at Apple in the 1990’s. But UX/Usability/Human Factors/Human
Computer Interaction has been around since the 1940’s and is based on
Psychology and Ergonomics of the human condition.
User Experience
Growth Hackers User Experiencevs
5 years +80 years

6. FUNCTION
…tends to focus on tweaking product or existing marketing to acquire users.
Growth Hacking
…is fundamentally about the relationship between people and anything
that’s NOT human be it a product, service or experience. It’s about identifying
and designing relationships.
….as well as focusing on business growth and commercial value.
User Experience is based on academic principles of human observation in the
field of psychology, sociology and other research related fields.
User Experience

7. COMPARISON
It's easy to get Growth Hacking
and UX confused.
Both advance their goals through
understanding human behavior.
How can we increase
conversions or brand
affinity?
What do our customers
need, and how can we best
serve them?
Growth Hackers User Experiencevs

8. COMPARISON
Growth Hackers User Experiencevs
Increase conversions through
improving experience
User view
Qualitative (feelings)
Strategic
Long term
All Testing
(Quantitative/Qualitative)
Making things people want –
fulfilling emotional needs
Addresses business needs
Continuously revising and
reiterating to make products
better
Focuses on empathy not profits
Increase conversions
Business view
Quantitative (numbers)
Tactical
Short Term
Mostly only A/B Testing
Making people want
things/manipulation

9. BUSINESS
User Experience can help Growth Hackers
gather valuable intelligence around how to
sell or position a product to appeal
to user wants and needs.

10. UNDERSTANDING UX
BUT a Growth Hacker should never ask a
UX Designer to…
“GoDaddy” a website, stuffing
it full of unnecessary crap that
annoys and frustrates in the name
of an extra $7.99 a year.

11. UNDERSTANDING UX
Nor should a UX Designer be asked to conceive of
solutions that exists solely to trick the user
into a poor decision. Dark UX…

12. UNDERSTANDING UX
These types of manipulative experiences are
counterintuitive to business growth.
The way that people interact with brands
has changed. It’s not enough to simply tell
people you have a product they want or
need.
• They need to experience it.
• They need to feel it.
• They need to love it.

13. UX IN PRACTICE
UX Designers and Growth Hacking
work well together if…
UX Designers are focusing on
empathetic long-term experiences
which is their job.

14. UX IN PRACTICE
Creating beautiful and usable interfaces is
a small part of a UX Designers job
Growth Hacking can generate followers
and revenue for the next 2 quarters but
building a great product/service will
generate revenue for the next 2 years.

15. UX FOR THE WIN!
User experience
is its own form of growth hacking.
User experience + growth hacking = magic!

16. ACTIONABLE UX FOCUS FOR
GROWTH HACKING
1. Optimizing Visitor & User Experience.
2. Customer Onboarding.
3. Empathetic Page Actions.