In this week’s newsletter, I’m going to show you step-by-step how to build an onboarding hub for your product. We’ll explore what it is, why it’s crucial, and I’ll share some best practices and examples to help you get started right away.

Let’s dive in!

What is an onboarding hub?

Over the last year advising 10+ SaaS startups, this has been my favorite technique to increase product activation. And honestly I think it's the most underutilized way to turn new signups into power users.

It's not something new, companies like Hubspot and many others have been doing this for years, but I've started noticing a trend of more product's taking advantage of it too and I can tell you from first hand experience - it works!

If you're struggling to get new users set up well in the product then you should definitely give it a try. And with tools available like Dopt, it doesn't have to be such a heavy lift for engineering. You can set it up in just a couple hours, and even start experimenting with personalization too.

Some call it an "onboarding hub", others are calling it a "getting started" or a “setup” screen. Simply put, it is a central place where your users can find everything they need to successfully get started with your product:

• Clear actionable instructions showing them what they need to do.

• Quick and easy access to all the core actions they need to take.

• Helpful resources and support access if they need an extra hand.

Here’s an example of how I helped my client, Databox, transform their empty home landing page into a powerful “Getting Started” set up screen.

The results were fantastic! This simple redesign seriously boosted the number of users taking those first critical steps - jumping from less than 15% to over 25% completion of the setup milestone within 3 weeks, paving the way for deeper product adoption.

You can read the full case study of the experiments we ran at Databox here.

(+ I’ll explain a little more about activation milestones later in this post)

Why does my product need it?

If you’re offering a self-serve version of your product, whether freemium or free trial, you already know that getting new signups to actively use your product is harder than it seems.

Approximately 60%+ of all new signups vanish after just the first few minutes!

Given the cost of acquiring these signups, it’s crucial to give users a real chance to quickly find value in your product.

Most product experiences can be confusing, with users spending precious time just figuring out which buttons to click or which features to use.

An onboarding hub eliminates guesswork, empowering users to quickly understand and execute the necessary actions to discover your product's value.

How to build it:

Creating an effective onboarding hub is essential for ensuring users not only start using your product but also recognize its value quickly and efficiently.

Here’s how you can set up a hub that meets user needs right from their first interaction:

1. Clearly Define User Steps

Make it intuitive: Start by mapping out the user journey in the simplest terms possible. This involves breaking down the process into manageable, easy-to-understand steps.

For example, if your software is an email marketing tool, your steps might be: setting up an account, creating your first campaign, designing an template layout, and sending your first email.

Once you’ve mapped out the path you want users to take, you can turn it into a checklist for users to complete one step at a time.

Provide interactive guides: Use tooltips, walkthroughs, or interactive tutorials that users can follow step-by-step within the product itself.

Visual progress indicators: Implement progress bars or checklists that visually represent how far the user has come and what remains. This not only helps in providing a sense of achievement but also in motivating users to complete the setup.

Here’s a great example from Wix’s Setup page:

In a short video course I created called The Product-Led Onboarding OS, I explain how to break up your user journey into 3 different activation milestones:

• The setup phase involves the user performing the necessary actions that will get them to your product’s core value.

• The aha moment is when the user has received and realized the core value your product has to offer.

• The final milestone is repeating this behavior and developing a ‘habit’. Instead of this being a once-off experience, we need them to want to come back. We look at this step by analyzing repeated ‘aha’ moments by our users within a specified frequency (daily weekly etc.).

If we look through this perspective, your onboarding hub should include everything users need to go from sign-up → set up → aha.

It’s important to remember that different user types will probably have different goals and problems they’re trying to solve. Your onboarding hub is the perfect place to personalize the experience - customizing the steps, copy, and different templates/quick-links - for different users to match their unique needs and desires.

You can also group different use cases into their own checklists or predesigned journeys which can really help users understand how to achieve their unique goals in your product.

If you’re wondering how to figure out what different users want when they signup, it's simpler than you might think – just ask them! Check out this post below for more on that.

2. Simplify Action Steps

Direct action options: Wherever possible, enable users to take action directly from the onboarding hub. Include buttons like “Set up your first campaign now” or “Import contacts” that lead directly to those actions within the product or allow them to perform them right there and then.

Pre-fill settings and templates: Reduce the effort required to get started by providing templates or pre-filled settings that address common use cases.

For example, if your product is a project management tool, offer template project plans for product launches, events, or marketing campaigns… depending on what will best help your users.

Educational sidebars: Integrate sidebars or pop-ups that provide quick tips or video clips on how to complete an action as they navigate through the initial steps.

Another awesome example from June.so:

3. Easy Access to Help

Support channels: Offer multiple ways to get help, including live chat, a well-designed FAQ section, and a resource library with text/video tutorials. Make these easily accessible from the onboarding hub so users can get help without having to leave the process.

Feedback loops: Include a simple feedback form or prompt within the onboarding hub that asks users if they found the help useful or if they need more assistance. This can inform continuous improvements and personalize support.

Community access: If applicable, provide links to community forums or user groups where new users can ask questions and get advice from more experienced users. This not only helps with immediate issues but also engages users with your product community.

4. Use Data to Refine and Improve

Analytics integration: Utilize analytics to track how new users interact with your onboarding hub. Look at where users drop off, what steps take the longest, and what features are used the most/least.

A/B testing: Regularly test different versions of your onboarding process to see what works best. For instance, does a more graphical approach reduce setup time compared to a text-heavy one? Adjust based on real user data.

Iterative improvement: Onboarding should not be a “set it and forget it” process. Continually refine and update the onboarding hub as you gather more insights and as your product evolves.

Conclusion

Quick recap:

• Clarify the steps your users need to take.

• Make those steps simple and actionable directly from the hub.

• Ensure users have easy access to support to help them succeed.

By focusing on these key aspects, you’ll build an onboarding hub that not only educates but also engages and excites your users about what your product can do for them.

Thanks for tuning into this week’s edition of Product Led Growers. I hope these insights empower you to create a powerful onboarding experience that delights your users and drives real product success.

Stay tuned for more tips and strategies to help you lead with your product.

See you next time! :)

In this week’s newsletter, we’ll look at:

• 🤔 Frictionless onboarding: Why it’s not the way to go

• 🤣 Some good ol’ PLG memes

One last thing before we begin…

📌📌 Be sure to join 91+ product legends on the waitlist for 'The Product Led Onboarding OS' 👇

Link to join 👉 https://yaakovcarno.ck.page/onboardingwaitlist 🔥

Alright, let’s dive in!

🤔 Frictionless onboarding: Not the way to go

If you want to increase your product's activation, you have to understand this:

Getting rid of all friction is a BAD thing.

Removing every onboarding question, guided product action, or additional step just so that users land in the product a little bit quicker is NOT the way to go.

Yes, time to value is critical.

And yes, you want them to get them inside your product and run free as quickly as possible.

But.

And this is a big BUT.

You need to understand 2 things:

1. Why different users sign up. (What they're trying to solve)
and
2. What they need to do in the product to achieve that goal.

Most of the time, users will need a little bit of product hand-holding to successfully find and do what they need to.

A little bit of friction in the beginning can actually pave the way for a seamless path towards activation (which is them experiencing the value they were hoping for)

Think twice before trying to cut your user journey in half just for the sake of making it quicker.

Not all friction is bad.

🤣 Some good ol’ PLG memes

2023 was rough, I get it... but don't be one of these 🤣

It's not just about growth strategies anymore.

Times have changed.

Users need more than "Book a demo" to hook their interest.

PLG needs to be an underlying standard in the way products are built, marketed, and sold.

This doesn't mean flipping things around tomorrow and adding a freemium or free trial.

That might not be the right timing or the right fit for your product.

But if you're not incorporating it's key principles into your company's strategy in some shape or form.

You WILL fall behind.

Users, not buyers, are leading the way.

You need to build, market, and sell accordingly.

Just remember that it's not going to solve all of your problems over night.

On a similar note…

Stop thinking that companies like Figma, Slack, Dropbox, Calendly, Miro... succeeded because of PLG.

They succeeded because they solved real problems exceptionally well.

Product-led growth won't fix a broken product, it will probably make you fail a lot quicker.

There's no way around it. If you want to win, you need to build a great product.

When you have a great product, PLG can help you win the market.

Lastly… to all the product leaders that think ChatGPT can do your user research for you:

Wake up from dream land and start speaking to real people.

Nothing can replace real user interviews and actually engaging with your existing/potential customers.

Nothing.

That’s all for today :)

See you next time!

In this week’s newsletter, we cover:

• ✅ Product-led onboarding: The first thing you need to do

• 🤔 The catch 22 of ungated products

• ✚ The best new PLG resources

Let’s dive in!

Your product's onboarding matters A LOT.

(so here's a powerful tip that can help you improve yours)

Over the last year, I've helped many teams optimize their onboarding
↳ leading to higher activation and conversion.

And let me tell you, it's easy to get caught up in quick fixes and tricks like

1. Trendy checklists.
2. Fancy product tours.
3. Complicated personalization.
4. Or a million other activation "hacks".

But the ones that succeed, are the ones that get the basics right.

The first thing you have to do is get really clear on where you're guiding new users to.

If you don't know EXACTLY what you want them to achieve in your product.
→ You won't be able to build the path for them to get there.

When you know exactly what you need them to do.
→ Then it's easy to build the path.

To sum up:

Before you start building the journey, get clear on the destination.

The catch 22 of ungated products 🤔

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged

How an AI sidecar product drove 30% of sign-ups

👋 Kyle from OpenView here with the 93rd (!) edition of Growth Unhinged where I explore the unexpected behind today’s fastest-growing startups. Previously I tackled the rise of ungated products, i.e. products that you can immediately try out, no signup required. These loginless products — like…

Read more

3 years ago · 21 likes · Kyle Poyar and Shin Kim

On one hand 🫲

Getting users straight into the product is ideal.

The product should speak for itself.

But on the other hand 🫱

Requiring a certain level of commitment/investment can actually seriously boost motivation and the level of effort new users invest into trying out your product.

This will apply across all steps in the user journey - Requiring email or ungating completely, onboarding profiling questions, integrating with data sources, downloading extensions, etc...

Sometimes, even a small investment like giving your email, or adding a team name to your new workspace, can psychologically and practically increase the motivation you have to explore the product properly.

+ To quote Henrique Cruz:

"My rule of thumb for going loginless is that if:

1. your product has a large audience;

2. that can get value from the product on their own;

3. you don't need to monetize everyone;

4. the product has a strong ‘single-player ’,

Landing page Land in product"

What do you think - is less friction a good thing?

The best new PLG resources ✚

Every week I’ll be updating you with new PLG resources I discover 👏

🚀 Playbooks vs. Lead Scoring by Pocus
Level up your PLG strategy by mastering the art of Playbooks over traditional scoring— transform how you prioritize and engage leads.

💡 Where the Freemium Business Model Thrives and Dies by Wes Bush at ProductLed
Unlock the secret to mastering freemium for product-led growth and see how solving beginner problems can catapult your user base and market reach.

💸 Improving Trial Conversions Using Loss Aversion by Ben Williams
Dive into how the power of loss aversion can transform your trial conversions and unlock new growth strategies for your SaaS product.

🎤 Adding Growth Marketing to a PLG Brand with Rachel Hepworth, Co-Marketing Lead, Notion by Lindsey Groepper & Rachel Hepworth
Listen as Rachel walks through how to develop a growth engine inside a PLG company and how brand and demand can work seamlessly together.

🔎 Why Hubspot acquired Clearbit - buying defensibility in AI markets by Leah Tharin
Dive into Leah Tharin's sharp analysis on HubSpot's Clearbit acquisition—a visionary step toward data-driven, product-led sales supremacy in B2B.

See you next week! :)

In this week’s newsletter, we cover:

• ✅ Activation before retention.

• 🔑 The simplest way to start increasing activation.

• 👏 Exciting update - New PLG resource database!

• ✚ The best new PLG resources

Let’s dive in!

Activation Before Retention

Let’s get something clear.

Stop trying to improve retention when your product’s activation is broken.

It’s super important to make sure that you're not skipping steps.

Oversimplifying it completely, imagine the journey like this:

Activation: When users think, "Hey, this is pretty cool!", more than once.

Adoption: Your product becomes a go-to in their workflow.

Retention: They just can't get enough and keep coming back.

You gotta give each stage its own time and love. Each step needs its own plan and attention.

And sure, as you're sorting out activation, retention is always on the mind. But a little heads-up, before going too deep into retention be sure to double-check your activation. It usually clues you in on what users are really looking for.

Get your activation game strong, and you'll see it's not just about that initial spark. It sets the tone for the entire user journey, from the first click to long-term loyalty.

Now that we understand we have to first focus on fixing activation, the obvious question is where do we start?

The simplest way to start increasing activation 🔑

As I defined in my previous post about why most SaaS companies fail at activation 👇

It’s important to note that activation is not just about amassing signups or rushing users toward payment. It’s a nuanced phase of the customer journey that, when executed right, will lead to increased engagement and higher revenue.

Focus on showing real value, guiding users toward key features, and nurturing them towards deeper engagement and building habits.

The work that needs to be done is actually mapping out the path from discovery to value so that you can best build the user journeys that will lead to activation.

Here is a simple exercise that you should do with your team to to design the most efficient and effective users journeys so that you can guide your users through different activation milestones and ultimately help them solve their problem and/or achieve their desired outcome as quickly as possible.

You want to be able to answer:

• Which steps can be delayed?

• Which steps can be removed?

• Which steps are essential in getting users to their goal?

It’s as simple as this:

1. Write out your user journey into steps.

2. Go through each step and ask yourself:

   1. Is this necessary?

   2. Would I understand this if I was seeing it for the first time?

3. Remove all unnecessary steps.

4. Simplify the steps that are hard to understand.

5. Keep a list of all the changes you’ve made.

6. Measure the results.

7. Assess A/B testing options.

8. Repeat.

Now, the real question you have to ask is:

What does the data say?
You know, like where are users getting stuck?
Do you know where they're dropping off, do you know where they're succeeding?

If you can't answer these questions, you're probably in one of these situations:

😱 Hopeless: Not tracking product usage data at all
🙃 Confused: Tracking a bit over here and a bit over there
🤷‍♂️ Need a hand: Got the data, but don't know how to get the right insights

If you're not tracking product data, well you best get started!
If you are, but you're just feeling a bit stuck not getting the clarity you're looking for, then this is for you.

This next step in the exercise is a simple process to ask the right questions and set up your product data in the easiest way to find optimization opportunities.

Step 1: Clarify Your Questions

Before diving into the data, it's essential to understand what you're trying to achieve.

Identify for yourself:

I want to understand {...} or I want to prove {...}

Quantitative Examples - Data that can be measured and written down with numbers:

Drop off points in user flow.
Actions users take before they activate/convert.
The first thing users do on your platform.
Specific user segments that perform better or worse.

Qualitative Examples - Data that describes qualities or characteristics:

Areas where users most frequently seek help or support.
Common feedback or complaints from support tickets.
Feedback from sales calls and product interviews.

Step 2: Map Out the User Journey

Visualize the user's journey. Sketch out or list the different actions or steps users take within a particular feature or throughout the product.

Example:

1. Lands on homepage

2. Clicks 'Sign Up'

3. Fills out registration form

4. Lands in empty state

5. Clicks “add new X” CTA

6. Etc…

Step 3: Tag Relevant Events

Using your map, label the specific events you're tracking at each step. This will form the backbone of your data analysis.

Example:

1. 'Homepage Visit'

2. 'Sign Up Clicked'

3. 'Registration Form Completed'

4. 'Viewed empty state'

5. 'AddNewX CTA Clicked'

Step 4: Visualize Data Flow in Analytics Tool

For this example, we'll use Mixpanel, but the principles apply to other platforms.

1. Review the sequence of events from your map.

2. In Mixpanel, construct a funnel that mirrors this flow.

3. Review the funnel's data and first ask: "Is this reliable/accurate?"

Step 5: Go Deeper with What, Why, and How

• What: Identify which steps or features see the highest/lowest engagement. (e.g., What step in the user journey has the most drop-offs?)

• Why: Understand user motivation and pain points. (e.g., Why are users dropping off after landing in the empty state, why don’t they click the CTA?)

• How: Determine methods to enhance user experience. (e.g., How can we make the empty state simpler and make the next steps more clear for the user?)

Step 6: Close the Loop with Actionable Insights

Optimization Loop: Your journey should always loop from asking questions to collecting data, gaining insights, and then taking action based on those insights.

By following these steps and implementing the continuous optimization process on a weekly/monthly/quarterly basis (depending on resources), you’ll be surprised at all the obvious (and novel) insights and improvements that get surfaced and how easy it becomes to identify where you need to double down on to get more users to activate.

Obviously this exercise, along with every other exercise and framework out there, isn’t going to work the same way for every product and team and it’s up to you to apply and adapt it to your unique product types and audience’s needs.

If you’d like a hand getting started or interested to run an interactive team workshop, just reply to this email and we can set it up 🤝

New PLG resource database! 👏

Here's a free gift for you 🎁

I've stacked up the biggest collection of my favorite product-led growth resources, packed them all up into a beautiful Notion database, and now you can access it all for FREE 🤩

Dive into:

💡 Pro-level educational insights
🔎 Must-have essential resources
👀 Engaging interactive learning modules
🤝 Dynamic PLG communities and network
💻 Go-to tools for your PLG tech stack
📚 Handpicked books to fuel your PLG journey

Check it out 👉 https://productledgrowers.notion.site/

And let us know what you think!

The best new PLG resources ✚

Every week I’ll be updating you with new PLG resources I discover 👏

🚀 How an AI sidecar product drove 30% of sign-ups by Kyle Poyar and Shin Kim
Explore how Eraser's AI sidecar product, DiagramGPT, significantly contributed to user acquisition and product growth.

💡 The ultimate product-led onboarding playbook by Dopt
Uncover the art of user-centric onboarding to propel user activation and retention in your product!

💸 Why your pricing might inhibit PLG by Ben Williams
Delve into the intricate dance between pricing and PLG, unveiling real-world hurdles and the undeniable value of human touch in certain sales scenarios.

🔥 The Product Activation Playbook by Enzo Avigo
Explore June's Activation Playbook to discover how a well-structured onboarding process can significantly boost your user retention and product growth!

🔎 Onboarding Study by Andrew Pacholik
Analysis of over 220 SaaS products and 100+ tactics.

See you next week! :)

If you're looking to drive user engagement and maximize revenue, a solid grasp of what "activation" really means is crucial.

In this post, I’m going to simplify this complex term and provides practical tips for mastering it.

The problem is that many people equate "activation" with the wrong phases of a customer's life cycle, like signups, conversion, or feature adoption.

These approaches will cloud your strategy and lead you to miss valuable engagement opportunities.

Activation Isn't Just About New Signups

It's About Users Finding Value in Your Product

Signups may inflate your ego, but they don't necessarily indicate success. If users sign up but don't engage with your product, you're missing the point of activation.

What you need to do:

Look Beyond the Numbers: Don’t fixate on just the signup numbers; focus on metrics that show user engagement.

Simplify Onboarding and Offer Quick Wins: Make the onboarding journey as seamless as possible to help users find value quickly. Provide a fast route for users to achieve something meaningful within your app to encourage deeper engagement.

If you view activation as new signups then you risk overlooking critical engagement metrics, leading to a leaky funnel and lower retention.

Activation Isn't Adoption

It's Reaching the First Level Feature Usage/Breadth

Contrary to popular belief, activation is not about getting users to use every feature you offer. It's about them engaging meaningfully with at least one key feature.

What you need to do:

Identify Your ‘Golden Actions’: Find out which action/s most often lead to the "aha moment" for users and focus on it.

From Empty to Engaged: A well-crafted empty state is like a friendly tour guide, helping your users navigate your product and guiding them towards the ‘Golden Actions’. (See full post about empty states here)

Analyze and Iterate: Use analytics to check if users are reaching this feature and make adjustments to the user journey as needed.

If you view activation as conversion then you miss the opportunity to optimize for value realization.

Activation Isn't Conversion

It's the Steps Before Users Become Paying Customers

While the ultimate goal is to convert a user into a paying customer, activation is the bridge you must cross to get there. It's about giving users a reason to stick around long enough to consider upgrading.

What you need to do:

Nurture, Don’t Hard Sell: Provide value before you ask for a commitment. When users experience the value they’re after, the upgrade is an obvious next step. Success comes before sales.

Offer a Taste: Let users explore what you have to offer. When you build your freemium or free trial around activation (users experiencing value) the path to conversion becomes way more natural.

Highlight the Benefits: Make it super clear how upgrading will unlock more value.

If you view it as adoption then you distort the focus and priority on initial value.

Conclusion

Understanding activation - what it is and what it isn't - will pave the way for smarter growth strategies for your company.

It’s not just about amassing signups or rushing users toward payment. It’s a nuanced phase of the customer journey that, when executed right, will lead to increased engagement and higher revenue.

Focus on showing real value, guiding users toward key features, and nurturing them toward conversion.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)

The misconception is that PLG exists to make your sales team obsolete. But here's the truth: PLG and sales teams can and should co-exist, even thrive together, creating a harmonious duet that elevates your business.

This is what we’re going to breakdown in this post 👇

Let’s unpack this.

First off, let's address the elephant in the room.

There's a widespread idea that the goal of building a product “that can sell itself” is to replace the need for a sales team. This is far from accurate.

The purpose of PLG isn’t to replace your sales team but to empower them to focus on what they do best, which is closing high-value and more complex deals, expanding accounts, and building long-term relationships with customers.

Product and sales is a relationship that’s not just co-existent but mutually beneficial.

Let’s take a step back for a moment to understand what it even means to build a product that can sell itself and why it’s only step one.

When people talk about a "self-serve" product, there's often a misconception that it simply means giving users access to the product and letting them find their way around. While that's part of it, a successful self-serve motion is far more comprehensive and nuanced.

A successful self-serve motion starts with intuitive onboarding that quickly shows users the value of your product, not just its features.

It includes resources like FAQs, video tutorials, and chatbots to solve problems 24/7. Users can easily give feedback, helping you to continually refine the product.

Plus, smart design anticipates users' next steps, whether that's an upgrade or another solution, aiding your sales team in unblocking, upselling and cross-selling.

So, self-serve isn't just about initial access. It's a comprehensive, user-friendly ecosystem that evolves with your customers

It’s important to mention here that a complete self-serve cycle is more valuable than a 'perfect' one that needs human help.

Why?

1. Scalability: A self-serve model that's complete on its own is highly scalable. You can handle more users without proportionally increasing your employee costs. Introducing human touchpoints, even for 'perfection,' limits how quickly you can scale because it directly ties growth to manpower.

2. User Experience: Users often seek immediate solutions. A self-serve system that provides a full experience from start to finish keeps users happy by delivering instant gratification. Adding manual processes, even if they’re 'flawless,' can introduce delays and lower user satisfaction.

3. Operational Efficiency: A complete self-serve system lets your human team concentrate on what machines can't do: complex problem-solving, relationship-building, and custom solutions. If you make a 'perfect' system that still requires human touch, you dilute this focus and divert resources from more impactful activities.

Awesome, now that we’ve cleared that up let’s get back to the world of Product-led Sales.

First, we make sure our product can sell itself.

Then, we build a sales pipeline on top of that self-serve motion.

To make this PLG and sales partnership fruitful, there are three essential ingredients you need:

Ingredient 1: Teaching Sales How to Work With Product Data

Sales and product teams often work with vast amounts of data, but these valuable data sets tend to remain isolated within their respective domains.

Breaking down these data silos enables the development of transformative metrics like Product-Qualified Leads (PQLs), which have the potential to revolutionize the sales process.

Regular cross-team workshops are the starting point for defining PQLs and other key performance indicators. But to truly harness the power of this collaborative approach, your organization must establish the right infrastructure to track and use product data dynamically.

This could involve implementing advanced CRM systems, real-time dashboards, or other data visualization and distribution tools that can be shared across departments. The goal is to make data not just accessible but also actionable.

By closely aligning sales and product teams—and arming them with a dynamic data infrastructure—you enable a form of "situational awareness" that goes beyond static reports. Teams can respond in real-time to emerging patterns, customer behaviors, and market trends.

Further, the uncovering of unique "micro-moments" in customer interactions can serve as powerful triggers for sales engagement and product refinement.

Ingredient 2: Creating internal feedback loops

Feedback isn't merely commentary—it's actionable data that can fuel growth across every aspect of your business.

While each department has its own angle and focus, combining these multiple perspectives can yield comprehensive insights that are greater than the sum of their parts.

But for feedback to be effective, you need an infrastructure that allows for smooth, real-time communication.

A mere suggestion box won't cut it.

Implement an internal system that makes sharing feedback across departments easy and systematic. This could be a shared digital dashboard, regular inter-departmental meetings, or even daily/weekly slack/email digests.

The point is to make the transfer of crucial insights as frictionless as possible - Make it simple for every team to contribute to and extract insights from this collective knowledge pool.

A system that collates feedback from multiple sources enables a form of "collaborative wisdom."

Take this a step further by introducing a 'Voice of the Department' initiative. This idea helps to pull in special insights from each team and share them with the whole company. It's a way to make everyone feel like they're part of the big picture.

Ingredient 3: Cross-functional alignment

In any team, everyone has a position to play. The same goes for your company; each department has a unique job and brings something special to the table. Understanding this is the first step to real alignment and collaboration.

The next step is getting everyone to aim for the same goals. And for that, you need shared goals and ways to measure success.

First off, make sure everyone knows what each department does and why it's important. Hold cross-department meetings to share this info.

Then, work together to set shared goals, key performance indicators, or even one big "North Star" metric that everyone can aim for. These become your team's scoreboard, helping you track if you're winning the game.

When everyone knows their role and what they're aiming for, magic happens. The marketing team knows how their campaign success will help sales.

The product team understands how features they build will affect customer satisfaction.

Everyone gets how their work fits into the bigger goal.

This creates a sense of unity and makes everyone more effective. It's not just about individual performance but team performance.

Conclusion

To put it simply, PLG and sales teams are better together.

PLG is great at attracting and engaging a diverse range of potential customers and streamlining the entire flow for the right segments

Your sales team takes this relationship to the next level, diving deep to provide tailored solutions and close substantial deals.

It's not an either-or scenario but a synergistic alliance that enhances the customer journey while boosting your bottom line.

So next time you hear that PLG is here to replace your sales team, you can confidently say, "Not so fast. They’re actually the perfect duo."

Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)

You know the drill. Subpar onboarding, clunky user experience, missed growth opportunities. And most of the time, it’s because they’re asking the wrong questions – or worse, not asking any at all!

But hold on, don’t worry! Let's dive into the playbook of industry heavyweights like Notion, Canva, Zapier, Figma, and Airtable. They’ve got it down pat, asking the right questions to steer their users straight to the value zone.

The Shoe Store Dilemma: Why Understanding is Crucial

Imagine walking into a high-end shoe store in search of the perfect pair of dress shoes. The salesperson greets you, but instead of asking about your shoe size or preferences, they immediately start telling you about the latest trend in sandals. You're frustrated, bewildered, and wondering why they're not listening.

Similarly, when a new user interacts with your SaaS product, they're there for a reason - to get a job done. Failing to understand their needs and goals is like offering sandals to someone in search of dress shoes.

So, how do you determine what your customers want?

It's simpler than you might think – just ask them!

This is where most SaaS companies get it wrong. They either avoid asking questions altogether, fearing it will create friction, or ask the wrong ones, which can be counterproductive.

When you ask new sign-ups what they're seeking, you may not always get a helpful answer. If they opt to 'skip' or misunderstand the question, you might be forced to guide them down a generic user journey. However, just by posing the question, you open the door to potentially flawless personalization. Plus, you drastically improve your odds of providing immediate value.

The Art of Asking the Right Questions

The misconception that asking questions during onboarding is disruptive and off-putting stems from the fact that most companies ask questions that are self-serving or irrelevant to the user's immediate needs.

They ask things like, "How did you find us?" or "What’s your company ARR?" These questions, while valuable for marketing, sales or product development purposes, offer no immediate value to the user and only add to the cognitive load.

The key to asking the right questions is to ensure they align with the user's "job to be done" and help them reach their goals more quickly and efficiently.

Instead of asking questions for your benefit, turn the tables and ask questions that serve the user. For example, “What would you like to do first?”, "What task are you trying to accomplish?" or "How can we make your workflow more efficient?" These types of questions immediately convey that you care about their needs and are dedicated to providing value.

Let's return to the shoe store analogy. Instead of offering you the latest sandal trend, the salesperson asks about the event you're attending, the style of your outfit, or any specific requirements you have for the shoes. By doing so, they're better equipped to find the perfect pair of dress shoes for your needs.

Keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all here and every company will need to experiment with this depending on their different user segments.

The universal rule of thumb is to ask questions that uncover users' objectives, their jobs-to-be-done, and the motivation behind their sign-up.

Let’s take a look at how some of the leaders in the game are asking the right questions.

Notion and Canva

Notion and Canva have creatively grouped their users and their relevant desired outcomes by the type of use - Personal, team, business, school, etc…

This allows them to personalize a new user’s first steps in the product which could be the difference between immediate value or confusion.

Pro tip: Add a one-liner subheading that emphasizes the fact that you’re going to use this information to help the user get what they want quicker. It may seem obvious or unnecessary but it goes along way and adds a positive boost to the user’s experience.

Figma

First, Figma segment their users by the kind of work that they do.
(IMO this is a much nicer way to ask the boring old “What’s your role?”)

Next, Figma takes a similar approach to Notion and Canva and ask, “How will you primarily use Figma”, to understand what that the user is trying to get out of Figma.

Combining these two answers, Figma is now supercharged with powerful insights to create a fully customized initial product experience.

Figma doesn’t stop there… they go ahead and ask a total of 7 questions.

Note how they use 3 techniques to remove friction from this flow:

1. In every slide they offer a “skip” button.

2. One question per slide - This makes it feel really smooth and easy.

3. They use a progress bar at the bottom to remind you that this will take super quick. Showing users that there are only a couple steps to go, also provides a subconscious sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue.

From my experience, asking this many questions is only the way to go if you’re already a mature player in the space. If you’re a fresh startup and/or still securing your product market fit, I recommend limiting the number of questions to 2, maybe 3 if completely necessary.

Zapier

Zapier supports 5,000+ apps and offer thousands of different templates.

First, Zapier asks a very simple question that will allow them to get one step closer to giving you a personalized experience. Based on your answer they’ll have a better understanding of the types of tools that you’re likely to use.

But they take it one step further to and simply ask, “What apps do you use?”

The personalization has already begun and your first positive product experience starts when you see the apps that you were hoping to automate with Zapier.

Even here, they still allow you to skip if you’d like and dive right into the product.

As we mentioned, every company is going to need to ask different types of questions based on their user segments. Zapier understands that their product’s value is built on automating workflows and in order to get users to automate their first workflow as quickly as possible they need to understand 2 things:

1. The type/s of workflows that different users are interested in.

2. The apps that different users work with.

Now that they have this information from the onboarding flow, they’ve set themselves up for success being ready to give their users a powerful “aha moment” the moment they land in the product.

Airtable

“What team are you on?”- Another great way to ask what a new user’s role is. These little language changes make a bigger difference than most people think.

Take a look at how Airtable adds a dynamic side screen which changes according to your answers. This is one of many creative ways to allow users to feel that they’re already building something rather than just filling out a questionnaire.

With thousands of different templates and resources to guide new users towards, Airtable brilliantly captures their intent first (categorized by the team they’re on) so that they can show them a personalized and relevant intro to the product

Conclusion

By asking questions that demonstrate your intent to swiftly steer users towards value, you're not creating friction.

In fact, you're doing quite the opposite: you're boosting user motivation as they feel understood. The most effective way to deliver value to users is to lead them straight to what they seek.

Align your questions with your users' desired outcomes, and you'll set the stage for a memorable first impression and enduring loyalty.

Thanks for reading!

It’s more than just an entry point to your product. It’s your opportunity to instill confidence, present your value proposition effectively, and nudge users to make the move from prospects to engaged users.

Today, let’s explore how to craft a perfect sign-up page for your SaaS product.

Should the page be blank?

The common misconception that the sign-up page should be devoid of content, featuring only the necessary form fields, is often a lost opportunity.

While it is crucial to ensure a smooth and unobstructed sign-up process, the way I see it is that the page should do more than just collect user data.

It should convey your product's value, highlight its benefits, and demonstrate social proof.

It's all about striking a balance between simplicity, relevance, and persuasiveness.

The reality is that many people click “Get started” or “Try now” before they’re ready to create an account. Sometimes it’s out of curiosity to see where the CTA leads and other times it could be because they’re just clicking around your site.

Either way, in these situations, a little bit of extra boost around your product’s value can pull them towards creating an account and actually trying out the product.

We’ve all experienced that feeling when signing up to a new product to try it out and you’re second guessing yourself if it’s really worth the effort or all the follow up emails you’re going to get.

It may sound like a small thing, but all of these micro-friction points contribute towards the overall user experience.

What should you include?

Every company, product, and target audience are going to have their own nuances and preferences in the way they think and engage and so there is no one-size-fits-all template.

However, there are definitely best practices that we can learn from the leaders in the game.

Evaluating your sign-up page through a simple system can help quantify its effectiveness and guides optimization efforts.

The system I use focuses on three main pillars - Trust, Motivation, and Education.

For each pillar, evaluate your page based on the presence and effectiveness of related elements.

I’ve spent hours analyzing hundreds of SaaS companies and I’ve broken it down into 5 core elements that can be used to help you evaluate your page based off the above 3 pillars:

• Testimonials/Social Proof

• Product Previews

• Value Propositions

• Plan/Feature Descriptions

• Home-page pop up

Let’s look at each one with some examples.

Testimonials/Social Proof

Incorporate logos of your best clients, testimonials, or case studies as forms of social proof on your sign-up page. This strengthens your credibility, builds trust with your new users and increases motivation to get started.

Examples: Vidyard and Lusha

Plans/Features Description

Clearly outline which features users will gain access to and for how long. This can be a determining factor for prospects on the fence about signing up. This can also make users aware of other features/benefits that they’ll be getting by signing up.

Examples: Twilio, Krisp, Zapier, and Calendly

Product Previews

A sneak peek into the product interface can stir up excitement and anticipation in new users + it gives users a better sense of what they’ll be able to do as they get started.

Examples: ClickUp, Zendesk, Webflow, and Typeform

Value Proposition:

Your value proposition should be clear and compelling on your sign-up page. It's your easiest chance to remind users why they should sign up.

Examples: Snyk and MongoDB

Home-page pop up

A well-executed pop-up sign-up form on your homepage can offer a seamless user experience. This way, you don't distract your visitors from your main content.

Examples: Canva, Figma, Datadog, and Apollo

Or maybe scrap all of those ideas, and leave it completely blank?

I know, we’ve just seen some wonderful examples of powerful sign-up pages and in my humble opinion this is for sure the way to do it.

But.

There are plenty of SaaS leaders that have decided to go with the blank approach.

Examples: Notion, Slack, Loom, Airtable, Hubspot, Miro and many more…

I’d love to hear your thoughts, which way do you think is better??

Conclusion

Crafting the perfect sign-up page is an art that marries UX/UI design principles, persuasive copywriting, and a deep understanding of your target users.

Whether you opt for a design rich with information, testimonials, and previews, or prefer to keep it minimalistic with a solitary CTA, always remember that the key to a successful sign-up page is to offer clarity, build credibility, and continually emphasize your product's unique value proposition.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)

First impressions matter significantly, and as the saying goes, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." This statement holds especially true in the context of SaaS platforms.

In the blink of an eye, a poorly executed onboarding experience can turn a potential long-term user into a lost opportunity.

Most companies underestimate the power of an efficient and user-friendly onboarding experience, often resulting in poorly planned and cluttered interactions for the user.

The problem is simple but profound - many times, you're only going to get one shot to prove your product's value and keep new users engaged.

An unintuitive, confusing, or overwhelming experience can cause users to abandon your product before truly understanding its potential.

Okay, so we agree there’s a big problem here.

How do we solve it?

Simplicity: Make Each Step Crystal Clear

First and foremost, simplicity is key. The goal is to be clear, not clever.

Don't leave your users guessing what they need to do next. Each step of the onboarding process should be intuitive and straightforward.

Utilize an uncluttered user interface, clear instructions, and concise language.

Breakdown your user journey into simple steps that lead towards your product’s “aha” moment.

The simpler the process, the faster the user will be able to begin reaping the benefits of your product, which in turn enhances user satisfaction and retention.

Make your users’ lives as easy as possible.

Less is More: Solve Their Immediate Problem First

Instead of overwhelming new users with all the bells and whistles your product has to offer, focus on understanding the problem they're trying to solve.

A targeted, problem-focused approach to user onboarding will help users get to their 'Aha!' moment quicker.

Identify the essential functionalities that directly address their problem and guide them towards that solution.

If you want the opportunity to show new sign ups everything your product can do, first deliver value.

When you give them a positive first impression, their likeliness to activate and explore more of your product increases exponentially.

Personalization: Tailor Experiences to Different Personas

Not all users are the same, and therefore, their onboarding experience shouldn't be either. It’s vital to create personalized user journeys for different user personas or use cases.

For instance, a first-time user may need more guidance than someone transitioning from a similar platform.

Different types of companies and roles are going to be interested in different things.

By understanding who your users are and what they aim to achieve, you can tailor the onboarding process to fit their unique needs and expectations.

Personalized experiences add a ton of instant value and show your users that you genuinely care about their success with your product.

Conclusion

Ultimately, impressing new users boils down to a key principle: understand your user and make their experience as seamless as possible.

By simplifying each step, focusing on their immediate problems, and personalizing their journey, you will create an impressive onboarding experience that not only retains users but also turns them into advocates for your product.

Remember, you may only get one shot at impressing your new users, so make it count.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)

Today, I want to explore the top 3 that I see time and time again as a PLG advisor.

1. Self-serve = Adding a freemium/free trial

2. PLG = Product's responsibility

3. PLG = No sales

Let’s break them down one by one.

Beyond free models, self-serve means that your product can intuitively deliver real value and offers a clear path from signup to upgrade without any human touch points.

Just because people can try your product before they buy it DOESN'T mean it is self-serve.

Some SaaS companies let people try their product for free, hoping they will want to start paying for it.

The problem ❌
They forget to make sure their product can do everything a customer-engaging team member (Sales, Marketing, CS…) would normally do.

The solution ✅
Map out all the things that your customer-engaged teams do, and then make sure your product can do these things too.

For example 👇

Typically, sales or CS teams guide new clients through the onboarding process.

But now, you have to consider an approach where the product itself is the guide.

And so you need to provide things like intuitive empty states, product tours, checklists, and more, to enable users to experience your product's value without human handholding.

Some other important things that most companies forget to equip the product with are:

→ Articulating the Product’s Value Proposition
→ Retention and Subscription Renewals
→ Predicting Customer Behavior
→ Upselling and Cross-Selling
→ Personalizing Experiences
→ Collecting User Feedback
→ Educating Customers
→ Driving Conversions
→ Generating Leads
→ Qualifying leads

The list goes on.

It’s more than just adding a freebie.

Every department needs to be committed, aligned and understand their unique role and contribution.

PLG is a company strategy.

Many companies have asked me "So, who is actually responsible for PLG?"

It’s sales.
And marketing.
Oh and customer success.
Well yes, and obviously product.
(Engineering too 🤫)

Now, it is true that there should be defined roles and team/s that lead these efforts.

But, let’s get this clear.

❌ PLG is NOT a product thing.
✅ It's a company thing.

Every department needs to be aligned.

Every department needs to understand their specific role and how they contribute towards building a product that users love and more importantly need.

Poor team alignment will destroy your product led growth engine.

This means your teams need to work together.

• The interactions that sales has with customers is critical information for the product team to understand what user’s actually need.

• Customer success feedback needs to affect the next marketing campaign.

• Product’s analysis of feature usage and user journeys must be public company information that every department has access to, and it should affect their decision making.

These are just examples but you get the point.

Every team NEEDS to collaborate so they can:

→ Work toward’s the same goal, which is increasing value.
→ Build a product that meets the changing needs of their users.
→ Create powerful feedback loops that fuel the company’s decisions.
→ Co-ordinate resources accordingly so that everyone can work on their own areas without getting in the way of others.

Make sure each department understands their unique responsibility, and help them work together.

Building a product that can sell itself is only the starting point.

PLG is about leveraging the product to boost company-wide growth and monetization efforts.

Some examples:

Sales should be using the product to qualify accounts and build a pipeline built on self-serve usage.

❌ The goal is not to replace sales.
✅ The goal is to leverage the product to allow sales to focus on high-value activities and convert leads more effectively.

Marketing should be using product data to empower their next campaign with a more targeted approach.

❌ The goal is not to replace marketing.
✅ The goal is to leverage the product to allow marketing to actually show people the product rather than just telling them about it.

Customer success should be using the product to help users become more successful in the product without needing their help.

❌ The goal is not to replace CS.
✅ The goal is to leverage the product to allow CS to focus on more important accounts and solve common issues more efficiently.

These examples are just scratching the surface, but the same rule always applies.

The goal isn’t to replace, the goal is to empower.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week :)

Why Mixpanel’s onboarding works: The three questions you need to ask

All great onboardings are alike (seamless and engaging); each broken onboarding is unhappy in its own way. Turning an onboarding that doesn’t perform into one that sings, can feel… daunting.

Thankfully we’ll arm you with a simple framework – three essential questions – and show you how one best-in-class provider, Mixpanel, incorporates them.

The 3 essential questions to ask in every onboarding

These three questions aren’t a hack. They’re a means to start building from a place of empathy: To understand your users’ current state, their desired outcome, and the path they’ll need to follow to get value from your product. By asking three simple questions, you can gain valuable insights and fine-tune your onboarding.

Without further ado, here they are:

1. Where is our user today? Where is their starting point?

2. Where is our user going? What are they trying to achieve?

3. How will our user get there? What do they need to know to be successful in our product?

No need to take our word for it. Mixpanel has long been recognized for its effective onboarding practices, making it an ideal case study to learn from.

We’ll examine their onboarding flow as a practical example of how to do this right. By looking at their approach via the 3 question framework, we draw insights and learn practices that can be applied to any onboarding process, regardless of the product or user type.

Ready? Let’s go. 

Where is our user today?

The first question to ask during the onboarding review is, "Where is our user today?" Understanding your users' starting point is crucial in tailoring the onboarding experience to meet their unique needs. 

Have they used similar products to ours? What products are they already familiar with? For a technical product, you might want to know if they’re technical prowess (or lack thereof). If your product requires integrating another system, you might want to know if they even have the credentials to log in.

Before allowing users Mixpanel asks its users 3 questions in its onboarding survey:

• I already collect data

• I need to start tracking product data

• I need help with implementation

Genius. Note that these categories may not be mutually exclusive, but they help users choose the right path for them.

Within “I already collect data with a CDP or in-house tools,” Mixpanel gives users a quick overview of the relevant logos, with links to the appropriate docs. 

We love a logo for a visual queue, but this experience would be even more seamless if we could log in directly without needing to leave the product experience.

Consider the final dropdown, “I need help with implementation.” For users who can’t integrate a data source and can’t set it up technically, Mixpanel drops relevant resources directly into the experience.

By gaining clarity on where its users are, Mixpanel can deliver the right level of guidance and support, ensuring users feel empowered as they sign up.

Where is our user going?

The second question focuses on the destination: "Where is our user going?" By identifying your users' goals and desired outcomes, you can design an onboarding flow that aligns with their intentions. 

Asking this question allows you to do two things:

1. Tighten the onboarding experience to be as short and tailored as possible – this is the #1 way to improve your activation rate. (See Lenny and Yuriy’s excellent benchmarking survey of 500+ products)

2. Ensure users understand how they can get value from your product – At this point, users likely only have a cursory understanding of what your product does. The onboarding flow is a perfect moment to open their eyes to what’s possible. 

So how does Mixpanel show users where they’re going?

On this, Mixpanel is… mixed.  They offer helpful templates that help users understand what value they’ll get from the tool. 

But these choices are buried under a secondary CTA ‘Use A Template’ on the homepage. A more muscular approach would pull them up into the onboarding flow itself.

When you understand your users’ goals (and they know how you can help them), you can work backward to find the specific activities each user will need to do. You’ll be able to funnel up which templates, recipes, or use cases will provide the most value to each user. 

Tailoring the onboarding experience to their objectives ensures that users feel a sense of progress and purpose right from the start.

How will our user get there?

The third question aims to illuminate how our users will get to success: "How will our user get there?" In other words, what mental model do your users need to understand for how your product works (the map), and what are the steps to get started (turn-by-turn instructions)? 

By defining a logical flow and providing clear instructions, you can guide users through the initial steps, enabling them to grasp the core functionalities quickly. If you tailor the path for them to reach a destination they care about (see “Where are we going?”), you’ll help them derive the maximum value from your product.

So how does Mixpanel make the path clear? With a classic checklist, of course. 

The simple language and event-driven steps are great ways to show users where they need to go. 

What could make this experience even stronger? If this path led our users to their specific goal, such as analyzing a feature launch or reviewing marketing KPIs.

Mixpanel provides a set of relevant demo environments for those not yet ready to implement. We love this because it considers very different personas – a B2B SaaS offering will have a different dataset (and questions) than an E-commerce shop. 

Finally, Mixpanel provides a cute, educational carousel to help users understand how the data is stored – an actual mental model.  While it could have chosen to show a video, the simple diagrams and gifs provide a quick and easy way to ‘grok’ the material. Well done.

Three questions to rule them all 

Understanding your users' current state, desired outcomes, and the path to get there are essential to optimizing your onboarding process because they help you see the world through your users’ eyes. 

By asking yourself these three questions, you can enhance the user experience, improve activation rates, and drive long-term success. The answer to exceptional onboarding isn’t complicated. It’s empathy. 

That’s a wrap from our awesome guest, thanks Jonathan!

See you next week :)

This kind of personalization starts from the very beginning of the user’s relationship with your product: the onboarding process.

By asking the right questions, you can cultivate a deep understanding of each user and guide them down a path tailored to their unique requirements.

Today, we’re going to explore a 5 step process that will allow you to easily personalize your product’s onboarding journey.

Let’s dive into the steps in Miro’s onboarding sequence that lead to their personalized user experiences.

Miro has clearly done their research and understands their different types of users and how best to segment them.

First, they simply ask the user "What kind of work do you do?”

It may seem like a very simple question, “What kind of work do you do? Marketing, operations, finance…” but, because they understand what each segment requires to experience value in their product, this one answer allows them to personalize the user’s next steps, ensuring they find what they’re looking for.

The work that goes on behind the scenes includes in-depth persona mapping and user segmentation.

Persona mapping and user segmentation

In this step you want to get clear on your user’s motivation. You need to understand who they are and why they would care about your product.

Fill in these five topics for each type of user that your product is built for:

Responsibilities
​→ {Main responsibilities and JTBD}
​How they do that
​→ {Their current workflow}
​Pain points
​→ {Challenges/obstacles they face}
​Goals/KPIs
​→ {Objectives they are responsible for achieving & metrics they own}
Firmographic data
​→ {Title, company sizes, location…}

You will find that different types of personas care about different things but they will share common pain points and motivations. This will make it easy to identify which part of your product is most relevant to them.

As you can see in Miro’s example, based on the fact that I chose operations, they know which templates to show me that will most likely resonate with my persona.

Bonus point 💡 Notice how they still give users the option to “start from scratch” - it’s important to always allow users to explore on their own, since different people will prefer different ways of going about these things.

Once you’ve completed this exercise, it’s time to identify your product’s core use cases.

Identifying core use cases

Here you want to list every unique use case that your product has so that you will be able to find the commonalities between them and categorize them into overarching themes.

This is going to deepen your understanding into how your product solves different problems for different personas.

You’ll start to see how certain use cases can be relevant to one or many personas and get a sense of how to best connect them.

Connecting the dots…

This is where desired outcomes and use cases meet.

We have now formed a clearer picture of which use cases could best fit each persona.

It’s important not to overcomplicate the questions (and available answers) that you’re asking the users. Therefore, in this step, you want to connect multiple personas with common use cases so that you can end up with a question as simple as “What kind of work do you do.”

Now that you have connected the dots between your users’ desired outcomes and your product’s core use cases, it’s time to help them choose the right path.

Asking the right questions

Asking the right questions is part art, part science. It is something that by this stage of the process, you should have already clearly mapped out.

But, the way you phrase the questions and answers to choose from, is the icing on top.

You want to ask the user something that is easy to understand, relates to their needs, and gives them a sense of “finally, a product that gets what I’m looking for!”

This is subtle and you might think it’s not the biggest deal, but a small change in the language you use can play a huge role in tapping into the underlying psychology of the user.

Consider questions like:

What will be using {product} for?
Which problem would you like to solve first?
Have you used a {product category} before?

Now, when the user sees an answer that resonates with them, they’ll feel that your product can help with exactly what they’re looking for.

Creating unique user journeys.

If you ask the right questions, users will be able to tell you what they’re looking for in your product. Based on the use cases that you connected with different desired outcomes, you will now be able to guide users to the value they’re looking for quickly and efficiently.

Most users end up confused when they sign up for a new product - this is a powerful way to improve the odds of them activating in your product.

Conclusion

Don't assume why they signed up, ask them what they're trying to achieve.
Based on their response, guide them on the relevant user journey.

One small touch point like this can transform their entire user journey.

Every company is going to need to experiment with this depending on their different user segments.

But the rule is - Don’t assume, just ask.

See you next week :)

I spent hours analyzing how the top SaaS companies design their product tours and these are my top 3 takeaways:

1️⃣ Walk through a realistic workflow, don't just show off features.
2️⃣ Make sure they understand what's coming next.
3️⃣ Always have an opt-out option, don't force it.

In the world of PLG and self-serve software adoption, product tours are a secret weapon to help customers experience your product’s value.

Let’s first take a step back and ask ourselves “What even is a product tour?”

What is a product tour?

A product tour is a series of guided interactions that are used to educate new users how to use your product to achieve their desired outcomes.

Why is it important?

If you want users to be able to adopt your product without needing to hop on an onboarding call with a success rep, then you have to provide the tools necessary for them to:

• Learn how to use your product.

• Understand your value proposition.

• Experience a personalized introduction to your product’s capabilities.

At the end of the day, no matter how great your product’s solution is, if they don’t know how to use the necessary functionalities relevant to solving their specific pain points, they WON’T adopt your product.

What is the goal?

I want to clarify that the goal of a product tour isn’t to teach users how to use your features, the goal is to teach them how to solve their problems.

This leads us into the first key factor in building the perfect product tour👇

1️⃣ Walk through a realistic workflow, don't just show off features.

You want to take them through the actual steps that they would need to take in order to achieve a certain outcome. As I mentioned, the goal is to teach them how to solve their problems, not to teach them how to use your features.

So, you’re probably thinking “If they don’t know how to use the product, how can they solve their problem?!”

And you’re correct, learning how to use your product is a critical part of the journey. But, its not the goal! This is a crucial shift in perspective.

PLG leaders have mastered this. Their new users are solving problems right from the start. Here are 2 examples:

Canva

❌ Master image cropper, wizard text animator.
✅ Empowered graphic designer. Create their first design faster and easier than ever before.

Slack

❌ Pro channel creator, expert huddle host.
✅ Better team communication. Streamline team collaboration in minutes.

So next time you’re designing a product tour, don’t show them every feature you’ve got. Instead, guide them through a realistic flow and give them an experience of how they would actually solve their problem using your product.

Pro tip 💡

When you’re designing user journeys - you should always create different flows that are personalized according to different personas/use cases. You should also have customized tours depending on the desired outcomes of your users. Read more about personalization in my previous post here.

2️⃣ Make sure they understand what's coming next.

Give them an idea as to what they will get out of completing the product tour. Put the focus on them. Create curiosity, motivation, and context.

A powerful CTA is the best way to get the ball rolling for an effective tour. Let them know why they should care.

3️⃣ Always have an opt-out option, don't force it.

This is a similar problem to the insecure product trap (Full post here) where companies are scared to lose potential leads from their new signups so they try to force value onto their users.

The reality is, that not every user wants to or needs to go through your product tour and in these cases, all it does by forcing them into it, is annoy them and ruin their first impression.

We’ve all experienced those tours where we angrily smash the click button to try finish as fast as we can. It’s not a great intro to your product.

Instead, you should give them the option to opt-out and as a best practice make those tours available at a later stage for the users that decide they do want to learn this way.

Conclusion

To wrap up, don’t trap users into a feature showcasing event. Always remember that product tours are an opportunity to help users achieve their goals faster in your product.

Make it about them, make it exciting and clear, and let them choose how they’d like to learn.

See you next week :)

A positive initial interaction with your product can mean the difference between a one-time user and a long-term, loyal customer. Proper onboarding will increase activation, reduce churn rates, and consequently boost your bottom line.

Unfortunately, many SaaS companies fail to make a strong first impression.

The main reason is they simply fail to solve the problem that the person was looking for when they signed up.

There are 3 main components that contribute to this:

1. Failing to recognize that onboarding starts before users sign up.

2. Overwhelming new users with excessive features and functionalities.

3. Lack of personalization.

The result?

A value gap is created.

Yes I know, it’s obviously important to make your product sound incredible.

But your proposition needs to be realistic so that when people finally use the product, they won’t be too disappointed.

When the promise we offer in our marketing (Perceived value) is heavily misaligned with what we actually deliver (Experienced value) - new users are likely to have a disappointing first experience and may never come back.

So, set reasonable expectations because people that have a positive first experience with your product are way more likely to stick around and give your product a real shot.

Remember, onboarding is the user’s first impression.

Rule: Make sure it’s positive, and make sure it’s honest.
Fact: Once a first impression is formed, people are less likely to change their mind.

Okay, now it’s time to get practical.

Onboarding doesn’t start when they sign up.

The journey begins with the very first interaction a potential user has with your brand.

That could be seeing an ad, visiting your website, or hearing about you from a friend.

As product builders and marketers, it's crucial to keep this in mind and guide the user toward the problems your product solves for them, and how it provides value to their life or business as early as possible.

Set the tone by communicating your value proposition clearly. Paint a picture in the user’s mind of what they can expect.

Another common mistake here is overpromising.

Example - If you’re offering a free trial or freemium and in those tiers users will only experience a certain level of access, don’t over promise!

Don’t confuse them with features and functionality that they won’t even be able to benefit from. It’s really frustrating when you sign up for a free trial only to realize that you actually can’t do anything properly without upgrading. This isn’t a great first impression.

Less is more

In today's market, everyone is trying everything they can to get new signups to stick around because they're scared to lose out on potential leads.

But the funny thing is that they're actually scaring users away by trying to over impress them. By "over impress", I mean trying to force value onto new users. Showing them everything their product can do in hopes of something catching their attention.

Now I'm not saying there isn't a time and place to show off your product's superpowers. But that's not why they signed up. They have a specific problem and all they want to know is if your product can help them solve it.

In the beginning, less is more. You need to focus on solving their immediate pain point.

When you give them a positive first impression, their likeliness to activate and explore more of your product increases exponentially.

This requires a deep understanding of what your target audience’s pain points actually are. When this is clear, it’s a whole lot easier to know what to prioritize in the order of each persona’s user journey.

Speaking of personas, this leads us into the third piece of the puzzle.

Personalization

People crave personalized experiences. They want to feel understood, valued, and catered to. If your product can give them this feeling, you're well on your way to securing their loyalty.

Personalization can start as simply as addressing users by their name. But it can go much deeper, encompassing tailored onboarding journeys, personalized product recommendations, and user experiences that adapt based on behavior and preferences.

My favorite place to start is by asking. Let’s take Canva for example, when you sign up for Canva they ask you the following question:

Then based on your answer, your next steps are personalized to make sure you get closer to what you’re looking for, faster!

The suggestions they offer you on your landing page change accordingly like this:

One small touch point like this can transform the entire user journey.

Questions like:

• What will be using {product} for?

• Have you used a {product category} before?

• Which problem would you like to solve first?

Every company is going to need to experiment with this depending on their different user segments but always remember - Don’t assume, just ask.

Personalization shouldn’t end with onboarding. Your engagement sequences, communications, feature recommendations, in-app suggestions, pricing… the entire user journey should be tailored to best fit each user’s needs.

Wrapping up

By prepping users before they sign up, focusing on their problems rather than your features, and personalizing the experience, you can provide a more engaging, helpful, and satisfying journey for your users.

Not only does this make a fantastic first impression, but it also paves the way for long-term loyalty and engagement.

See you next week! :)

Learning how to properly design and leverage an empty state will significantly boost your user engagement and product adoption. A well-crafted empty state is like a friendly tour guide, helping your users navigate your product for the first time and turning a potentially confusing or overwhelming experience into a pleasant journey.

Unfortunately, many product builders overlook the significance of the empty state. They're often so engrossed in imagining their product bustling with activity and filled with data, they forget about that first moment when a user lands on an empty, untouched platform.

So, let's break down this example and delve into the key components that you need to consider when designing your product's empty state:

A personalized welcome

In the example of above I’ve included the most basic warm introduction by welcoming the new user by their first name, but you should play around with what works for your specific product.

The goal here is to make a positive, human-like first impression and increase the user’s excitement and motivation.

Example template: Welcome aboard, {firstName}! {productName} is ready to {value proposition}.

Let's say you've developed a project management tool called ProjectMaster. Your welcome message could be, "Welcome aboard, Yaakov! ProjectMaster is ready to help you manage your projects seamlessly."

A clear description

A user's first few interactions with your product are critical to their long-term engagement.

Without clear guidance, they may feel lost and overwhelmed, which can lead to churn.

Providing a simple and clear explanation of what to do next can remove that initial uncertainty and smooth the onboarding process.

Adding a one-liner about what they can expect to happen is an easy and powerful way to increase their curiosity and motivation to take the next step and reach their first milestone.

Check out how Mixpanel has nailed this in both their set up screen and in their product’s first empty state:

A Clear CTA

The call to action (CTA) is one of the most powerful tools in your user engagement toolkit. A clear CTA will get users to instantly start interacting with your product, turning their passive interest into active engagement.

Simply ask yourself what’s the next step you want the user to take, and then make that the CTA.

Continuing on Mixpanel’s example above - The first step they need users to take is to create a board, so that’s exactly what they ask them to do.

Providing an option to start from a template can give users a useful starting point and speed up their time-to-value.

By asking the right questions in the onboarding process you should also be able to personalize this experience further and suggest templates based on their specific desired outcomes (You can see more about personalization in my previous post here.)

Help and Support

Even with the most intuitive product design, some users will inevitably encounter difficulties or have questions.

By providing easily accessible help and support, you can ensure these users don't get frustrated and abandon your product.

This could take the form of a FAQ page, a chatbot for instant help, a series of tutorial videos and articles, or any combination of these.

Navigation

Everything they need should be accessible on the page. Good navigation is fundamental to a good user experience.

It helps users easily find what they're looking for and discover what else your product has to offer. By making all necessary features easily accessible, you can prevent user frustration and make their interaction with your product smoother and more enjoyable.

Collaboration

If your product is designed for collaboration, enabling users to invite others will help spread your product via internal expansion and word-of-mouth.

A new user might have not even thought about inviting their teammates yet and this is where a simple CTA or pop-up can make the world of the difference. Facilitating collaboration from the beginning can help establish your product as a central part of a team's workflow.

Empty state cheat sheet

Conclusion

Remember, every great journey starts with a single step - and in the world of SaaS products, that step is often the empty state.

Your product's empty state is a unique opportunity to create a positive first impression, guide your users during their initial interaction with your product, and start building a meaningful relationship with them. By investing time and effort into designing an effective empty state, you can turn this often overlooked part of your product into a powerful tool for user engagement and retention.

Thanks for reading!

In an era defined by customer-centricity, personalization has become a non-negotiable.

This is especially true for SaaS products, which are rarely one-size-fits-all solutions. Even within niche markets, different types of users interact with and benefit from products in varied ways.

In the rapidly evolving SaaS landscape, data has emerged as the new gold, underpinning most decisions, strategies, and actions.

However, simply collecting data isn’t enough – knowing how to interpret, analyze, and apply it effectively is what truly differentiates thriving businesses from the rest.

This is especially crucial in a product-led growth (PLG) model, where the product itself serves as the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

Here are 4 key reasons why you need to leverage data to unlock your product’s growth.

1️⃣ Tailored User Experiences:

Data empowers you to create highly personalized experiences for different user segments, driving engagement and retention.

2️⃣ User Behavior Insights:

Gone are the days of guesswork. Analyzing user behavior allows you to identify what's most valuable to your users and iterate on your product accordingly.

3️⃣ Smarter Investing:

Data-driven insights lead to informed decisions on where to allocate resources for the biggest returns.

4️⃣ Product-Led Qualification:

Scoring leads based on usage data, also known as product-qualified leads (PQLs), is a more accurate and efficient method of determining lead quality and readiness to buy.

The list goes on, and we will explore each of these and more on their own.

But today, I’m going to be focusing on the first reason - Tailored User Experiences.

The secret to building powerful and enjoyable user experiences is being able to answer:

Who are they and why are they here?

We’re going to walk through the dual approach of asking and tracking to answer these questions.

But we won't stop there. We'll also explore how to leverage product data in real time to create dynamic, personalized user experiences, both within the product itself and in-app or out-of-app messaging.

Asking

In your onboarding journey, make sure that you’re asking the right questions that will allow you to segment your users and ultimately personalize their entire experience. (This tactic should also be utilized in other user journeys, even at later stages of product adoption)

See this example breakdown of Miro’s “sign-up profiling” by Elena Verna

1. Get a sense of what they care about so that you can speak to their specific needs and underlying motivations, and design their product experience accordingly.

2. Set yourself and the rest of the company up for success by getting powerful insights into their buying potential and role in the buying process.

Tracking

Beyond simply asking, it's vital to track user behavior within your product. This is where product data comes into play.

By observing what features they interact with most, how frequently they engage with your product, and what patterns emerge from their usage, you will gain invaluable insights into their needs and preferences.

This tracking is not a one-time process but should be a continual part of your product management. User needs and behavior can change over time, and staying in tune with these changes enables you to adapt the user experience accordingly.

The power of product data truly shines when it's used in real time to create a dynamic and personalized user experience. This requires a combination of tracking user behavior, analyzing it, and then instantly adapting the product or communication based on this data.

Real-Time Personalization of Product Experience

In-app changes based on real-time data can provide a highly personalized and interactive user experience. These changes can range from simple UI tweaks to more comprehensive shifts in functionality.

For instance, if a new user is exploring different features but hasn't yet interacted with a powerful but less intuitive tool, a timely in-app prompt or tutorial could guide them. Similarly, if a regular user tends to use a specific tool at a certain time of day or in response to a specific event, ensuring that tool is prominently displayed and readily accessible can streamline their workflow.

Real-Time Engagement Through Messaging

Whether it's in-app or out-of-app, real-time data can guide your messaging and engagement strategies. For example, if a user appears to be struggling with a feature (evidenced by repeated failed attempts or prematurely exiting the process), an automated in-app message offering help could be triggered.

Out-of-app engagement, such as emails or push notifications, should also be tailored based on real-time user behavior. For example, if a user hasn't logged in for a while, an email highlighting new relevant features or content might encourage them to re-engage.

Conclusion

To wrap up, the power of product data in crafting tailored user experiences cannot be overstated. It's the compass guiding SaaS businesses towards more engaged, satisfied, and loyal users.

As technology evolves and user expectations rise, those who can harness this power in real-time will be best positioned to thrive.

The goal is not just to collect data, but to transform it into meaningful, personalized experiences that resonate with each user.

Remember, in the landscape of SaaS, personalization isn't an option; it's the way forward.

See you next week :)

But how do you actually embark on this journey and ensure your company thrives using this approach?

Today, we'll break down the first steps towards PLG success into three stages:

Company, Audience, and Product

Company

At a leadership level there has to be 3 things:

Buy-in, Alignment, and Long-Term Commitment

Buy-in: The company's leaders need to understand, support and agree with the new strategy, believing in its potential to succeed.

Alignment: The entire leadership team should have a clear, shared understanding of the strategy's goals, how it will impact the company and what unique roles they will play when contributing to this approach.

Long-term commitment: PLG isn’t a revenue hack. Leaders must be dedicated to investing in and supporting the strategy over an extended period, even when faced with challenges.

When these 3 key elements are in place and everyone is on board that PLG is a strategic fit, you will be able to invest in building out the right team, roadmap and infrastructure to support your company’s PLG success.

The next step is your target audience.

Audience

In this stage, you have to get super clear on the problem that you’re solving and the people that you’re solving it for.

What you’re solving + Who you’re solving it for

You want to make sure that you’re focusing on a pain point that your end-users actually care about.

Your research should include an in-depth user persona analysis, a full break-down of the existing solutions and their benefits and shortcomings, as well as a clear definition of ICP’s Jobs-To-Be-Done.

If you’ve done this correctly, it should be easy for you to fill out something like this:

[Product Name] helps [Target Audience] to [Main Benefit] by [Unique Differentiator].

Or

[Product Name] helps [Target Audience] who want to [Goal] by [Solution/Benefit] without [Pain Point].

You want to be able to:

• Understand our product’s value.

• Communicate the perceived value.

• And ultimately deliver on that expectation.

The next stage is all about how your product is going to deliver on that expectation.

Product

Once you have the team onboard and you are clear on your company’s mission, it’s time to think about how your product is going to sell itself.

Using your research and feedback from the “Audience” stage, you need to understand which growth model is the best fit for your product.

Freemium, trials, reverse trials… They all have their unique superpowers and it’s very important to understand both their advantages and disadvantages and recognize that each model represents distinct approaches and require a completely different infrastructure.

The key question you want to be able to answer here is:

How much time does your product need to demonstrate real value?

Remember, it’s not enough to let people try your product for free.

You have to make sure that your product is able to do what a salesperson or customer success rep would do.

The product has to be built in a way that allows users to experience its core value and ultimately to sell itself.

I gave 13 actionable examples in this post here.

To sum up:

Most people think PLG starts with adding a free trial/freemium version to the product.

But it really starts with the company committing to PLG as a long-term initiative rather than a short-term growth hack.

If you want to build a Product-Led success, you need to build the right foundations.

See you next week :)

The solution is to think about all the things a salesperson does, and then make sure your product can do these things too.

Here are 13 examples:

Articulating the product’s value proposition

Sales teams traditionally spend significant time crafting pitches to express the product's value.

Product-Led: The product experience itself needs to prove its value through user interaction. It’s about showing, not telling.

Qualifying Leads

Sales teams act like seasoned analysts, assessing leads based on demographic or firmographic data.

Product-Led: Enter Product Qualified Lead (PQL) scoring models, which qualify leads based on product usage - a more nuanced approach that delivers accurate predictions about conversion likelihood.

Conducting Proof of Concept (POC)

Traditionally, sales teams conduct tailor-made POCs to prove the product's potential.

Product-Led: Freemium or Free Trial modes serve as dynamic showrooms where users can experience the product's value firsthand, eliminating the need for a prolonged POC process.

Onboarding Clients

Typically, sales teams guide new clients through the onboarding process.

Product-Led: Consider an approach where the product itself is the guide, providing intuitive empty states, product tours, checklists, and more, allowing users to experience your product's value without human handholding.

Educating Customers

The sales-led approach often involves comprehensive demos or training sessions, akin to traditional classroom education.

Product-Led: Why not build an embedded learning system? With a comprehensive knowledge base, tooltips, or interactive guides, users have access to necessary information in a more engaging and immediate manner.

Personalizing Experiences

Sales teams, armed with their knowledge of the customer, personalize interactions.

Product-Led: Picture a product that harnesses user data to personalize the product experience, showcasing relevant features based on usage patterns - a truly user-centric approach.

Driving Conversions

Sales teams often follow up with prospects persistently to encourage conversion.

Product-Led: Automated in and out of app engagement sequences work like gentle nudges, driving conversions by sending targeted messages based on user behavior.

Negotiating Custom Packages

Sales teams often engage in negotiations to tailor custom packages for clients.

Product-Led: Instead, let's democratize customization. The product allows user-driven customization, ready-made templates, and customizable self-serve subscription models, giving users the flexibility to choose what suits them best.

Generating Leads

Traditionally, sales teams generate leads through outbound efforts, casting wide nets.

Product-Led: Product growth loops generate more usage, creating a virtuous cycle of word-of-mouth referrals, user-generated content, and collaboration.

Customer Retention and Subscription Renewals

Sales teams often manually track subscription renewals and engage in outreach to prevent churn.

Product-Led: The product uses automated triggers and personalized in-product messages to enhance retention, subtly nudging users towards features they haven't used yet.

Upselling and Cross-Selling

Sales teams identify opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to existing customers.

Product-Led: The product includes in-app prompts for feature discovery and premium upgrades, intuitively suggesting additional features based on the user's usage patterns.

Collecting User Feedback

Sales teams gather feedback through direct communication or surveys.

Product-Led: The product incorporates automated in-app surveys or feedback collection mechanisms, ensuring real-time and relevant insights are captured at the point of user interaction.

Predicting Customer Behavior

Sales teams often predict customer behavior based on past interactions and intuition.

Product-Led: The product leverages data and machine learning to anticipate customer actions, suggesting features a user is likely to need based on their behavior.

To sum up.

If you want your product to sell itself.

Make sure it has what it needs to do the job that people who sell usually do.

See you next week :)

By that I mean understanding the different personas within your target audience and what success means to them.

In my post, Why defining end-user success is so important, I explored 3 questions:

• Who are they?

• Why are they here?

• How do we get them there as quick as possible?

In this post, I’m going to focus on the “getting them there as quick as possible” part.

Let’s break it down into 3 parts.

1. Pain point → Solution mapping

2. Continuous optimization

3. Activation boosters

Pain point → Solution mapping.

Once you’ve done your user research and your personas are ready to be worked with, it’s time to put them into action.

Here you want to map out which of your product’s solutions are related to different user pain points and identify their respective user journey.

You can use a template like this:

• Pain point {The pain point that the end-user is facing}

• Relevant personas {The persona/s are affected by this pain point}

• Solution {How your product solve it? Including the different features relevant to the solution}

• Aha moment {Describe the moment when users first experience the value of the above solution and identify how you can track/measure this}

• Associated user journey {The user journey/s that lead to the relevant solution - Taken from Step 2 of continuous optimization}

Now that you have a clear picture of how your product’s solution/s are connected to your target audience’s unique pain points, it’s time to optimize the user journey/s that get them from point A to B.

Continuous optimization

The goal of this exercise is to design the most efficient and effective users journeys so that you can guide your users through different activation milestones and ultimately help them solve their problem and/or achieve their desired outcome as quickly as possible.

It’s important to note here that your mindset should be focused on solving problems and not pushing features.

In this exercise you want to be able to answer:

• Which steps can be delayed?

• Which steps can be removed?

• Which steps are essential in getting users to their goal?

It’s as simple as this:

1. Write out your user onboarding journey into steps.

2. Go through each step and ask yourself:

   1. Is this necessary?

   2. Would I understand this if I was seeing it for the first time?

3. Remove all unnecessary steps.

4. Simplify the steps that are hard to understand.

5. Keep a list of all the changes you’ve made.

6. Measure the results.

7. Assess A/B testing options.

8. Repeat.

Activation boosters

With your user journey fully outlined, consider taking advantage of these 9 different activation boosters.

Intuitive Empty States ☐

Whenever a user encounters empty and/or blank states (Like their first landing page in the product) make sure that you’re offering clear and actionable instructions and/or suggestions.

Welcome Messages 👋

A friendly and informative welcome message can make users feel valued, set a positive tone and guide their next steps to unlocking your product’s value.

Available Support 🦸

Providing options such as responsive live chat or email support will increase users' confidence in your product and reduce their frustration when encountering issues.

Personalization 👤

Making users feel that your product is tailored to their specific needs will increase their engagement, reduce friction and lower your product’s time-to-value.

Product Tours 🗺

Guide users through your product's key features and help them understand how to use it effectively.

WARNING ⚠️ Make sure you’re walking user’s through a realistic workflow and not just showcasing features.

Help Center💡

A comprehensive and easily accessible help center should provide users with the support and resources they need to overcome any issues they encounter.

Checklists ✅

Help users stay organized and on track to the likelihood of them getting lost or overwhelmed during the onboarding process.

Templates 🔓

Save users time and effort by providing pre-designed layouts and content that they can customize to their needs.

Tooltips 👈

Provide quick and helpful information to users without interrupting their workflow.

To finish off this piece, I'd love to emphasize a point that I’m extremely passionate about and I believe is what separates the leaders in SaaS from the rest.

Users are people too.

The leaders in the game focus heavily on empathizing with their end-users. They seek personal stories and feedback, and they constantly improve their understanding of their user’s motivation, struggles, and context.

So as a note to leave off with, invest some time into understanding your users just a little bit more. You can use this template as a starting point to figure out their Why.

Keep it in mind as you’re transforming your user journey.

It’s the key to building a product that user’s truly love.

See you next week :)

I’m talking about copying and pasting another company’s growth strategy without fully comprehending the distinctions between various models and their respective advantages and drawbacks.

Growth models are not a one-size-fits-all.

It’s true. Most users want to experience your product’s value before speaking to a human.

Users trying to test out a product without needing to book a demo.

It can be quite frustrating when your homepage invites visitors to "Get started now," only for that call-to-action to lead them to a "Book a demo" page.

However, the answer is NOT simply to open up your product, adopt a freemium/trial model, and optimistically await the outcome.

Sounds obvious? It should be, but you’d be surprised how many teams expose their product without designing and building the right product model and user journeys necessary to allow new users to experience real value.

So what should you do?

Great question! Start with these 3 steps:

1. Get clear on your target audience and ICP.

   Do you know what your users really want?

   • Conduct thorough market research, create customer personas, and analyze customer feedback to identify common needs, desires, and pain points.

2. Understand the state of the market and where you fit in.

   Is your growth strategy dominant, disruptive, or differentiated?

   • See Chapter 2 of “Product-Led Growth” for more (You can read it for free here https://productled.com/book)

   • Analyze competitor offerings, identify market trends, and assess your product's unique selling points to establish your competitive advantage and positioning.

3. Figure out how quickly you can provide value.

   How much time does your product need to demonstrate real value?

   • Identify your product’s user journey/s and take-note of how long a user needs to really benefit from your product’s core value.

Once you’ve done this, it will be a whole lot simpler to evaluate which growth model is the best fit for your product.

It’s super important to recognize that Freemium and Trial models represent distinct approaches and require a completely different infrastructure.

Here are some great resources to learn more about their differences and unique benefits:

• It’s all about trials by Elena Verna

• Freemium vs Free Trial by Openview

• Freemium or Free Trial by Jana Frejova

• Your Guide to Reverse Trials by Kyle Poyar

See you next week :)