PLG Fundamentals

"At its core, product-led growth (PLG) is about leveraging your product to acquire, activate, convert, retain, and monetize your user base. In PLG, your product is not only the set of features that solve customer pain points but also your go-to-market (GTM) motion, and your distribution and engagement channel."

"If you don’t have a PLG funnel today, draw a potential funnel out on a whiteboard. Imagine how a potential customer would travel through that journey, and how your product and teams might need to change to support it."

"Ask yourself: What is the biggest constraint—and potential unlock—in your growth model? Is it (1) acquisition, (2) activation, (3) conversion, or (4) retention/expansion? The answer to that question should guide the choice of the initial focus area for your PLG efforts."

"To be successful with PLG, you’ll need to invest in multiple areas at once and work through multiple initiatives. It is never as simple as making one change (e.g. opening a free trial or adding an onboarding tutorial)."

"If you want to launch a PLG motion, data infrastructure is an absolute must. You need to be willing to make the investment to build it out. Once you have it in place, implement an experimentation platform and lifecycle marketing tools to test things out and move the needle."

"Making a product free isn’t a revenue, pricing, or monetization strategy—it’s an acquisition strategy. It’s always a means to lower CAC, increased virality, and a way to get people’s attention in a crowded market."

"And actually, revenue flatlined. Revenue was growing, and then in Q2, Q3 of 2015, it started flattening. So around Q4 it was starting to become kind of clear that, okay, this product-led-growth thing—nice story, but in practice, it doesn’t really work."

"For example, if your product requires extensive customization for the customer to see value, or if you are targeting only a handful of large companies, then PLG may not be the best approach."

"Successful self-service is about allowing a user to get to success and have that “aha” activation moment on their own. So the question that follows from this is how easy is it for users to get to that aha moment?"