Growth Hackers and Hamsters

November 5th, 2020

The other day, a friend of mine got a hamster for his kid because kids love hamsters and hamsters love being loved by kids!

We also talked about his challenges with growth in large organisations, which brought up some thoughts…

Hamsters are cute and super fun to play with.

You can give a hamster some cabbage and the hamster will just start munching it down.
You can construct a maze and a hamster will run through it and get to the other side, predictably.
Hamsters climb things.
Hamsters run on wheels.
Hamsters do all the hamster things you’d expect hamsters to do.

Hackers, however, are not hamsters.

Hackers question constraints.
Hackers aren’t confined to the system; they hack the system!
Hackers find new ways to connect and build community.
Hackers seek experiments – where outcomes are unpredictable.

Repeatedly. Until they change something for somebody.

Growth in small organisations tangibly affects the bottom line, but as growth marketing becomes more professionalised and moves into ever larger organisations, the challenge for the growth team becomes: are we hackers or hamsters?

Are we pushing the unexplored, or just implementing tried and tested?
Are we the Innovation Department, or the extended Dev Team?

Are we spinning on wheels in cages – or making change happen?