Product-Led Growth is rapidly approaching Buzzword Status within the startup ecosystem, and it’s no surprise. Over the last decade, the popularity of PLG has been driven by the record growth and scale of companies like Slack, Shopify, Dropbox, and, in Colorado, JumpCloud (recently valued at $2.6B). In the eyes of some founders, PLG is too often simplified as a go-to-market strategy centered around a freemium offering.
But this definition undervalues the intentionality behind a PLG company, which must work across all business functions to create a customer journey that feels so seamless, frictionless, and value-additive that a product sells itself.
To design a company whose growth is driven by product, each team needs to be aligned in creating the most autonomous customer experience possible, beginning with Marketing. The entire marketing strategy has been related to product, and in turn solving product issues. In keeping with the autonomous nature of PLG, marketing should never feel “salesy” or pushy, but instead be utilized to educate passively and inspire. And you can do this by solving the problems of your target audience through informative blog posts, external articles, and other content like video tutorials and webinars that showcase how the product can be part of a possible solution.
Engineering teams at a PLG company are tasked with creating a frictionless product experience with as few barriers as possible. Consider every step of a customer’s interaction with your product – how can you make it easier to use, understand, and ultimately find value?
You want to give your end users autonomy to understand and access your product without having to rely on anything or anyone else. People feel at ease when they can do things themselves rather than have people dictate how they can interact with a product. Intentionally designing a product that can be used independent of tech support or onboarding assistance is critical.
When defining the trial period for a PLG company, founders should be wary of a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, determine the Aha! Moment – that moment when users realize value and feel confident enough to pay – (Read more…)