Newsletter - What all engineers can learn from growth engineers

[ivanagas]

Summary

Write a short paragraph on what this article is about. If applicable, what's the opinion or point we want to make in this article?

A combing some of our articles on growth engineers into a practical newsletter on what everyone can learn from them.

Inspo:

• https://posthog.com/blog/what-is-a-growth-engineer
• https://posthog.com/product-engineers/how-to-start-a-growth-team
• https://posthog.com/product-engineers/fixing-growth-problems

Where will it be published?

select any that apply

• Blog
• Founders Hub
• Newsletter
• Product engineers Hub
• Tutorials
• Other (please specify)

Why type of article is this?

select any that apply

• High intent (i.e. comparisons and similar)
• Brand / opinionated (how we work and why, etc.)
• High-level guide (concepts, frameworks, ideas, etc.)
• Low-level guide (step-by-step guide / tutorial)
• Other (please specify)

Who is the primary audience?

select any that apply

• Founders
• Engineers
• Growth
• Marketing
• HackerNews
• Existing PostHog users
• Potential PostHog users

Headline options

suggest a few angles

Why all engineers should be growth engineers

What all engineers can learn from growth engineers

The ultimate guide to becoming a great growth engineer

Will it need custom art?

• Yes
• No

Outline (optional)

draft headings / questions you want to answer

• How are growth engineers different from regular engineers
  • Dogmatic towards metrics growth (signups, revenue) rather than pragmatic. More data driven.
  • Experimental
  • Growth are platform focused where most engineers are product focused.
• What do growth engineers actually do (at PostHog)
  • Billing
    • Pricing
  • Signup and activation
  • Onboarding
• Creating an experimentation mindset
  • You get an A/B test, you get an A/B test
  • Test things before shipping them, identify areas that need testing
  • Generate lots of hypothesis
  • It turns out a lot of changes do nothing or decrease important metrics
  • Get buy in
• How to experiment well
  • You are going to fail
  • Make small changes
  • Get comfortable with you A/B testing tools
  • Avoid pitfalls
• Caring about the money (or data)
  • SHOW ME THE MONEY - GROWTH ENGINEERS EVERYWHERE
  • Your first experiments should happen where your metrics suck (low hanging fruit)
  • Look at impact in terms of dollars
• When should you put on your growth engineer hat?
  • Grow about overall business and making all products grow faster. It is like pumping more gas on the fire.
  • Not good when you don’t have anything to grow
  • It is fine to do a sprint of growth