Case Study: Building Tornado's Growth Engine

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As the Growth Engineer at Tornado, I spearheaded the technical implementation of our marketing strategy and operational frameworks. My role was crucial in boosting customer engagement, expanding our user base, and developing scalable growth models through innovative engineering solutions.

Key Challenges and Engineering Solutions

1. Data-Driven Growth Infrastructure

  • Engineering Contribution: Designed and implemented data pipelines and analytics infrastructure to support growth hacking strategies and customer acquisition tactics.
  • Impact:
    • Enabled 390% increase in customer count
    • Supported 800% surge in revenue
    • Facilitated 400% improvement in engagement rates
    • Engineered systems to optimize Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC), reducing payback period to less than 9 months
    • Built infrastructure supporting 1,732% increase in Paid Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
    • Enabled 1,025% increase in customer deposits through robust data systems

2. A/B/N Testing Framework Development

  • Engineering Contribution: Architected and built an in-house A/B/N testing framework from the ground up for rigorous feature and design testing.
  • Impact: Enabled 200% boost in on-page conversion rates, providing data-driven insights for all major growth metrics.

3. Advanced Campaign Personalization Engine

  • Engineering Contribution: Developed algorithms and systems for marketing personalization using propensity scores.
  • Impact:
    • Engineered solutions leading to 60-110% month-over-month increases in in-app engagement and daily active users
    • Built systems supporting 100% boost in Daily Active Users/Monthly Active Users (DAU/MAU) ratio
    • Implemented features resulting in 745% increase in 3-month retention

Key Technical Achievements

  • Cross-Functional Engineering Support: Provided critical technical solutions across growth marketing, product growth, affiliate marketing, analytics, and brand teams.
  • Learn & Earn Feature Development: Led the technical development of the ‘Learn & Earn’ feature:
    • Engineered systems pushing app DAU/MAU above 30%
    • Developed infrastructure to deliver over 1 million educational lessons to users
  • Scalable Engagement and Acquisition Systems:
    • Engineered solutions driving 1,000% increase in user engagement
    • Developed systems supporting 150% increase in user base
    • Implemented technical optimizations contributing to 80%+ decrease in deposit CAC
    • Built data models and algorithms to increase trading by 1,400% while facilitating user behavior shift towards ETFs, ESGs, and diversified investments
  • Award-Winning Analytics Infrastructure: Core contributor to the analytics infrastructure that won Amplitude’s 2022 Pioneer Award for ‘Product Innovation’

Technical Scaling and Efficiency

  • Engineered systems to scale monthly spend to $1 million while maintaining 1-year customer payback efficiency
  • Developed optimization algorithms to decrease overall CAC by 90%

Conclusion

As the Growth Engineer at Tornado, I was at the forefront of developing technical solutions that drove remarkable growth and innovation. My engineering contributions in building comprehensive data systems, scalable infrastructures, and innovative algorithms not only led to exponential increases in key metrics but also established a robust technical foundation for continuous growth and market leadership. This experience showcased the power of advanced engineering, data science, and creative problem-solving in driving exceptional results and shaping an organization’s future in the fintech space.