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So today I'm going to be talking about the evolution of product led growth and how some of the fastest growing AI companies are still doing product led growth. But it's completely different than anything we've ever seen before. And what you could do to your own business to implement some of these strategies inside your business. But first, story time. Shutterstock had product led growth figured out for years. It was a beautiful pathway. Growth motion. You could browse millions of images, filter by keyword preview in high res, you know, all the fun stuff, license with one click and then just download it pretty much instantly. And every part of the experience was optimized and every bit of friction was sanded down. They did just a fantastic job with their product led growth motion. And for 15 years this product led growth motion printed money and then AI image generators showed up. And then all of a sudden nobody really cared about browsing for some of those stock images. They just typed what they wanted and then they got it at the end of the day. And that's the part I think most founders still miss today. Shutterstock, they, they weren't lazy and they didn't lose because their onboarding just broke. They didn't lose because they forgot, oh yeah, we forgot how productly growth works and all that stuff. No, they lost because the market actually stopped rewarding the products that just remove friction. And that market is also you. What has changed though is the market has started rewarding products that actually do the work for you. So you'll totally get this when I go through presentations, because I mean most people create presentations, but take Google Slides. So they say, hey, here's the canvas, go build. You can design it on your own. Good luck. And as we all know, creating a presentation, it does take a lot of time. Mental efforts, you gotta learn how to design it, all that, that stuff, it takes a lot of time. I've created hundreds of presentations and I know this very deeply. Then there's gamma and you know, you still have to kind of create an outline, but then you plug it in to Gamma and then boom, you just see the AI editor create your presentation. You're like, oh wow. And it's usually pretty good. You still have to do some edits, but it's about 80% of the way there, which is just fantastic. And sometimes I don't even make any changes. I'll share a couple other examples, just go through what is changing when it comes to how products grow today. So another example is stack overflow. So if you had a coding question or something like that, you Go to Stack Overflow, find the answer pretty quick. But now cursor, they just answer the question for you and they, they fix it in the product. You're like, great, I don't even have to go to another product to find out that answer. And now we have Westlaw, which is great for lawyers if you're doing any sort of research. They made it really easy to search using their platform. And then Harvey AI came along and they're just like, hey, look, draft the legal briefs using our platform and you don't even have to do that search anymore. And we do it for you. This is not like onboarding flow optimization 101. It's a completely different game. And if you are in technology, what you have to realize is that this shift is happening and more people have to design products that actually get the work done for your user and they don't just optimize and reduce friction. Although that was definitely the first version of product LED growth. So that's what I actually want to get to in this is that there's three versions of product LED growth. So the first version is not completely dead. There is still industries where it makes sense. Right now, a lot of these industries are what I would call in the late majority or laggards of the market. That could be something like healthcare, government, tech, or like real estate as an example. And so in PLG 1.0, it's very similar to what you've already know what product growth is. You sign up for the product, you go through some setup items, but you as the user are actually doing all of the work to get to value. And the problem with this is it actually is the biggest factor that limits your total addressable market. And I label these people as their builders. So there's only so many people who can actually build in your space. If you think of like development space as an example, there's only so many developers that are like full stack developers that can take something from beginning to end. Now there's people like myself, not technical, but maybe I could play around and I do play around with cloud code. I could design something, get it about 80% of the way there and it's, it's good enough to, to actually get a V1 MVP going. Now PLG 2.0, this is what is currently up and coming for the majority of people in our market. So this is what's fundamentally different about PLG 2.0, is that your products will actually be powered by AI, but AI will do the majority of the work and expectations nowadays is that if you have a PG 2.0 product, you can actually get people to value really quick. So a lot of times this is like 60 seconds or less to value and your user is actually an editor. So there's somebody that can just go in, kind of make some tweaks, but they don't actually need to have a lot of the skills and knowledge to really be successful in your product. A lot of people just think, oh yeah, it's a lot easier to use, that's the main benefit. But what this actually does is in any single market, any market you're in, this actually really grows your total addressable market. Because long and behold, there's way more editors than builders, because editors don't really have the builder skillset to go in, figure out how to get to success in your product, and figure out your products, but also have the skills and knowledge to make it work. This is massive for growing your business. And that's actually why you're seeing so many AI tools today that are just growing from zero to a hundred million in less than 12 months, because they are powered by AI, but they're attracting a lot of people that are editors. They, they don't have to do a lot of the technical stuff, but they can still get access of that product's value. And so that's massive for PLG 2.0. Why this is so important for you to kind of think about it like, how do we do this for our own business is that what is coming true is if you win preference in your product. So, like an example of Gamma versus Google Slides. First time I used Gamma, it was so much easier to use than Google Slides. It was so much faster to create a presentation than Google Slides. And because of that, when I create a presentation nowadays, I don't even go to Google Slides. And it's not because Google Slides is broken, it's not buggy, it's actually very reliable for what it does. It's just not the right way for me anymore. It feels outdated. It feels like I am going back five to 10 years in technology time, which is a long time, and I'm using an outdated tool and it's going to take me a lot longer to get the end result, which is at the end of the day, that's, that's what people want. If you look at like any SaaS product, it's like the good ones, they all solve a very specific job to be done. And it's like, well, do I want to do that job to be done? Plg 1.0. Or do I want AI to do the majority of that job? Yeah, of course everybody's going to say yes. But when it comes to winning preference, this is the the moment for SaaS and technology companies today to really create that PLG 2.0 version of your product. Which is why, like everything we're doing at Product LED today is how do you create that 60 second value version of your product to just do a lot of that heavy lifting for your users. And so if you're curious about checking that out, just head on over to product.com, we'll go through Warp Week, which is our one week sprint where we actually go ahead and build our prototype for your business. The next level up this is PLG3.0. What is so different about PLG 2.0 to 3.0 is that in PLG 2.0, your user is still your user. So you're going to sign up, you're going to go through it. You are the orchestrator, you're the conductor. You might use other tools to kind of get your job to be done, but in PLG 3.0, it's actually an agent that is working on your behalf. So they can work with your CRM tool, maybe Slack, they'll plug into there your any other presentation tool you're using and you'll just be like, hey, I have this program I'm building out and I have these requirements and I want you to build it. And it will just build it. It will use the platform of its own choice. You don't even have to make that decision for it. And it will just go ahead, execute that and definitely ping you if there's anything it needs approval on, or it thinks it's like a high stakes decision, but that is where the world is going. And so most of the technology space right now is definitely in PLG 2.0 territory where the majority of people are just figuring out, okay, let's make our current tool way faster to get people to value. And then PLG 3.0, it's already happening though. So we recently had Chris Bach on the product LED podcast and one of the most interesting things for Netlify is that the majority of their signups today are actually agents. So this is already happening. And what is so fascinating about working in product led growth for over a decade now and working with over 400 plus companies is that we see there's pockets of industries which are already in PLG 3.0 territory, like in the development space where it's just like, you know, way ahead of everyone else. And then there's some other spaces like that are just, you know, your average consumer apps that are still in PLG 2.0 territory. And then there's the laggards that are in PLG 1.0 territory, which just optimizing for friction. And so PLG is evolving. But the one thing I'll just kind of let you munch on is I call it the Having Principle. And so what's really interesting about the having principle is that every few years, just expect the time to value, to complete a specific job to be done to half. So every few years, that is going to have. So if it currently takes you, let's say three hours to create a presentation, you're going to see, okay, next few years, it's, you know, it's an hour and a half. Then eventually it's like it's 30 minutes. Then, oh, great, it's, you know, less than 15 minutes. And then eventually, great, okay, it's seven minutes and it's three. And then eventually things, once they get to PLG 3.0, it's not even going to take you any time to get to value because the AI already knows what's on your calendar. It's like, oh, yeah, you got a board meeting. Great. I pulled all the data, I've talked to your team. I, I pull this together. Here's the draft. I already did it. And does this work for you or not? And maybe I will need your input on these three areas. So that is where it's going to head. And that having principle is going to happen to any industry. It's going to hit some much faster than others, but that is what is coming. So my question for you really is, just which version of PLG are you running today? Because if you're focusing on PLG 1.0, well, you know, you're going to be targeting users who are builders. There's a very small part of the total addressable market that is in that bucket, and your user will have to do the majority of the work. And if you're still running, like what I would call a PLG 1.0 play for your business, I would be a little bit worried when it comes to, okay, is somebody going to disrupt us? Because one of our taglines right now on product led.com is that people only choose your product right now and put up with your product's friction. And because there's no AI alternative yet, which is a PLG 2.0 product, and once there is, what happens is that they're just going to choose that product because it wins preference way faster. If you can get the same job speed done in, you know, 60 seconds versus three hours, of course you're going to choose that fast option. And actually you're going to be a really kind of almost a little pissed off. You're like, why didn't I find out about this tool sooner? They wasted so much time on this. It feels like, yeah, it's frustrating at the end of the day. So then there's PLG 2.0 which is really your users are those editors. So AI is going to be doing the majority of the heavy lifting and there's really maybe like 3 to 10 steps to value on this one. That's where majority of the market is going to be right now. And if you're not already designing that PLG 2.0 product, you absolutely should. And then the next level up is PLG 3.0 which is fully autonomous. Your AI agent is working on your behalf and they are doing the work, they are signing up for the tools and you are kind of not orchestrating everything to get very complex workflows done. Think about where are you at today? Leave it in the comments or let me know on LinkedIn. I am super curious to hear where you are at today. Quick reminder, the Playbook productly growth is being rewritten. It's evolving at the end of the day, like anything, it is not static. But one thing we are seeing at Product LED though is that every one of the fastest growing companies is using a product like Growth Motion. They're just not using PLG 1.0 and they are all evolving towards PLG 2.0 where AI actually does the majority of the work. This is something where you're like, absolutely, I do need help building a product that is going to thrive in the AI era. That is exactly what we do now@product led. So just head on over to productled.com and. And we have a warp week coming up on April 7th through 10th. And in that one week period, what we're going to go through is look at your existing product, map out what is that first strike in 60 seconds or less that we could realistically deliver on that will just wow, like shock your users of how much value they got in 60 seconds. And then what we're going to go through is map out your current workflow to get people to that value moment and then we're going to design the new one. The new one that is like three to five steps max for your users to do. And I will do everything else. Then we're going to design the clickable prototype to actually do that in your product and they're going to showcase it to the rest of the founders and leaders in that group and get feedback, critique, and you're going to have the 90 day roadmap to actually ship it inside your business. If that's something you're interested in. Uh, go on, check it out. And it's not just for simple products. It does apply to very complex products too. Make sure you check it out. But I'm very curious. What is your one takeaway from this podcast YouTube video? Wherever you're watching this or newsletter, let me know in the comments. Because yeah, PLG is evolving faster than I've ever seen it before. So bye for now. Happy growing. I'll see you in the next episode. And to wrap things up, thank you everybody for listening to this version of the product podcast. Make sure to rate review this on wherever you listen to podcasts. Whether it's Apple, Google, you name it, Spotify. I'm going to read every single one of those reviews and that's how I know how to improve this. Also, if you want to stay in contact with me and learn what is going on in the world of PLG and every single week get the best actionable deep dives on product led growth. Make sure to head on over to product led.com forward slash newsletter. I am personally writing each of these deep dives every single week and you're going to get a ton out of it. So make sure to head on over there to productled. Com Forward slash newsletter.