Where can I learn more about this field? What blogs, books, etc do you recommend? Where can I find sample data for things like Google Analytics and Mixpanel?
Also, is there a less buzz-wordy term for what I am interested in?
That is not growth hacking. GH is socially engineering a positive response from a given marketplace. It focuses on getting conversion rates from the average 10% to the tipping point of 15-18%. GH is not for the faint of heart because it requires you to develop systems that are not very socially acceptable. Not immoral, or illegal though.
How do you learn GH?
It requires a lot of time, money, and guts. Plus testing. And lots of it. Is there way straightforward way of learning it? Not really. It does require that you study a lot of different subjects and master each of them. Negotiations, sales, copywriting, closes, pitches, writing, body language, inflection, general psychology, behavioural psychology, deception, the art of war, and a lot more.
You can, however, learn how to create marketing campaigns that proof to be profitable and might look like a "hack". That is the easy part. The hard part is making sure that the growth stays. Few can manage that, and nobody is telling.
https://www.quora.com/Growth-Hacking
and then read this blog post by Andrew Chen on becoming a growth hacker:
http://andrewchen.co/2012/05/11/how-do-i-learn-to-be-a-growt...