1. Be definitive
2. Map out the discipline
3. Clarify the process
4. Identity success and failure factors
5. Provide resources
6. Give support
7. Strategic in nature but operationally sound
8. Covers as much as possible without creating confusion

In all fairness, this can define the foundation of any domain your pursuing. The response is more critical in growth hacking; it’s a complex and dynamically moving discipline. Its technical and strategic blend makes for a complicated learning ground. You have growth hacking books from the technical side and growth hacking books that come from the strategic side.

The critical point is that as long as a growth hacking book has a strong foundation, you will have to get more than one book to cover the topic of growth hacking as a whole. Ideally, it would help if you started tackling growth hacking by taking on a strategic growth hacking book first. This gives you the high-level insights you need. From there, a technical growth hacking book helps you connect the dots.

What a good growth hacking book should cover

Let’s start with some burning questions you would be looking at for a growth hacking book to cover:

1. What is growth hacking?
2. Why is growth hacking important?
3. How does growth hacking work?
4. When should growth hacking be used?
5. How to develop the skills to hack growth?

These 5 high-level questions should be your guiding star to getting the right growth hacking books. Now keep in mind they will all answer these growth hacking questions differently. And that is a good thing. Building a more comprehensive perspective without being stuck into a single tunnel is part of being a growth hacker yourself. On average, reading three books help you do the following:

1. A strategic growth hacking book to give you a broad perspective and deep insights
2. A technical growth hacking book to provide you with the tools and skills to executive
3. A blended growth hacking book to provide you with the blend of strategic and technical aspects

This approach gives you the best base to work with when choosing the right growth backing books out there.

Growth hacking book reviews

Although one of the best measures is the review for books, they can be very missing, aside from the fact they may not be accurate or even fair. Using the reviews is one way, but the best way is to get actual referrals from people or ask people who have read the book.

Compare your mindset with those making the recommendation as it can be a poor review but brilliant for you and vice versa, of course. Hence, it’s essential to get more than one growth hacking book and use multiple perspectives and skills to shape your thinking.

Another thing to keep in mind, as growing practice in itself, older books may be outdated, and hence their review can be great for those times but not now. At the same time, some timeless classics always work. That is hard to determine right now as grow thacking is still a very young discipline altogether.

A growth hacker approach to learning

Books are a start, but they are not the only means. The most powerful tool out there aside from books is community-based practice. This is usually based on a book, then a course that brings the principles to life back with a community that practices those principles.

That is important to note as this gives you a dynamic approach to getting what you need skills-wise and keeping up to date with new creative practices no one else is aware of.

In the end, you will need great books combined with excellent resources and communities that supercharge your skills.

Top secret growth hacks in books 

The best growth hacks are secrets, and no book until today gives you any secrets. If you expect secrets in growth hacking, you will not find them in books but in closely-knit communities of highly influential players in the space.

From white-hat growth hacks that you can google to back-hat growth hacks no one will tell you, learning quickly and getting connected is vital. The grayscale is where the game’s name is, and courses will help and will book, but they will not give you an off-the-shelf answer. They will guide you towards being creative and even give you blueprints but not the secret itself.

Get connected with top and bestselling growth hacking book authors; they usually are part of very influential communities that design some of the top-secret growth hacks your desiring to access.

Bestselling growth hacking books picked

Here are ten picks that bring a good mix and should be a staple of every growth hacker’s library. Of course, this list isn’t comprehensive, and there are many more growth hacking books out there that can be very hopeful and should be read as well.

1. Ready, Set, Growth hack: A beginners guide to growth hacking success
2. Growth thinking: think, design, growth hack – a design approaching growth hacking
3. The Growth Handbook, Andrew Chen & Intercom-team
4. Growth Engines, Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown
5. Growth Hacker Marketing, Ryan Holiday
6. Hooked, Nir Eyal
7. 100 Days of Growth, Sujan Patel 
8. Scaling Up, Verne Harnish
9. Lean Marketing for Startups, Sean Ellis
10. Zero to One, Peter Thiel & Blake Masters

This is your best starting point for growth hacking books. It would help if you did not stop there many other incredible growth hacking books out there and many more to come. Keep updated with the top authors in the space and connect with them; they have several resources and tools that may surprise you.

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Introduction to growth thinking— growth by design, how to thinking design, and growth hack.

GROWTH BY DESIGN – Most Growth Hackers struggle to get traction for new ideas. A lack of guidance and exact next steps are to blame. Imagine if you could grow a new concept from beginning to end, with a framework to move from thought and action in a fast, simple, and low-cost approach. Actioning ideas with precision isn’t easy; with the growth thinking, science-backed design system built by the top minds in growth hacking, it’s a simple, well structured yet creative system that allows you to find growth.

Growth thinking is a fast, easy, and simple way to prototype growth hacks. This enables growth by visualizing a growth hack in abstract and then detailing them into a systematic approach. This makes it easy to develop and improve growth hacks and generate new, better growth hacks.

Benefits of the growth thinking design methodology — 

1. From idea to action – accurately and rapidly turn growth hacking ideas into execution quickly and cost-effectively,
2. Think at scale – quickly and effortlessly find methods to take an abstract growth hack, structure it, scale it, and
3. Save time and money – rapidly prototype your growth hacking ideas saving time and money.

This methodology uses a design system that Visualization, Systemize, Optimization, helps Rapid development, and instills Collaboration.