Growth at what cost? Balancing user experience and revenue

(Without losing your soul)

Everyone working on growing a business eventually runs into the uncomfortable question: Do we chase revenue at all costs, or focus on creating amazing user experiences and hope the money follows?

Your knee-jerk reaction might be, “User experience, obviously.” But if you’ve spent any time in product, marketing, or growth, you know it’s not that simple. There’s a constant, very real tension between doing what’s best for the user and doing what’s best for the bottom line - it’s the classic push and pull we wrestle with every day.

And here’s the real question: At what point do these well-intentioned growth efforts start becoming, well...shady?

The psychology behind growth

What we don’t talk about enough is that a big part of our jobs is figuring out user psychology: what makes people tick and what makes them ick. And then using that knowledge to “nudge” them toward clicking that button, signing up, or upgrading.

Most common human emotions that companies leverage are:

• Loss aversion: Reminding pe…