Sean Ellis
Growth Pioneer & Author at Author of Hacking Growth / Former Head of Growth at Dropbox & Eventbrite
Sean Ellis coined the term 'growth hacking,' invented the ICE framework, developed the Sean Ellis test for product-market fit, was head of growth at Dropbox and Eventbrite, and co-founded LogMeIn (sold for $4B+).
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Sean Ellis shares the origin and application of his famous product-market fit test (how would you feel if you could no longer use this product?), the ICE prioritization framework, and why you should ignore 'somewhat disappointed' users who tell you your product is merely nice-to-have. He covers when to invest in growth versus when to fix product-market fit first.
Leadership Principles
- → Ask users 'how would you feel if you could no longer use this product?' — very disappointed = product-market fit
- → Ignore 'somewhat disappointed' users — they're telling you it's a nice-to-have that could dilute your must-have
- → Don't invest in growth until you've validated product-market fit through the disappointed user test
Notable Quotes
"How would you feel if you could no longer use this product? Once you got a high enough percentage saying they'd be very disappointed, most of those products did pretty well."
— On the Sean Ellis test that transformed how startups measure product-market fit
"Ignore the people who say they'd be somewhat disappointed. They're telling you it's a nice to have. If you start tweaking based on their feedback, you're going to dilute it for your must-have users."
— On the counterintuitive advice to focus only on 'very disappointed' users
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