Sean Ellis is one of the earliest and most influential thinkers and operators in growth. He coined the term “growth hacking,” invented the ICE prioritization framework, was one of the earliest people to use freemium as a growth lever, and, most famously, developed the Sean Ellis Test for product-market fit (which a large percentage of founders use today to track if they’ve found PMF). Over the course of his career, Sean was head of growth at Dropbox and Eventbrite; helped companies like Microsoft and Nubank refine their growth strategy; was on the founding team of LogMeIn, which sold for over $4 billion; and is the author of one of the most popular growth books of all time, Hacking Growth, which has sold over 750,000 copies. In our conversation, he shares:

• The proper use of the Sean Ellis Test for measuring product-market fit

• How to increase your activation and retention rates

• How to select the right North Star metric for your business

• Case studies from his work growing Dropbox and other products

• How growth strategy has changed over the past decade

• How AI is impacting growth efforts

• Much more

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Find the transcript and show notes at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-original-growth-hacker-sean-ellis

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Where to find Sean Ellis:

• X: https://x.com/seanellis

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanellis/

• Website: https://www.seanellis.me/

• Substack: https://substack.com/@seanellis

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Sean’s background

(02:18) The Sean Ellis test explained

(06:28) The 40% rule

(08:06) Case study: improving product-market fit

(12:34) Understanding and leveraging customer feedback

(16:50) Challenges and nuances of product-market fit

(22:22) When to use the Sean Ellis Test

(23:46) When not to use the Sean Ellis Test and other caveats

(27:13) Defining your own threshold and how the Sean Ellis Test came about

(36:13) Tools for implementing the survey 

(37:30) Transitioning from surveys to retention cohorts

(39:13) Nubank’s approach

(40:18) Case study: Superhuman’s strategy for increasing product-market fit

(45:18) Coining the term “growth hacking”

(48:24) How to approach growth

(57:25) Improving activation and onboarding

(01:05:17) Identifying effective growth channels

(01:10:28) The power of customer conversations

(01:12:43) Developing the Dropbox referral program

(01:14:47) The importance of word of mouth

(01:15:23) Freemium models and engagement

(01:19:21) Picking a North Star metric

(01:24:30) The evolution of growth strategies

(01:27:12) The ICE and RICE frameworks

(01:30:11) AI’s role in growth and experimentation

(01:32:52) Final thoughts and lightning round

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.