Why Product Managers Need to Master Product Led Growth
Creating products customers love
For many years, business people treated tech teams as support to the main business. Tech people had no room to suggest what the product should or should not have because business people called all shots.
This has changed.
Tech teams are no longer support teams; they are the business. Yet, alone that wouldn’t be enough. That’s when product managers come in to close the gap and connect the dots.
In the past, product managers were part of marketing and would throw requirements to tech teams and expect them to deliver. Now, product managers and tech people work in the same team. Together, they shape the future.
The biggest challenge is answering this question: “How do we create a sustainable growth engine?”
No product survives without customers, and no product thrives without customers who love the product.
Moving away from buying customers
What’s the traditional way of acquiring customers? Maybe one of the following:
Paid ads
Vouchers
Salesforce
The above can work, but it’s costly and most probably ineffective. A product that requires a solid advertisement to sell won’t have a sustainable growth engine.
A great product sells by itself because customers love it.
Traditional sales approach will burn your cash and won’t help you create a product that customers love. You may end up with several customers but no loyal ones. The moment your competition offers them a better deal, they leave you.
Product-led growth is the solution for sustainable growth.
What’s product-led growth?
In simple words is creating a great product and using it to acquire new customers. Instead of investing rivers of money to reach new customers, you create an outstanding product that customers love.
Yet, this is more like an art than science. You’ve got to understand your customers problems and motivations. Empathy is critical to solving this puzzle.
The fundamental principles behind it are:
Relentlessly strive to create value fast for users
Continuously solve immediate problems
Intuitive usability over clear guidance
Make the product natural for end-users instead of rational
Help users build communities
Dramatically reduce time to value
Enable users to share the product when they collect value
PLG isn’t a process. It’s an approach that puts the product in the middle of the equation and strives to make it better for end-users continuously.
Growing into PLG
To grow into PLG, you need to practice it. You’ve got to live it every single day. Start small, and reflect on the following questions:
What could I do now to create immediate value for our customers?
What do customers love about our product?
What makes customers churn?
What are the biggest pain relievers for our customers?
What do our customers struggle with?
Learn about your audience, and make your product better for them.
To understand more about product-led growth, I encourage you to subscribe to Leah’s ProductTea. She is generous with her knowledge and share gazillions of insights.
I recommend reading the PLG Guide created by Leah. It’s the most comprehensive material you can find out there.
Now, I’ve got a question for you. Do you want to step up your game?
You can take a live course on PLG by Leah to step up your game and accelerate your career. This will take you to the next level. I truly recommend you do that.
I have something for you, a 500 USD discount with the voucher PLG500DP
I hope you unlock your growth engine!
Note: Recently, I released a crash course about Product Discovery. You may be interested in knowing what successful companies do to create value sooner.
If you want to go further and beyond, I will share with you my premium resources, including product health checks and world-class product principles.