Introduction

Digital products, SaaS, directories, and online platforms - all start to find potential in product-led-growth.

This playbook is your roadmap to turn on the power of product data for product-led growth (PLG). No fluff, no jargon - just practical, actionable insights that you can start implementing today.

By focusing on the core principles of PLG, we’ll explore how your product can serve as the primary engine for customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. You'll learn about the user progression cycle—from evaluators to champions—and how activating users at each stage is critical. With practical examples and clear strategies, this playbook will help you navigate the complexities of PLG, ensuring that you not only understand your product data but also use it to unlock sustainable growth.

Key Principles of Product Led Growth Flywheel

To effectively set up tracking for your product-led growth (PLG) strategy, we will utilize the Product-Led Growth Flywheel framework as our foundational model.

This framework emphasizes the cyclical nature of user progression through distinct stages:

• Evaluators,
• Beginners,
• Regulars,
• Champions.

Each stage represents a critical point in the user journey, where specific actions must be completed to facilitate advancement to the next level. The progression breakthrough phases—Activate, Adopt, Love, and Advocate—highlight the importance of engaging users at each step to make the most out of your product led growth flywheel.

By focusing on these key characteristics of PLG, we can establish a robust tracking system that not only measures user engagement but also identifies opportunities for improvements and tests.

This will allow you to customize your metrics in LiveSession effectively. Capturing meaningful data and clearly visualizing it is your key to find insights and support sustained growth.

Section 1: What to measure for better product led growth?

Not all organizations are ready to implement Product-led-growth but knowing what to measure is a good way to start. You will see exactly the metrics you can start tracking to have a good understand of your customer journey as a product led organization.

Evaluators

Start by creating a segment for Monthly Active Users (MAU). This gives you a baseline to understand user engagement. Next, refine this with a numbered metric that not only shows the total MAU but also highlights first-time visits. This helps you track new user influx and their initial engagement levels.

Building a funnel for users who have signed up but haven't engaged with your core feature is crucial. It allows you to identify where potential drop-offs occur and what might be preventing users from reaching that "aha moment."

Finally, leverage custom events to track initial interactions like "First Login" or "Feature X Viewed." These metrics are your early indicators of whether users are beginning to see value in your product.

Good job. Now you can expect to uncover patterns in user behavior that highlight friction points in your onboarding process. You'll identify which features are drawing users in and which might need more visibility or improvement. This data-driven approach will guide you in refining your product experience to boost activation and retention.

Beginners

When you're just starting out on your product-led journey, focusing on the beginners group is all about setting the right foundation.

First, you'll want to create a segment for Product Qualified Leads (PQLs). This involves defining criteria based on feature usage that signals a user is ready for deeper engagement. Think of it as setting the stage for identifying those who are primed for conversion

Next, implement a dimensional metric grouped by email to track users engaging with your core features. This daily list of PQLs will help you understand who's actively exploring the value your product offers. It's like having a pulse on your most promising users, allowing you to tailor your outreach and support sales-assist efforts effectively.

Finally, don't overlook the importance of tracking key onboarding steps. Use custom events to monitor when users complete critical actions like "Onboarding Completed."

This will help you pinpoint where users might be dropping off and refine your onboarding process to ensure a smoother journey from curiosity to commitment.

By focusing on these areas, you'll gain valuable insights into user behavior and be better equipped to nurture your beginners into loyal advocates. What specific challenges are you encountering with your current setup?

Regulars

When you're honing in on the regulars in a product-led company, you're essentially focusing on those users who consistently find value in your product.

Start by creating a metric that tracks how many users frequently engage with chosen features over time. This number should only grow if it doesn’t it means the numbers of core features users is shrinking.

Lastly, implement a dimensional metric to capture signs of positive interaction, such as reviews, likes, or initiated checkouts. Group the results by page titles or Start URL. This will highlight the aspects of your product that resonate most with your users.

From this group of features you'll gain a clearer picture of what aspects of your product are delighting users, which can inform future development and marketing strategies.

Champions

When you're focusing on the champions segment of your user journey, you're zeroing in on those power users who not only find value in your product but actively advocate for it.

Start by creating a trend metric to track the total number of started checkouts.

This will help you understand the purchasing behavior of your most engaged users and identify patterns that could inform your broader strategy. For this adding a custom event will be required.

Next, develop a number metric to capture the average size of the preferred subscription users choose. By setting up a custom event with specific properties, you'll gain insights into which subscription tiers are most appealing to your champions, allowing you to tailor your offerings to maximize value.

Finally, track the clicks on "Invite teammates" with a number metric. This will reveal how often your champions are spreading the word and bringing new users into the fold, highlighting the viral potential of your product.

As for insights, expect to uncover which features and subscription options resonate most with your champions, and how effectively they're driving growth through referrals.

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