The original growth hacker reveals his secrets | Sean Ellis (author of “Hacking Growth”)

Ellis uses a question about how someone would feel if the product disappeared to identify users who care strongly about it. The most useful next step is learning why those people value it. The question is a discovery tool here, not a numerical certification of product-market fit.

He describes asking what benefit a user gets and then why it matters. A benefit such as finding information faster gains meaning through the problem behind it. Customer language can explain the situation the product helps with more clearly than a generic feature list.

Ellis connects positioning with the benefit that important users describe. The message should help the right people understand what experience they are coming for. A mismatch between the promise and the useful experience can make onboarding harder.

In his historical example, he paired a clearer promise with a more focused first experience. The point was to shorten the path to the benefit users already valued. It is an account of the approach, not a current security-product recommendation or a guaranteed conversion tactic.

Ellis distinguishes people who see the product as essential from those who see it as a nice-to-have. He worries that optimizing only for lukewarm feedback can dilute what the strongest users value. Use the distinction as a lens while still investigating why different users respond differently.

He says evaluating new onboarding calls for feedback from users who actually went through it, rather than only from a mixed older population. Match the feedback source to the question being asked. People who have seen a demo are not the same as people who have used the product.

Ellis says the question may not fit one-off experiences and that companies can still fail despite strong user attachment. A useful response therefore does not settle execution, delivery or future growth. Keep the discovery signal separate from a claim that the business is now safe.