Ten Growth Tactics That Never Work

A comprehensive anti-pattern list of growth tactics that consistently fail despite their popularity

Elena Verna
10 growth tactics that never work

Ten Growth Tactics That Never Work

"Growth is a fairly new field... In the age of social media everybody and anybody tries to share their tips and tricks. Oftentimes things that are completely out of context or they are very specific to one example and actually do not apply as a pattern." - Elena Verna

What It Is

Elena Verna's comprehensive list of growth tactics and approaches that consistently fail despite being popular recommendations. These are patterns she's observed repeatedly across advising dozens of companies and operating at companies like Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, and SurveyMonkey.

The list addresses both strategic mistakes (like hiring timing) and tactical failures (like color optimization tests), helping growth teams avoid wasting resources on approaches with poor track records.

The Ten Anti-Patterns

1. Hiring a Growth Team Too Early

The mistake: Hiring growth before product-market fit and before having enough data to experiment on.

Why it fails: Growth teams can amplify product-market fit, not create it. Without PMF and data, there's nothing to optimize.

The fix: Wait until you have solid PMF, retention, and enough user volume to run experiments. Founder-led growth should come first.

2. Hiring Growth to Fix a Declining Business

The mistake: Bringing in a head of growth when the business is slowing down, expecting them to reverse the trajectory.

Why it fails: Growth teams can optimize by 10-15%, not fix fundamental product or marketing issues causing decline.

The fix: Address the root cause first. At minimum, plateau the decline before bringing in growth.

3. Homepage/Brand Redesigns for Growth

The mistake: Promising acquisition or conversion lifts from marketing site redesigns or rebrands.

Why it fails: Every rebrand Elena has seen is a step backward in performance, requiring 3-6 months of optimization to recover.

The fix: Redesign if necessary for strategic reasons, but budget for a performance hit and extensive post-launch optimization.

4. Copying Competition

The mistake: Replicating competitor flows, thinking "if it works for them, it'll work for us."

Why it fails: You don't know if you're seeing their control experience, a test cell, or personalized content. Their context differs from yours.

The fix: Use competition for inspiration and pattern recognition, but never skip your own ideation, research, and testing.

5. Thinking Your Problem is Unique

The mistake: Approaching every challenge as if no one has solved it before.

Why it fails: Your problem has almost certainly been solved somewhere. Re-engineering wastes cycles.

The fix: Talk to people who've solved similar problems. Hire advisors. Look for patterns. Get to 60% of the solution through research.

6. Over-Investing in Rented Channels

The mistake: Growth teams focusing primarily on SEO, SEM, and social paid advertising.

Why it fails: You're making Google/Meta richer while building no defensible advantage. Algorithms giveth and taketh.

The fix: Prioritize earned/owned channels (virality, UGC, referrals) that competitors can't buy their way into.

7. Not Evolving Growth Models

The mistake: Sticking with what worked instead of layering new growth models.

Why it fails: Growth loops spin out. The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs means over-optimization yields diminishing returns.

The fix: Every 18 months, introduce something new. Every 5 years, you need a major new growth engine.

8. Not Hiring Advisors

The mistake: Trying to figure everything out internally without external input.

Why it fails: Advisors compress learning time dramatically. They've seen the patterns you're discovering.

The fix: Pay advisors. Workshop with them before hiring. Evaluate monthly. They accelerate everything.

9. Testing Everything (Experimentation Paralysis)

The mistake: Requiring statistical significance for every change before shipping.

Why it fails: If you can't get sample size in a month, the test isn't worth running. It paralyzes velocity.

The fix: Trust intuition more. Use pre/post measurement. Reserve experiments for high-traffic, high-stakes decisions.

10. Quick Fire Failures

  • Color optimizations: Blue is blue is blue. Don't test shades.
  • Third-party signups: Adding Google Auth won't drive acquisition (unless you're a dev tool needing GitHub).
  • One email wonders: Single emails never work. Think series, not one-offs.
  • Obsessing over removing friction: Simplifying is a solution, not a problem. Know the actual problem first.

How to Apply It

  1. Audit your roadmap against this list. Flag items that match these patterns.

  2. For hiring decisions: Wait for PMF and data volume before hiring growth. Wait for business stabilization before expecting miracles.

  3. For redesigns: Budget for a performance hit. Plan 3-6 months of post-launch optimization.

  4. For experimentation: Ask "Can we get sample size in a month?" If no, don't test—ship and measure pre/post.

  5. For channel strategy: Map what percentage of acquisition comes from owned vs rented channels. Start shifting.

When to Use It

  • During roadmap planning and prioritization
  • When evaluating growth team structures and hiring timing
  • When pressure mounts to "do something" about declining metrics
  • When tempted to copy a competitor's approach
  • When launching redesign initiatives

Source

  • Guest: Elena Verna
  • Episode: "10 growth tactics that never work"
  • Key Discussion: (00:00:21) - Full list walkthrough
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

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