---
title: Hacking Growth — the book | RGM® Glossary
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/hacking-growth/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/hacking-growth/
---

# Hacking Growth

/ˈhækɪŋ ɡɹoʊθ/proper noun

Not tricks — a meeting cadence, a backlog, a metric, and the discipline to keep the loop spinning.

Authors
:   Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown

Published
:   2017, Crown Business

Core unit
:   The cross-functional growth team

Cadence
:   High-tempo testing, weekly

## Forms & parts of speech

growth hacking · noun (from the movement)

The discipline the book systematized.

"Read **Hacking Growth** before you hire — it's an org design, not a person."

## What the book says

*Hacking Growth* converts the growth-hacking movement Ellis started into an operating manual: assemble a cross-functional team (marketing, product, engineering, data), confirm the product is must-have first (the 40% survey), find your growth equation and North Star metric, then run the high-tempo loop — analyze, ideate, prioritize (their ICE score — impact, confidence, ease), test, repeat weekly. Part two walks the funnel: acquisition, activation, retention, monetization, each with its own experiment patterns.

## The ideas people quote

Growth is a process, not a bag of tactics; the must-have test before any scaling; ICE prioritization to keep the backlog honest; the aha moment — the experience that turns sign-ups into devotees (Facebook's seven friends in ten days) — and activation as the funnel's most underrated stage; and language/market fit — the message tested as rigorously as the product.

## How to read it now

It remains the best single onboarding document for a new growth team — not because the tactics are fresh (some aged) but because the operating system holds: one metric, one backlog, one weekly tempo, every function in the room. Read it alongside the loops school (Winters, Balfour) for what compounds, and Kohavi for keeping the tests honest.

**Worked example.** A startup 'does growth' as a marketer with a Canva account. The book's reorg: a squad with an engineer and analyst, the 40% survey run first (result: 31% — fix activation before acquisition), a North Star of weekly active teams, and a Monday growth meeting with ICE-scored backlog. Twelve weeks and forty experiments later, activation is up 60% — and the team can say exactly which six changes did it, because the process kept the receipts.

**Failure modes to watch.** Hiring a 'growth hacker' instead of building the cross-functional team the book actually prescribes; running the tempo without the must-have check; and letting ICE scores hide big bets behind easy wins forever.

## Synonyms & antonyms

### Synonyms

Hacking Growth

## Origin & history

Written 2015-2016 as the systematization of what Ellis had been teaching since his 2010 coining post and the GrowthHackers community's case library; Morgan Brown brought the operator's documentation. Crown Business published it in April 2017.

Etymology: [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Ellis_(entrepreneur)).

## Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

[View interest-over-time on Google Trends →](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=hacking%20growth%20book&date=today%205-y)

## Common questions

Who wrote Hacking Growth?
:   Sean Ellis, who coined growth hacking, and Morgan Brown — published 2017 as the movement's operating manual.

What is the book's method?
:   Cross-functional teams running high-tempo weekly experiment loops against a North Star metric, after confirming must-have status.

What is ICE scoring?
:   The book's prioritization — rate each experiment idea on Impact, Confidence, and Ease to rank the backlog.

## Related tools & calculators

- tool[Experiment planner](/tools/experiment-planner/)
- tool[Funnel drop-off analyzer](/tools/funnel-drop-off-analyzer/)

## Resources & people to follow

- book*Hacking Growth* — Ellis & Brown (the subject)
- referenceGrowthHackers.com — the companion community
- book*Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments* — Kohavi (the rigor layer)

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

## Related training

- module[Growth marketing foundations](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)

## Disciplines

Areas of marketing where hacking growth is a core concern:

[Growth strategy](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)[Analytics](/training/marketing-analytics/)

## Read next

## Related terms

[Sean Ellis](/glossary/sean-ellis/)[Growth marketing](/glossary/growth-marketing/)[North Star metric](/glossary/north-star-metric/)[Activation rate](/glossary/activation-rate/)[Pirate metrics (AARRR)](/glossary/pirate-metrics-aarrr/)

## Sources

1. trends[Google Trends — "hacking growth book"](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=hacking%20growth%20book&date=today%205-y)