I'm a core PM, could I / should I PLG?
Umm, hell yeah!!?
Are you a core/feature Product Manager wondering what you could do about this whole Product-Led Growth (PLG) thing?
‘I mean, I’m not part of the Growth org. I’m supposed to deliver new adjacent products or features.’
I’m going to say this again… PLG is not owned by any particular team! It’s a mindset thing. Being product-led is essentially being customer-led!
Your product experiences growth as an outcome when the inputs are optimized: Inputs such as:
discoverability of features
deriving value aka adoption
building a habit and
being able to monetize the value of those features.
So let’s see what you, as a ‘core PM’ can do to drive PLG in your lane:
Discoverability:
Think how a new or existing user will discover this new feature you are building. Does the discovery path follow their natural everyday workflow? How deep is the feature buried in the product? It's important to consider when and how customers should find this feature in their daily workflows.
Adoption:
Apart from the things you need to do to find a product-market fit for this new feature to drive adoption, you also need to think about how the customer will experience the promised value. Do you think the customer needs to try this feature to understand value first? Should you breadcrumb this feature to allow some freemium version of the feature to drive adoption? Would the customer need more admin permissions to adopt the new feature?
Building Habit:
Your job as a core PM likely doesn't end as soon as you've seen initial adoption. You must ensure the customer builds a habit around the new feature usage. Only then can you build retention. You need to track critical drop-off points in the user journey and see how you can make this feature an integral part of your customer's everyday core behavior. Can the feature be better integrated into another well-adopted feature? Does the user need to be notified to action the feature regularly lest you see a drop in retention?
Monetizing:
I know you'd say monetization is a GTM team's responsibility. But YOU are the best person to outline how differentiated the value of this new feature is compared to the competition. In that respect, you have a say in how the feature should be priced and packaged. Since you are the product expert, does it make sense to bundle it with another feature to increase perceived value and price? Or should the customer pay an additional cost, or should it be free?
Does this sound like PLG? I sure do and believe that PLG is a mental model - It can be applied throughout the customer's product experience.
What do you think?
(PS: This framework may not apply to technical / platform PMs)
#growth #plg #productmanagement #startups