Ep03: Former Facebook/Twitter/Quora Growth Expert Andy Johns Shares His Thoughts On User Growth

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Today’s interview is with Andy Johns, who was on the user growth team for Facebook, Twitter and Quora. He was recently an Entrepreneur in residence at Greylock Ventures and just joined Wealthfront‘s user growth team. There aren’t many people that are privileged enough to have worked on the growth team for massive businesses like Facebook so we’re very fortunate to have Andy join us.

Be sure to check out Andy’s essays on Quora – he contributes on topics such as What are some key decisions taken by the Growth Team at Facebook that helped Facebook reach 500 million users?

Key Takeaways

• • Entire DNA of company should be focused on growth.
  • If you need buy-in on growth, prove that it works. Go for the small wins initially.
  • Growth isn’t complicated.
  • Benefits
    • Very fast business education.
    • You become more data driven.
    • You learn how to move quickly and efficiently.
    • You learn how to improve what matters most.
    • All of this carries on with you wherever you go.
  • How to figure out that one key metric – you won’t have the data initially. But you need to keep measuring so you eventually have enough data to figure out what matters most.
  • Anyone can do this with a 3rd grade arithmetic level.
  • You must be able to explain things in simple terms to your team.
  • On Gut Feeling – The Battle Between Science + Religion
    • Gut checks do have their uses.
    • Data helps disprove things.
    • But religion might get upset when you do this.
    • Do not let terrible ideas have a long shelf life.
  • How to go work for a big startup?
    • Luck.
    • Teancity – cold e-mailing startups, trolling TechCrunch and getting some consulting gigs. Rinse and repeat.
    • Being aggressive.

Andy talks about the ‘growth mindset’ and I go into more detail in this blog post here.

Resources:

Andy’s Blog