BOOK SUMMARY

Product-Led Growth - Summary and review

Updated: November 19th, 2024
Published: October 17th, 2024
How to build a product that sells itself.

🚀 Summary: Product-Led Growth in 30 seconds

The handbook on product-led-growth (PLG). In short - how to build a product that sells itself.

The importance of pricing

Pricing is like volleyball. It's easy to stand around and watch the ball being dropped in the middle.

And, pricing touches all parts of the business:

  • Marketing

  • Sales

  • Product

Value metrics

What is a value metric?

A value metric is the way you measure value exchange in your product.

Examples of value metrics:

  • Is it messages sent?

  • Number of users?

  • Total revenue generated?

How to find value metrics

  • Method 1: Subjective analysis

    • Write down all possible value metrics - run them through the value metrics scratch pad by Openview

  • Method 2: Data-driven approach

    • Vet results in subjective analysis

    • To get meaningful insights out of your product data, look for patterns among your best and worst customers. For instance, ask yourself these questions when analyzing your data:

      1. What do my best customers do regularly in the product?

      2. What do my best customers not do in the product?

      3. What features did my best users try first during onboarding?

      4. What similarities among my best users - demographics, team structure, ability - led to success?

Churn analysis - to find value metrics

For churned customers, ask:

  • What were some of the main differences between their user journey and that of your best customer?

  • Specifically, what activities were different? What outcomes did your churned users achieve and not achieve?

  • Were these churned customers in your target market?

  • Why did the majority of these customers churn?

When trying to answer these questions, go through your product data to validate EVERYTHING. After you’ve come up with several viable value metrics, stress test their potential.

Your best customers - to find value metrics

For your best customers, ask:

  1. What do they do regularly in the product?

  2. What do they not do in the product?

  3. What features did they try first during onboarding?

  4. Similarities amongst them - demographics, team structure, ability - led to success?

Examples of value metrics

  • Is it messages sent?

  • Number of users?

  • Total revenue generated?

Talk on Growth Hacking at KTH Innovation - Jonathan Rintala

Me giving talk on Growth Hacking at KTH Innovation - Referring to in product virality and the PLG book by Wes Bush

Tracking growth

Going PLG means you should start tracking growth, if not doing it already. Tracking KPIs help you follow your progress and make sure you put effort where it matters.

Key growth metrics to track

Some of the key growth metrics you want to include are the following:

  • revenue generation

  • cost per lead

  • cost per customer acquisition

  • conversion rates

  • the number of active users

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Q: Who is Wes Bush?

Wes Bush, is the founder and president of the Product-Led Institute, and the bestselling author of Product-Led Growth. Wes has successfully built demand for several high growth companies, including attracting over 100,000 users in less than one year for video SaaS company Vidyard.