My latest, oldest, favourite Growth hack

One of my favourite formats lately is running what I call a “Build Sessions”, part workshop, part "hackathon, designed to get people building something they need with your product.

You don’t need to overthink it. Invite people to come together for a few hours and build something that solves a real problem, something they can leave with and actually use.

For example:

“In this 3-hour session, you’ll build your first AI-powered marketing reporting dashboards. We’ll automate data from multiple connectors and generate insights in real time.”

The goal isn’t to pitch, it’s to create. Have a few people in the room to jump in when attendees get stuck, so nobody loses momentum.

At SaaStock today, Lovable Growth Lead Mindaugas Petrutis shared that they have other companies, and customers, to host these sessions for them. That’s when you know you’ve hit something scalable: your community starts doing the evangelising for you.

Why It Works

By the end of a session, people have:

• Built something that solves a real problem

• Learned your product through doing, not watching

• Created something tangible they can show to their team

• Connected with others solving the same challenges

I still remember the Dust x Paatch event where I built my first agent. It was fun, collaborative, and very useful, the kind of experience that builds real product stickiness.

And the best part? It only costs some local promotion, a few pizzas, and beers on the day.

When It Doesn’t Work

I’ve also seen when these events don’t land.

Recently, I joined one that felt more like a sales presentation, most of the time went into promoting the company rather than helping people build. There weren’t enough facilitators in the room.

Even though the event was positioned as beginner-friendly, the product experience was too complex, and the advice was strategic rather than practical. After a few failed attempts to get something working, I left frustrated.

If attendees can’t get hands-on success in the moment, they disengage fast. The magic happens only when people leave with something that works.

Extend the Impact within your customers base

If you want to increase adoption within existing accounts, invite participants to bring a colleague from another team. You’ll instantly broaden exposure across multiple ICPs and increase the internal value of your product. 

Done right, these build sessions generate:

• New sign-ups and active users

• Real usage and feature adoption

• Higher retention

• Organic advocacy and shareable results

People don’t remember a sales pitch ,they remember what they built.