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Help users build sustainable growth engines by transitioning from accidental word-of-mouth to structured referral programs and viral product loops.
Passed 22 of 23 test cases with the skill, and 18 of 23 without it.
and 3 more in the full report
5 fixed17 passed either way0 still failing1 broke
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
One of 5 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
Our consumer photo editing app has decent retention, but users rarely invite their friends or talk about it online. Please generate a step-by-step word-of-mouth optimization guide that includes strategies to increase user sharing rates, suggestions on where to place referral touchpoints throughout the user journey, and a diagnostic checklist to evaluate if our product features are inherently remarkable.
| Checked | Without skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| Advises against launching a formal referral program until baseline organic word-of-mouth is established. | Missed | Passed |
| Identifies that referral incentives cannot compensate for a lack of natural product remarkability. | Missed | Passed |
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
Turn user satisfaction into a high-leverage growth engine through organic advocacy and structured referral loops.
Help the user with referrals and word-of-mouth using insights from 13 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.
Rahul Vohra: "It is word of mouth. It is the virality you can't measure that isn't a mechanic that isn't in a feature. It is when one user spontaneously tells another user about your product."
Sustainable growth is earned through extraordinary quality and delight that makes a product worthy of spontaneous attention rather than temporary gimmicks.
Nilan Peiris: "But to get to recommendation, you're going to blow your user socks off. You have to give them an experience they didn't know was previously possible. And when you are in that place of doing something that no one has ever done before, that's when you get it."
To trigger true word-of-mouth, the product must be exponentially better than the status quo, typically by being significantly faster, cheaper, or easier to use.
From "Building a referrals program": "The added incentive that a referral program offers simply adds fuel to an existing fire. I haven’t seen referrals work when there wasn’t strong existing WOM."
A referral program acts as an accelerator for existing interest. It should only be built once you verify that a majority of growth is already organic.
From "Kickstarting supply in a labor marketplace": "Later, we had a two-sided referral program where if supply referred new supply, we would pay them $50 for each activated pro (after completing their first gig). If they referred a restaurant we would give them something like $300."
Structure referral payouts to occur only after the referred user reaches a clear activation milestone, such as completing their first transaction.
Carilu Dietrich: "In order to get hypergrowth, you have to have organic, inbound, and viral word of mouth. You can't pay enough to grow at those rates and have a viable company."
Hypergrowth is driven by an amazing product experience that people are naturally excited to share, rather than unsustainable paid acquisition spend.
test cases passed, vs 18 / 23 without
More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.