Build Your Product-Led Growth Playbook

Every company wants to delight their customers and turn those delighted customers into dollar signs. However, turning new users into loyal paying customers is often easier said than done. Without a strong product-led growth (PLG) strategy, companies experience the following:

Slow time to value and declining renewal rates.
Wasted time and resources on free trials that fail to generate real revenue.
Inability to deliver a high-value product experience that drives conversion.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Be ruthless in your focus. PLG is about building a company and product that delights high-value users, then optimizes their experience to drive revenue, transforming your go-to-market strategy into a growth engine.

Impact and Result

Fuel faster growth and stronger user engagement with Info-Tech’s PLG methodology. Our proven framework gives you the tools to connect product value with business outcomes, accelerate revenue, and reduce friction across the user journey.

We help you:

Clearly identify where your product or service creates value for users and the business and align those moments to maximize impact.
Master the balance between scarcity and value to capture more opportunities and prevent prospect loss.
Simplify and streamline user acquisition, making it easier to convert new users with less effort.
Track how quickly users realize value, so you can optimize experiences and drive long-term growth.

Our PLG approach turns your product into a powerful driver of acquisition, retention, and revenue.

Build Your Product-Led Growth Playbook Research & Tools

1. Build Your Product-Led Playbook Deck – Turn your product into your most powerful growth engine.

Build smarter, scale faster. This research gives you the tools to create a PLG strategy that drives revenue, accelerates adoption, and increases retention.

2. Accelerate Time to Value Workbook – Accelerate the path to value and deliver that eureka moment sooner.

This workbook helps teams reduce time to value by aligning onboarding, pricing, and segmentation with key value moments. Use it to map friction points, select metrics, and build action plans that move your PLG strategy forward.

3. Land and Expand Workbook for PLG Conversions – Accelerate PLG conversions by tracking user behavior and creating upgrade opportunities.

This workbook guides you through optimizing PLG conversions by tracking user behavior, refining engagement strategies, and driving expansion within existing customer segments.

4. Viral Loop Playbook – Easily build viral loops using prebuilt prompts and actions across social media, email, and in-app experiences.

This playbook helps teams build and embed viral loops using reward mechanics and FOMO. It includes ready-to-use templates for social, email, and in-product sharing to grow your user base organically.

Build Your Product-Led Growth Playbook

Construct an effective PLG strategy to unleash the true power of hypergrowth.

Analyst perspective

Product-led growth (PLG) has fueled some of the world’s fastest-growing and most well‑known companies, doubling growth rates and cutting customer acquisition costs by up to 50%.

If PLG is so effective, why isn’t everyone adopting it? The answer is simple: Many managers don’t understand the fundamental value principles needed to unlock product-led growth. The hard truth behind many failures is that “free” isn’t actually free.

The reality is that high-value users won’t waste their time trying to figure out a complex product with a lengthy time to value. If your user experience doesn’t create a clear "aha" or "eureka" moment before you ask for payment, you risk setting yourself up for PLG failure.

At its core, PLG requires a company-wide commitment to prioritizing the user experience. Growth shouldn’t rely on begging for referrals – a tactic that reeks of desperation and weakens the viral coefficient. Instead, the best PLG companies leverage exclusivity and fear of missing out (FOMO) to fuel expansion.

Terra Higginson.

Terra Higginson
Principal Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive summary

Pain Points	Obstacles	Info-Tech’s Approach
Every company wants to delight their customers and turn those delighted customers into dollar signs. However, turning new users into loyal paying customers is easier said than done. Without a strong product-led growth strategy, companies experience the following: Slow time to value and declining renewal rates. Wasted time and resources on free trials that fail to generate real revenue. Inability to deliver a high-value product experience that drives conversion.	Free trials alone aren’t going to drive real demand. Product-led growth will, but even after years, many companies fail to see measurable success. This occurs because of these common obstacles: Inability to convert free trials into paid accounts. Misunderstanding the role of Sales in supporting product-led growth. Lack of clarity around where value aligns for the company and the prospect.	Info-Tech’s methodology for building your product-led growth playbook will give you practical and proven tools to: Understand how quickly your users achieve value. Balance scarcity and value to avoid missed opportunities or lost prospects. Streamline acquisition, making it easier to convert new users with less effort.

Pain Points

Obstacles

Info-Tech’s Approach

Every company wants to delight their customers and turn those delighted customers into dollar signs. However, turning new users into loyal paying customers is easier said than done. Without a strong product-led growth strategy, companies experience the following:

Slow time to value and declining renewal rates.
Wasted time and resources on free trials that fail to generate real revenue.
Inability to deliver a high-value product experience that drives conversion.

Free trials alone aren’t going to drive real demand. Product-led growth will, but even after years, many companies fail to see measurable success. This occurs because of these common obstacles:

Inability to convert free trials into paid accounts.
Misunderstanding the role of Sales in supporting product-led growth.
Lack of clarity around where value aligns for the company and the prospect.

Info-Tech’s methodology for building your product-led growth playbook will give you practical and proven tools to:

Understand how quickly your users achieve value.
Balance scarcity and value to avoid missed opportunities or lost prospects.
Streamline acquisition, making it easier to convert new users with less effort.

Analyst Tip!

Stop chasing basic vanity metrics. Focus on your North Star PLG metrics for real and sustained revenue growth.

The three most important principles of PLG

The three overarching principles of product-led growth center on accelerating the time it takes for users to experience value, creating scarcity that drives urgency and conversions, and leveraging viral loops to transform individual users into advocates. When you deliver value faster, you don’t just win one user, you win entire organizations.

Value, scarcity & timing
Understanding when and how to charge is the art of aligning scarcity with value. Hit the TTV sweet spot, where users see enough to want more but need to pay to unlock it, and turn desire into revenue.

Time to Value (TTV)	Alignment of Scarcity & Value	Viral Loops
TTV is the time it takes for a user to experience the “aha!” or “eureka!” moment of value with the product after their first interaction. If your product can’t deliver value quickly, your users will leave before you even have a chance to impress them. In PLG, delivering value fast is essential for success.	Scarcity aligns with value when limited access creates urgency, especially when tied to features that drive TTV. How many demos should you give? When should free end and paid begin? The answer lies in knowing where TTV starts and in engineering scarcity and emotional hooks into the experience. Charge before TTV, and users won’t pay. Charge too late, and you’re giving value away.	Virality happens when existing users attract new users, creating exponential growth. Viral loops don’t make bad products good; they make good products grow faster. If your product isn’t worth sharing, no referral program will save it.

Time to Value (TTV)

Alignment of Scarcity & Value

Viral Loops

TTV is the time it takes for a user to experience the “aha!” or “eureka!” moment of value with the product after their first interaction.

If your product can’t deliver value quickly, your users will leave before you even have a chance to impress them.

In PLG, delivering value fast is essential for success.

Scarcity aligns with value when limited access creates urgency, especially when tied to features that drive TTV.

How many demos should you give? When should free end and paid begin? The answer lies in knowing where TTV starts and in engineering scarcity and emotional hooks into the experience.

Charge before TTV, and users won’t pay. Charge too late, and you’re giving value away.

Virality happens when existing users attract new users, creating exponential growth. Viral loops don’t make bad products good; they make good products grow faster.

If your product isn’t worth sharing, no referral program will save it.

PLG flips the switch on growth

PLG isn’t about growing just a little. It’s about building an unstoppable and difficult-to-copy growth acceleration machine. PLG maximizes revenue growth, reduces competitive risk, and helps you scale your growth efficiently.

Customer acquisition cost is minimized once virality is established.

Feedback loops improve product, service, and organization.

Value is maximized.

Scarcity is leveraged to drive conversions by ensuring users experience value before monetization.

Decisions are made based on data, not ego.

Profits are protected through the product’s unique value.

Free trials don’t work without user value

If free trials have already failed you, focus on building an entry point that will ensure your users reach TTV during the trial.

Fact: The dirty truth is that high-value users don’t want to figure it out themselves. If your product doesn’t naturally have a great UX that almost immediately delivers TTV, then you will need to find a way to accelerate TTV for your premium users.

Fact: PLG helps companies shift their focus from vanity metrics (free users) to bottom-line revenue growth.

Free trials aren’t about giving stuff away but rather about helping clients get to value as quickly as possible.

PLG is everywhere, and you’ve probably already been part of it

PLG has been successfully deployed across many software companies. You may not even realize it, but you might have already been involved in PLG motion.

PLG win: Feedback loops improve product adoption as users naturally expand team usage.

Zoom logo.

PLG win: Customer acquisition cost is minimized through a freemium model that spreads virally.

Calendly logo.

PLG win: Scarcity is leveraged to drive conversions, limiting free-tier features to push upgrades.

Figma logo.

PLG win: Value is maximized by allowing full-featured free usage that encourages team upgrades.

PLG fails when time to value and virality fall short

Obstacles abound when companies try to adopt a PLG model. There are misunderstandings about what it takes to become a PLG company. We see these common obstacles:

People think PLG is just about free trials or freemiums, instead of an entire value strategy.
TTV is the most important PLG metric across the board, but many organizations struggle to understand how their customers perceive value.
Siloed teams create a lack of alignment that hinders true PLG success.
The viral coefficient isn’t measured or set as an objective.
Leadership overlooks PLG for traditional Sales-led model

The biggest myth in PLG
Many people think that PLG is about saving a few bucks by reducing sales headcount. That’s totally wrong. PLG isn’t about cutting costs. It’s about the commitment to continually delighting your customers.

PLG will change how you work and acquire customers, but don’t fire Sales yet

Transform the way your organization creates demand with PLG. In larger and more complex products, there is normally some mix of Sales-led motions along with your PLG. Successful companies build these key principles into their understanding of PLG:

In PLG, teams are cross-functional and use data to make better decisions about their product.
In PLG, there is a heavy investment in building a better product, feedback mechanisms, and unified teams.
In PLG, there is normally some aspect of self-serve with a quick TTV. We define TTV as the time it takes for the user to have their “aha!” or “eureka!” moment, and it normally aligns with a metric that indicates value has occurred.
In PLG, there is virality because users love the product.

Teams that use PLG have the power to create real value and delight their customers, which leads to virality and an exponential increase in demand generation.

PLG is a growth engine for every industry

PLG creates long-term differentiation through customer-focused outcomes that become embedded in the organization’s DNA.

Professional Services
Streamline client engagement with self-serve portals, automation, and digital-first service delivery.

High-Tech Vendors
Drive viral adoption through usage-based pricing, freemiums, and value before cost.

Manufacturing
Accelerate product adoption and usage with interactive demos, digital twins, and automated workflows.

Government
Empower constituents with digital-first engagement, online applications, and automated user education.

Healthcare
Enable clinicians with self-serve and digital tools, direct-to-clinician adoption and peer-to-peer sharing.

Slow TTV is revenue death

Quicker TTV leads to more conversions, which lead to more referrals, which lead to higher revenue.

A graph that demonstrates slow TTV is revenue death.

Getting to value faster

The magic of PLG isn’t about giving something away for free to trick people into buying your product. Instead, it is about getting to value faster and more consistently. Here are the seven stages to PLG value.

Stage 7: Post-TTV Value & Retention
Goal: Ensure continued retention and product delight.

Stage 6: Monitor & Iterate
Goal: Refine understanding of TTV and improve user experience.

Stage 5: Optimize TTV
Goal: Reduce friction and accelerate the time it takes to achieve value.

Stage 4: Define Metrics
Goal: Establish metrics, tracking mechanisms, and tools.

Stage 3: Identify Value Path
Goal: Identify key moments and milestones in the value path.

Stage 2: Define Value
Goal: Establish what value means for both user and organization.

Stage 1: Define Persona & Package
Goal: Identify the persona you will define in the TTV framework.

Info-Tech Research Group’s PLG TTV roadmap.

Info-Tech Research Group’s PLG TTV roadmap

The magic happens at the eureka moment

Define how and where value occurs, as well as what prospects truly want and are willing to pay for to drive explosive PLG revenue growth.

Define High-Value Segments & Key Activation Events

Identify the most impactful user segments and the critical actions that drive engagement.
Align key activation moments with user value and gated access points (i.e. the moment you charge for that value).

The User’s Eureka Moment

The moment of value must be swift and create a powerful "aha" experience for users.

Analyze Journey & Eliminate Bottlenecks

Leverage analytics to pinpoint friction points that delay value realization.
Optimize workflows to reduce churn and accelerate adoption.

Create Frictionless UX

Design intuitive onboarding that seamlessly guides users to their first success.
Ensure consistency in the journey, keeping users engaged and progressing toward value.

Drive Virality

Build viral loops and workflows that lead to referrals, upsells, and cross-selling.

How to create FOMO in PLG

No one wants to be left behind. Make users fear that if they don’t use your product or service, then they are missing out.

Focus on success stories
Create a sense of FOMO with compelling success stories and significant milestones, highlighting impressive revenue growth and time savings. This creates an urgency that encourages adoption by showing that those who hesitate will be left behind.

Follow the yellow brick road (aka upgrade path)
Call out prominent feature gaps in the freemium dashboard and gently push users toward upgrading to a paid plan.

Premium, not cheap
Lastly, frame the product as premium and exclusive, not another free or low-cost option. Make users feel upgrading is the intelligent, high-value decision.

Ruthlessly prioritize high-value segments

PLG for everyone is actually PLG for no one. It seems obvious, but it bears repeating that high-value segments are your money-makers. You aren’t building a product or a service for everyone. You are building it for your high-value segment. The best PLG strategies prioritize the right users, create immediate value, and design paths to organic growth.

When companies get serious about prioritizing high-value customers, we see increased retention and reduced churn for those that both gain and provide real value through your product.

PLG do’s	PLG don’ts
Target the practitioner, not just the executive. Build for end users who will love and champion your product. Bet on your power users and find the segments where 20% of the users drive 80% of the use. Make activation seamless and build collaborative features to encourage sharing.	Don’t rely on sales to close the value gap. If product growth requires that someone else explain the product’s value, then it isn’t product-led. Don’t try to convert everyone. Not all users matter. If your product isn’t built for them, don’t waste your resources chasing them. Don’t focus on vanity signups. Acquiring users is pointless if they don’t stay engaged and expand into paying accounts.

PLG do’s

PLG don’ts

Target the practitioner, not just the executive. Build for end users who will love and champion your product.
Bet on your power users and find the segments where 20% of the users drive 80% of the use.
Make activation seamless and build collaborative features to encourage sharing.

Don’t rely on sales to close the value gap. If product growth requires that someone else explain the product’s value, then it isn’t product-led.
Don’t try to convert everyone. Not all users matter. If your product isn’t built for them, don’t waste your resources chasing them.
Don’t focus on vanity signups. Acquiring users is pointless if they don’t stay engaged and expand into paying accounts.

Build Your Product-Led Growth Playbook visualization

Unlock the true power of hypergrowth with an effective PLG strategy.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

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Guided Implementation 1: Quicken time to value

Call 1: Discuss the goals for your PLG strategy. Review the Accelerate Time to Value Workbook.
Call 2: Identify high-value user segments, key activation triggers, and critical moments that lead to conversion, as well as essential PLG metrics.
Call 3: Align user segments with pricing tiers, goals, and expected outcomes for PLG.

Guided Implementation 2: Build a PLG acceleration roadmap

Call 1: Review your value path. Then, assess package TTV performance by segment.
Call 2: Identify revenue-driving features. Analyze the relationship between user engagement with specific features, the time it takes to achieve value, and the perceived value.
Call 3: Use the PLG Competitive Scenario Planner to evaluate growth interventions, analyze their impact on key metrics, and prioritize actions by ROI, cost, and timeline.

Guided Implementation 3: Land and expand

Call 1: Define gated access, upgrade triggers, and upsell paths to maximize conversion.
Call 2: Identify the emotional anchors that reinforce product value and drive user retention. Develop automated engagement triggers.
Call 3: Outline the viral loop workflows, gamification elements, and strategies to increase organic growth.
Call 4: Launch the finalized PLG strategy and begin tracking success metrics.

Author

Terra Higginson

Contributors

Ran Chen, Head of Product Growth, Amplitude
Brent Kostak, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Adobe
Russell Martin, Analyst Relations, Pendo
Klassjan Tukker, Sr. Director Product Marketing, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe