https://firstround.com/review/pinterest-and-grubhubs-former-...
I absolutely can't stand the whole 'growth hacking' phenomenon, usually it boils down to doing something at someone else's expense in order to improve ones own position in the market. It's the mafia mentality brought to start-up land, suddenly you find you have a 'partner' that you did not choose who skims off a good portion of your profits.
I gather that initially it just meant "engineering focused on growth", and I can see how you might want it as a counterbalance; if you have teams devoted to beautiful UI and stable infrastructure, but not growing, it might get neglected.
But in practice, it mostly seems like a "dirty tricks" role. Dark signup patterns produce growth, fake competition produces growth, dishonest countdown timers and 'rooms remaining' counters produce growth. Having a role devoted to hustling either your users or your customers isn't a good look.
Pinterest is like ExpertSexChange dark pattern strategy taken to the max.
In every other system the “Mafia” takes the whole thing.