3 Things I learn from building PLG Paywalls 😰

Building PLG paywalls didn't always go smoothly 😔

Here’s what I learned and if I were to do it again:

Product-led Growth is never a straight line, and our paywall journey was the perfect proof. What started as a challenging quest turned into a critical learning experience that reshaped our entire approach to product strategy.

We are Giving Too Much Away for Free 🆓

When we first launched, our product was a wide-open playground. No paywalls, no usage limits, and plenty of sign-ups—but unfortunately, not enough conversions. We were crawling in the dark, driven by internal pressures and gut instincts about feature gating.

Key Insights for PLG Leaders:

1. Start Paywall Discussions Early: Don't wait until you're drowning in user acquisition.

2. Secure Leadership Alignment: Get senior leadership to "disagree and commit"

3. Invest in the Right Tools: Consider entitlement platforms like Atlas or Stigg

The Messy Reality of Building Paywalls 🧱

Our journey was anything but glamorous, spanning six challenging months filled with intense product discussions and heated debates about feature gating. We constantly sought to balance delivering an exceptional customer experience with meeting our business needs, a process that ultimately shaped our product and strategy.

• Which paywalls will get upsell? 💰

• Which paywall is easy-to-launch? 🚀

• Which paywalls will make customers angry? 😡

Time was ticking as we faced critical decisions that required us to disagree and commit swiftly. The process of building paywalls proved to be particularly challenging, taking us six months to refine and perfect. This period tested our resolve and collaboration, but it ultimately led us to a solution that aligned with our goals.

Collaborating with Engineering 🔨

We partnered with a front-end engineer to tackle some key areas 🤝. First, we focused on designing repeatable components to streamline our development process ⚙️.

Next, we simplified the paywall architecture, making it easier to implement 🔑. Finally, we prioritized minimizing backend complexity to ensure everything ran smoothly 🛠️. This collaboration was essential in helping us build a robust and efficient system.

Critical Paywall Considerations:

• Infrastructure Challenges:

  • Updating entitlements seamlessly

  • Grandfathering existing customers

  • Strategically allocating product roadmap time

• Rapid Experimentation:

  • Quick sales pitch iterations

  • Pricing page updates

  • Constant feedback loops

Our journey came with its share of infrastructure challenges 🛠️. We had to figure out how to update entitlements seamlessly to ensure a smooth experience for our users 🔄. At the same time, we wanted to grandfather existing customers, keeping their loyalty while rolling out new systems 🤝. It was crucial for us to strategically allocate time on our product roadmap to balance these needs with ongoing development 📅.

Despite these hurdles, we embraced rapid experimentation 🚀. We quickly iterated on our sales pitch, refining our messaging to better connect with potential customers 📣. We also made regular updates to our pricing page, testing different structures and offerings 💡. Throughout it all, we kept constant feedback loops in place, allowing us to adapt and improve based on real-world data and user responses 📊.

Navigating the Product-Led Growth Waves 🌊

Product-led Growth is less about perfect execution and more about navigating uncertainty. Our paywall journey taught us that progress isn't linear—it's a series of calculated experiments, tough conversations, and continuous learning.

Final Thoughts: Embrace the Product-Led way🛣️

Building product-led growth strategies isn't about finding a perfect blueprint. It's about staying adaptable, listening to your customers, and being willing to pivot.

Our paywall journey was incredibly rewarding to deploy and iterate. Onward to driving revenue! 💸

Want to learn more about Product Led Growth? Read more below

Post-Sales and Product Led Growth

1. Get those G2 Reviews! 🤩

2. Find more upsells with this post-sales playbook 🤑

3. Understand reasons why customers churn: 5 Churn analysis and methods 😵‍💫

Retention and Product Led Growth

1. How we increased retention by activating +45% of our PLG customers? 📈

2. What is a good vs. great retention benchmark? 📊

3. Who owns retention? 🫵

4. Five ways to improve retention in PLG 🖐️

Roadmaps and Product-led Growth

1. How do I convince Product, Design, and Engineering to build PLG features? 😍

2. How do I know we are building the right things for PLG? And what are the success metrics? 🤔

3. How to use customer feedback in your PLG product roadmap? 🗣️

4. How to communicate product-led growth Roadmap to Stakeholders? 😰

5. How to handle stakeholder requests? 😅

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.