If you build it, they won’t come

May 22, 2023

Don’t half-bake holistic Product-Led Growth.

Your site traffic was optimized for buyers.

Buyers don’t click “Start Trial”, end-users and evaluators do.

The result will not be what you aim for.

I’ve got a SINGLE piece of advice when leveraging Product-Led Growth -

Take best practices and success stories with a grain of salt.

There’s boatloads of PLG content out there, but they don’t tell the full story.

They simply can’t tell the full story.

Adding or transitioning to PLG must be tailored to your product, market, category, company & culture -

Your PLG product - needs to be able to support self-serve activation, self-serve engagement, and to transform that usage into a monetizable revenue-generating opportunity
Your PLG market - needs to be inclined towards self-service and possess the necessary access to install, deploy, and begin engaging with your product
Your PLG positioning - needs to consider your PLG/SLG competitive landscape, and address existing PLG/SLG pricing benchmarks while enhancing perceived value for your PLG-relevant market to establish a sustainable and defensible long-term strategy
Your company & culture - need to shift towards a value-centric approach, break down silos, and ultimately embrace the undeniable reality that Product Management is tasked with automating sales.

Perhaps most importantly, patience is essential for iterative failing & learning.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.