Ward van Gasteren is a growth hacker, despite the fact some people in the field prefer growth marketing or just growth. He believes that hacking should be an independent effort from ongoing marketing efforts.Van Gasteren stated that growth hacking is a great way to boost growth, find new opportunities, and test out which tactics work. Marketers need to be there to carry on the work of growth hackers: maintain customer engagement, build strategies and update tactics.It is not possible to choose between a growth hacker and a digital marketer. The fields have very different focus areas, but they are actually complementary.He is based in The Netherlands and has created his own growth hacking course, Grow with Ward. He also worked with large companies such as TikTok and Cisco and started startups like Cyclemasters and Somnox. Van Gasteren discusses the importance of creating internal processes that support growth over the long-term, today's state of growth, and his own development in the conversation.This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.How do you believe being a certified growth hacker sets you apart? What has the certification meant for your approach to working with clients?Growth Tribe was offering multimonth traineeships at the time, and I was privileged to be part of their first class. A certification is a way to show that a certified growth hacker is knowledgeable about the entire process. This means that they can look at many different ways to help people grow.Many cowboy growth hackers simply repeat the same tactics. Instead of working from a repeatable process that identifies problems through data, you will use a non-biased prioritization system for ideas, identify and prioritize issues, and focus on long-term lessons over direct impact. You can prove that you have the skills and knowledge to do it.What time do you believe clients should invest in your beginner growth hacking course on your website instead of working directly with you?To make growth hacking more accessible to a wider audience, I created the course. I found that most growth hacking courses were either very inexpensive ($200) or focused on short-term growth strategies. Because I believe everyone should have the knowledge to create a system to achieve long-term sustainable development, I created my own course. I also know that one-on-one sessions with me can be too costly.Particularly if you are looking at junior marketers or students, I created a beginner growth hacking course for them that will teach them 20% of what is required to get the first 80% of their results.Your website explains that growth hacking has some differences from marketing. How can clients decide whether to work with you, a growth hacker or a marketer?It is not an easy decision to make between a growth hacker and a digital marketer. The fields have very different focus areas, but they are actually complementary. Growth hacking can be a great way to kickstart growth and test new opportunities. It also allows you to see which tactics work. Marketers need to be there to carry on the work of growth hackers: maintain customer engagement, build strategies and update tactics. A growth hacker is not the right person to manage your marketing strategies. They are eager to take on new growth opportunities and get bored if they don't have to test them.Most of the time I assist clients to get up to speed and show them which opportunities are worth their while giving them a strategy to implement. I then hand it over for long-term execution to marketing and coach them in execution. When there is a need, I step back in.What are some common myths surrounding growth hacking?Many growth hackers still see growth hacking as the perfect approach. We can always make the right moves thanks to our data-driven method of working. This is false. The hard data you see in your analytics tools can only tell what is slowing your growth down, not why. Many growth hackers fill the gap with their assumptions to maintain their speed. While we may be able to see the why, many of them are not sustainable over long-term.Soft data is what you need, in addition to hard data. It's the why. This can be achieved by talking to customers, conducting hypothesis-focused experiments that are not result-focused, and possibly looking at customer feedback or surveys. When I use soft data feedback with my clients, I find that our experiment effectiveness increases from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3.What are the trends in growth hacking right now?The growth industry is maturing. There are fewer hacks, more teams and a greater focus on speed. Everyone in the field is quickly learning the best practices and implementing them faster. What then? To be able implement highly relevant and sophisticated strategies for our businesses, we need to have more knowledge, qualitative feedback, and a systematic approach to scaling up our impact. As the field matures, people are starting to ditch the "shoestring tools".I am currently developing a tool called Upgrow to help growth teams manage their experiment velocity and report to stakeholders. It also allows them to systemize knowledge retention, which is essential for building companywide knowledge. This software is essential for mature growth teams to manage the stress caused by company growth.What are the biggest mistakes startups make?Many startups continue to improve their products for years. There will always be another feature. You will only be able to benefit from your customers' growth. You can put a Coming Soon link on your website to highlight the new features, and then you can start selling them and scaling up your growth efforts. Different channels will bring different types of users, which will have different needs, so you need to adapt constantly. You don't have to do this right now.
