☀️ 2-min PMM: Dropbox's PLG Success, Skillshare's Trial, Hex's Product-Led Sales, Stage 2 Capital on ICP.
January 2024, Part 1 release
📈 4 MICRO [PRODUCT MARKETING] CASE STUDIES
[1] Narrow down your initial Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) through value, pay, and 'easy to close' checks.
Stage 2 Capital suggests refining your ICP by evaluating your potential customers on who derives the most value, is more likely to pay, and will buy from you soon. You should further prioritize your opportunities by their fit with this ICP and build outbound targeting plans accordingly.
[2] Consider these 2 questions to choose the right trial experience for your product.
Ask yourself - (i) What's the friction the customer needs to accept? Ex: enter their credit card before the trial, and (ii) How long does the trial need to be? Skillshare ran a generous 90-day free trial that helped convert many users. Conversely, a long trial slows the payback you see on paid ads, limits your product development cycles, and becomes a tangible expense.
[3] Evaluate your effort, risk, and cost factors to decide when to introduce sales into your PLG motion.
The VP of Revenue at Hex recommends looking at 3 factors: (i) The time and resources it takes a user to get started on your product. A quick start implies a low human touch. (ii) The level of risk your product introduces to a company. Exposure to sensitive systems (for ex) would need some human intervention. (iii) The cost to start. Can one person sign up and see value quickly?
[4] PLG will work for your startup only if you rank favorably on at least 2 out of the following 3 dimensions: user type, acquisition, and virality.
Dropbox and Box solve the same problem, but unlike the latter, Dropbox is set up for a single user to sign up and start using the product. Also, for PLG to work, you want to be able to acquire your users through organic channels (Ex: Grammarly) and have built-in viral features to acquire new users (Ex: Calendly's website embeds).
📚 1 BOOK & TOP 3 INSIGHTS
[1] Decide on the type of community you want to create. You can pick from 3 options depending on your purpose - (i) 'communities of practice' to help folks develop skills, (ii) 'communities of product' to generate evangelists for your brand, and (iii) 'communities of play' to create experiences.
[2] Determine your ideal community member better through the 3 Fs - (i) What do they fund? Ex: tools, products, and services. (ii) Who do they follow? Ex: industry influencers. (iii) Where do they frequent?
[3] Zero in on the 'core action' for your community and turn it into a ritual. Don't confuse your members with multiple ways to engage. Ex: The core action for CrossFit is the Workout of the Day (WOD).
🧠 5 CURATED MARKETING THINK PIECES
[1] The art of the professional pivot
[2] Discovery is the original sin of the modern age
[3] Product Strategy, Roadmap, and Prioritization - The GL(c) Model
[4] Product Predictions 2024 (from Marty Cagan)
[5] 2024 Predictions (from Prof. Scott Galloway)