ProductLed Podcast – Episode Summary
Episode: How to Unsuccessfully Launch a ProductLed Growth Motion
Host: Wes Bush
Date: October 4, 2022
Overview
In this insightful solo episode, Wes Bush digs into the art of inverse thinking—exploring how to fail spectacularly at launching a Product-Led Growth (PLG) motion. By examining the most common pitfalls and "incorrect" approaches to PLG, Wes guides listeners to the real best practices by flipping these pitfalls on their head. If you're looking to jumpstart—or salvage—your PLG journey, this episode is both a cautionary tale and a practical how-to.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Inverse Thinking: Learning by "Failing" (00:00–01:10)
- Wes introduces the idea of inverse thinking: intentionally considering the worst possible approaches to uncover what not to do—then flipping each lesson to reveal the right course.
- Quote: “It’s where we try and approach a topic and we approach it as if we’re trying to create the most terrible idea or solution possible.” (00:18)
2. How to Fail at PLG: The Anti-Playbook (01:10–07:40)
Wes describes 14–15 ways to botch a product-led growth strategy, each serving as a reverse-engineered lesson point.
a. Go Solo: Don’t Involve Your Team
- Mistake: Treat PLG as a solo project; don’t foster cross-collaboration.
- Inverse: Product-led growth is a team sport; involve the whole team from the start.
b. Half-Baked Free Trial with High Expectations
- Mistake: Launch an untested free trial/freemium model and expect immediate revenue.
- Inverse: Validate your PLG model before setting ambitious targets.
c. No Designated Team
- Mistake: Don’t put together a team to oversee PLG execution.
- Inverse: Dedicate a focused team to drive PLG initiatives.
d. Keep PLG Training Vague
- Mistake: Don’t train or educate your team about PLG.
- Quote: “You don’t want them to know anything about this whole new strategy. You want to keep it vague, you want to keep it a little bit elusive...” (02:15)
- Inverse: Invest in training so the team deeply understands PLG.
e. Rely on Hubris; Don’t Seek Input
- Mistake: Assume you know best and just wing it.
f. Don’t Communicate the Why
- Mistake: Skip communicating the reasons and vision behind the PLG shift.
g. Don’t Prioritize Quick Wins
- Mistake: Ignore high-impact, low-effort initiatives; pick heavy-lift projects that move slowly.
h. Ignore Proven Frameworks
- Mistake: Avoid following established frameworks and advice from experienced practitioners.
i. Exclude Leadership
- Mistake: Don’t involve leadership in PLG strategy or buy-in.
j. Sell a Revolution, Not an Evolution
- Mistake: Frame PLG as a radical revolution (scary!), not as a business evolution (inspiring!).
k. Don’t Optimize Post-Launch
- Mistake: Launch and leave it—never iterate or optimize the PLG experience.
l. No Measurement of Success
- Mistake: Don’t track user success or product-qualified leads; avoid alignment around customer value.
m. Cater to Every Customer at Once
- Mistake: Design onboarding flows for every possible user type right away, creating complexity and confusion.
3. The Real Playbook: Inverting Each Mistake (07:40–22:45)
Wes flips each error to summarize what actually works.
- PLG is a Team Sport: Collaborate cross-functionally and get everyone on board, especially leadership and potential naysayers. (08:00)
- Choose Your Model Wisely: Prioritize understanding user problems and building a model that delivers core value up front—not just offering a generic free trial/freemium. (08:48)
- Leadership Buy-in: Include leadership from the beginning; they’re critical advocates once convinced. (09:27)
- Quote: “You also want to have the people who are going to be able to shoot this down involved because they’re some of the best advocates later on once you get them bought in.” (09:37)
- Train for Mindset Shift: Don’t just offer content—hold live, interactive training to instill a “product-led leader” mindset. (10:16)
- Stay Open-Minded: Admit what you don’t know, ask for help, and leverage community support.
- Communicate the Why: Articulate to everyone in the org why this change matters—with actionable, step-by-step guidance. (12:22)
- Prioritize “Quick Wins”: Start with small, impactful optimizations before launching new features or free models.
- Quote: “Please, please, please, the very first ones you pick, you should be able to...find some very good meaty quick wins...that might take us less than a day, we might actually see a massive impact here.” (13:40)
- Optimize, Don’t Assume: After launch, continually improve based on metrics and customer feedback. (15:07)
- Three Steps:
- Understand what’s happening (metrics)
- Identify the highest leverage opportunity
- Execute on it
- Three Steps:
- User Success as a Shared Metric: Implement a company-wide metric (like Product Qualified Leads) for user value, tracked across marketing, sales, and product teams. (17:15)
- Focus: Start with one ideal customer segment, master their experience, then expand. (20:17)
- Quote: “Just focus on one, build out the user journey for that one specific user, blow them away and then you can start to get fancy...” (20:40)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- On teamwork:
“Product led growth is a team sport. You need to involve your team from the very beginning.” (00:40) - On mindset:
“When you think like a product led leader, cool things happen. You have great discussions, you have great disagreements too around what you should be doing to build a successful product led strategy.” (10:35) - On measuring success:
“Your end user success will eventually become your success. And that really does become a lot more true when you start measuring it.” (19:30) - On focus:
“You don’t want to be like, okay, we serve everyone. Right away for this free model. No, just focus on one specific type of customer.” (20:17)
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 00:00–01:10 — Introduction & explanation of inverse thinking
- 01:10–07:40 — Comedy of errors: Ways to sabotage PLG (with tongue-in-cheek “advice”)
- 07:40–22:45 — The inverse solutions: How to win at PLG
- 13:40 — Quick wins vs. misguided early projects
- 15:07 — How to optimize your PLG motion post-launch
- 17:15 — Using user success as a North Star metric
- 20:17 — The importance of focusing on a single ideal customer segment
Takeaways
- PLG demands cross-team collaboration and leadership buy-in
- Training, clear communication, and focus on user success are non-negotiable
- Start small, prioritize quick wins, and optimize continuously
- Use user success as your ultimate metric
- Focus on delighting one ideal customer segment before scaling
This episode is a practical playbook for both what not to do and, more importantly, all the steps you should take to make your product-led growth motion succeed.
For more actionable workshops and advice, find Wes Bush on LinkedIn or check out ProductLed.com.