How to implement product-led growth (PLG) strategies

Users should be able to sign up, understand value, and achieve their first win without talking to anyone. Simplify onboarding, remove unnecessary fields, provide in-app guidance, and eliminate gatekeepers. The best PLG products are intuitive enough that users can succeed independently. Reduce time to value to minutes, not weeks.

Let users experience your product before paying. Freemium gives ongoing free access with limitations; free trial gives full access for a limited time. Choose based on your model. The free experience must deliver enough value to hook users, but create clear upgrade moments when they need more.

Activation is when a user experiences the core value prop. For Slack it's sending 2,000 messages; for Dropbox it's uploading a file. Identify your activation metric and ruthlessly optimize the new user journey to get people there fast. Activated users convert and retain at dramatically higher rates.

Don't rely on emails alone. Contextual in-app messages, tooltips, checklists, and feature announcements guide users to value. Show features when they're relevant, not all at once. Educate users progressively as they're ready for more advanced capabilities.

The product itself should encourage sharing: collaborative features, invite teammates, share outputs publicly, "Powered by" branding. Every user should have opportunities to bring in others. PLG products grow because using them creates more users.

Pricing should align with value delivered. As customers use more, get more value, or add more users, revenue grows naturally. Transparent, self-service pricing removes friction. Avoid "contact sales" until enterprise tiers. Make it easy to upgrade in-product.

Monitor: signup → activation → paid conversion → retention → expansion. Identify drop-off points and experiment with improvements. A/B test onboarding flows, pricing pages, and upgrade prompts. Small conversion rate improvements compound into massive revenue gains.

PLG doesn't mean no sales team. Use product-qualified leads (PQLs)—users exhibiting buying signals—to trigger sales outreach. Sales focuses on expansion, enterprise features, and strategic accounts. The product lands users; sales expands them.