Product-led growth, in the most classic sense, is a very specific approach to go-to-market that relies on a self-service customer acquisition channel—where people can try, buy, expand and renew without ever talking to a person from the company.

“A very specific approach to go-to-market that relies on a self-service customer acquisition channel—where people can try, buy, expand and renew without ever talking to a person from the company.”

Product-led growth is an inherently efficient go to market strategy, but it requires an alchemy of elements, not the least of which includes:

• A product so good that solves an obvious need.
• A product that has clear, easy to see value.
• A product that is so delightful that people just want to use it to be part of the tribe.
• A product that makes people rave—something they are compelled to share and talk about.
• A product people can easily understand and connect with.
• A product people can try or experience on their own even if they can’t buy on their own.
• A product has to be easy to use without support, set up, training, etc.
• A product with a customer acquisition model has to be intentionally created—it’s hard to retro-fit a sales-led product into a self-service model.

Clearly, it’s all about the product.

The rapid growth that comes from this model is rare air...think Slack, Zoom, Atlassian, Dropbox, Calendly.

Possible? Yes. Common? No.

There are many good reasons why companies can’t just switch on a product-led growth spigot. Some of those reasons may include:

• There is no self-service free trial or freemium option.
• There is no self-service purchase option.
• The pricing strategy excludes the bottom of the market.
• The product has a clunky user experience.
• The product is complex and requires setup, configuration & training.