5 most challenging things with PLG

Team Agility

Developing that mindset with the team to launch even when it's uncomfortable. PLG operation gets better with quantity, and every customer is an opportunity to figure out whether you're on the right track. You won't know if you don't launch - whether it’s a feature launch or a paywall launch.

For me to help the team process this, I remind them that our goal is to create software for the next 1,000 customers. It helps them visualize that. They should be proud of what they're launching, and also anticipate the scale of customers are coming. Let's iterate quickly so we can have the best experience for them.

Experimentation

Not all engineering and design teams are comfortable with experimentation. The word "experiment" has a lot of stigma. Experiments may signify it's likelihood to fail, and when they fail, someone needs to clean it up, and it is often felt by the product teams. Product teams often work on continuing to build and layer — not build and tear down.

Not until we started calling it “Learnings” did we get more interest from our technical teams. “Learnings of the unknown.” Now, we're just building “learnings” and collecting product data points to discover what customers resonate with this paywall or this feature.

The First 6 Months

The first six months were challenging for me. We didn't have enough data points. We didn't have signals on who wanted to buy and who were just dragging their feet. We couldn’t clarify (yet) what we're providing, our mission, pricing, support, and why customers should choose us. Once we launched, we were still looking to convert sales and identify product-qualified leads — that’s a lot of pressure!

Looking back, this is completely normal. We are taking a product built for Sales Led motion and applying it to a new customer segment. And what worked before is not going to work for these PLG customers. It's not until we continue to talk to our customers and onboard them that we start to improve every aspect of how we can reassure them, improve the PLG bumpers, and get them to convert.

Cross SLG and PLG strategy

Later on, the questionable results that we were getting on the first six months led to a lot of chatter internally on “why are we still investing in PLG?” Why are we doing both motions? Which one makes sense for which customer segment? Why do they have different marketing verbiage, and where is the distinction?

Once we saw some success with Product-Let Growth Motion, it was clear what the different types of customers are based on the average contract value (ACV). Then, we created a more cohesive strategy for using what resources apply to SLG and PLG. Communicating this product strategy would alleviate the cross-chatter of the roadmap priorities.

Mental health

Product-led growth is cool but also new_, “innovative,” and risky. It's an uphill battle: educating the team, getting buy-in, reassuring the leadership team, and showing updates and results to the organization. That's a lot of stress.

I was fortunate to have outlets like a peaceful home, time to cultivate a calm mind, and opportunity to step away and recharge. In my A Year in Life as Head of PLG post, I talk about how I went to the local gym to swim during lunchtime - and came back with a quieter mind so that I could listen more intently and plan more strategically.

Read more:

• A Year in Life as Head of Product Led Growth

• How to communicate the Product Led Growth roadmap to stakeholders

• Product led Growth Bumpers: Turning Free users into Paying Customers

• How to influence using Product Data?

I write daily*** about my learning on launching and leading PLG. Feel free to subscribe.

I am Gary Yau Chan. 3x Head of Growth. Product Growth specialist. 26x hackathon winner. I write about #PLG and #BuildInPublic. Please follow me on LinkedIn, or read about what you can hire me for on my Notion page.