GE 292: How Ethan Garr Mastered High-Tempo Testing and Why It’s the Key to Teltech’s Success (podcast)

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:56] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [01:38] Ethan is responsible for growth at Teltech.
• [01:55] Teltech has been building a portfolio for 12 years.
• [01:58] Their biggest product is RoboKiller, which stops robo-calls from attacking your phone and actually answers them with a robo-message that annoys them and wastes their time.
• [02:20] Ethan got his start at a PR firm, during the dotcom boom.
• [02:35] He eventually ended up working for Sean Ellis, who coined the term “growth hacking”.
• [04:47] All of Teltech’s products are in the privacy and security sphere.
• [05:05] Spoof Card allows you to change your Caller ID in order to protect yourself, not terrorize people, as originally believed.
• [05:43] Trapcall lets you unmask blocked Caller IDs, for those being harassed.
• [07:40] All of Teltech’s products are now built around safety and a little bit of revenge.
• [08:15] Teltech’s growth rate has been “fantastic”.
• [08:25] They don’t publish their user count, because spammers were using the information against them.
• [09:05] The High Growth Handbook talks about the importance of experimentation in business.
• [09:40] High-tempo testing is the key to Teltech’s success.
• [10:00] You need to commit to growth with a process in order to make it sustainable.
• [11:20] Teltech tries to have an engine of high-tempo testing constantly running.
• [12:36] Finding the optimal price for your product is the ultimate challenge.
• [13:00] Running tests to find the best price is a typical test that Ethan might run at Teltech.
• [15:20] It’s important to be very intentional about your testing.
• [15:30] Make sure that you have a clear hypothesis before running a test.
• [16:35] Teltech uses Growth Hacker’s North Star as a way to organize their testing process.
• [16:50] Trello is great, but North Star is a much more intense and efficient tool for testing.
• [22:55] Growth is not about prescription, it’s about inspiration.
• [26:10] One of Ethan’s favorite stories of mistakes he and Teltech have made is the time they wanted to run a test. They borrowed a person from engineering to build the test.
• [27:00] If customers were on a basic or premium plan, when it came time to renew, Teltech wanted to offer a one-week trial upgrade.
• [27:23] The engineer realized there was too much complexity to upgrading in the time-frame they wanted.
• [27:46] They abandoned the test, as it was a complete failure.
• [28:03] They realized it was a failure, because the engineer didn’t completely understand the goal of the test, as he wasn’t a member of the team; he didn’t have the context.
• [29:45] Teltech ran another test to try out Apple Pay.
• [30:02] The test wasn’t successful, but realized they could have done less to learn just as much.
• [31:35] Ethan’s team has a growth meeting every two weeks.
• [33:40] Across all products, Ethan likes to run 15-20 tests per week.
• [33:54] One tool that Ethan thinks has added value to his work or life is App Supplier.
• [34:18] Ethan recommends the book A Voyage for Madmen.

Resources from the interview:

• Teltech
• Ethan on LinkedIn
• RoboKiller
• Spoof Card
• Trap Call
• Must-read books:
  • The High Growth Handbook
  • Here’s How to Ruin an Experiment
  • How to Kick-Start your Growth Process
  • A Voyage for Madmen

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