添加 PLG 模式的终极指南 | Hila Qu(Reforge, GitLab)
The ultimate guide to adding a PLG motion | Hila Qu (Reforge, GitLab)
Hila Qu: … [inaudible 00:00:01]. Always say is actually fundamentally DLG, data led growth. So when you give away your free product, what you want to get in exchange are two things. One is a broader reach because free product spread itself is lower barrier to entry. Two, you want to understand you usage behavior of those free users, which features do they use and which features kind of correlates with a higher conversion rate, retention rate, all of that. If you don’t have a foundation of data and understanding of how to analyze those data, you are giving a way of free product for nothing.
Hila Qu’s Writing Background
Lenny: Welcome to Lenny’s podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard one experiences building and growing today’s most successful products. Today my guest is Hila Qu. I’ve heard some listeners have been doing listening parties with this podcast where their team listens to an episode all at the same time over Zoom and shares their insights and lessons in a shared chat. And I would say that this episode is a great candidate for that. It’s incredibly packed with advice on how to start and optimize your product led growth motion. We talk through common pitfalls that you probably run into or to get started, feel us favorite tools, what you recommends for an initial PLG oriented team, how to audit your existing funnel, plus tangents on how to improve your activation and retention and some foundational overviews of product like growth and some of the core concepts associated with it.
Like I say at the end of the episode, this episode delivers tens of thousands of dollars in value. Something you won’t find for free anywhere else. I am really excited to bring it to you. With that, I bring you Hila Qu after a short word from our sponsors.
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Hila, welcome to the podcast.
PLG vs Sales: Not Mutually Exclusive
Hila Qu: Thank you Lenny for having me. I’m so excited.
What is Product-Led Growth
Lenny: I’m excited as well. I don’t know if you know this, but you have the very unique distinction of having two posts in my top 25 most read post of all time in my newsletter, which are the two parts of your series on how to add a product led growth motion. And so I’m really excited to dig into product led growth and help more people be successful product led growth.
Hila Qu: Awesome. I should have made it three posts, three part.
Key Traits of PLG Products
Lenny: I like that ambition. There’s always more. Yeah. Well I think the next milestone is get into the top 10, get two into the top 10.
Hila Qu: Yes.
Common PLG Implementation Pitfalls
Lenny: Okay. Maybe this podcast will… Oh, okay. This podcast will be in the feed of the newsletter, so maybe we’ll get there. No pressure. No pressure. One question I wanted to ask you is anything come out of writing those guest posts? Has anything good happened as a result?
Determining PLG Fit
Hila Qu: I always take a very long-term view for writing. I enjoy writing myself. Spend actually four months on that one. After it’s published, I see a lot of shares kind of and people writing very long summary of it. That’s always very encouraging and also many people I didn’t expect reading it reach out to me, let me know, “Hey, I read that.” For example. I think Ravi, he is also on your podcast. I didn’t know him personally, one day he’s like, “Hila, I read that. That’s awesome.” And a bunch of friends in VC and they kind of read that. They told me it’s great. I even have a advisory client kind of landed because of that as well. So it’s awesome.
Key Elements for PLG Success
Lenny: Amazing. It makes me really happy to hear all that. I was also curious, has anything, and we’re going to get into the details of all the stuff you wrote about and even beyond what you wrote about, but is there anything you’re thinking has shifted on having after having written that series in terms of PLG?
Hila Qu: I wouldn’t say it’s shifted completely because I always believe you don’t need to be a PLG purist. Meaning there are kind of people who are like, “PLG is the future. It’s only thing, you don’t need sales.” Right? I was never like that, but recently by working with a few of my clients, I witnessed in reality many startups actually are having both. They have a PLG motion, they have a sales team as well. PLG motion is perfect for lowering the barrier for more people to try, broader the reach. It’s a kind of volume kind of game. And then the sales motion, you can have very targeted list of big customers you go after, you close them and it’s a big order. Usually revenue, a very strong foundation for a company. And I’ve seen actually a lot of my clients that are doing, they have both. They’re doing that. They try to get the benefit of both from their early stage and it’s super cool.
First Steps to Add PLG
Lenny: Is the simple way to think about this trend that eventually every one will need to do both. It’s not one or the other, it’s just both. And it’s just a matter of when you add the other.
PLG vs SLG Funnels
Hila Qu: I would think so because let’s say if you are in the sales motion dominated kind of traditional B2B software industry, your competitors will be adding PLG, as soon as they add it they will have a benefit of attracting more end users and end users become case to the employer, to the clients. And you lose that. And if you are only in PLG somewhere else may go after the big customers. It takes time for PLG to go to the big customer and close them. So you lose a little bit of time there as well. I think eventually you need both.
Two Conversion Paths
Lenny: Cool. That’s kind of the way I’ve been seeing it. I did a few series on traditional product led growth companies, [inaudible 00:07:28]. All those guys, and they all add sales teams eventually last famous for being product led only. And so everyone ends up adding sales team. I think more recent trend is sales led enterprise E products are all just realizing they need a product led growth component. So that’s kind of what I’ve been seeing too.
Hila Qu: Yeah, exactly. But I would say it is easier if you have PLG from early on. If you are pure sales led, you try to add PLG, that’s the harder thing to change basically.
GitLab’s SLG & PLG Examples
Lenny: Interesting to set a little foundation. Before we get into a lot of this stuff, it’d actually be helpful just to explain what is product like growth, just simply, because people hear this term a lot and it’d be helpful just to understand it broadly. And then also just like why is it so popular? Why does everyone want a product growth component to their business?
Hila Qu: Just use a simple example in B2C product. When you think about Facebook, when you think about a lot of the products you use every day as an end consumer, it’s always by default product led growth because there’s no sales team [inaudible 00:08:32]. The LTV of the product doesn’t support that. I think PLG the term become popular because traditionally in B2B, word sales is the main motion. You need a sales team to close the deal After the contract is signed, the end users can now finally use it.
But nowadays, it’s not necessarily a case. You can have your B2B SaaS product developed in a way to allow end users to try before you buy. So that’s the reason I think this has become being more popular. And the fundamental driver behind this is the user of B2B softwares are also human. It’s the same human using B2C softwares and we’re already trained to use product, try, and before we make any decision. And we demand that in B2B as well. So it needs to happen. And more and more companies are capturing that trend basically, and they’re trying to utilizing that as a entry point to either disrupt existing B2B players or build something really awesome for end users. So that’s why it’s becoming more and more popular.
Whiteboard Funnel Mapping
Lenny: To pull on that thread a little bit more even to help people visualize a product led growth product, what makes it product led? There’s a self-serve component, what are attributes or just kind of common elements of something that’s product led versus sales led? Let’s say.
Hila Qu: Yeah, definitely. I think maybe we can use a product as a example, right? Think about Zoom how me or you, maybe everyday users, how we get to know Zoom is not necessary through a sales team call me code or email me code and introducing me this, showing a demo of Zoom, and I get to know Zoom, right? It’s because maybe Lenny, you hosted a webinar I joined and I get to just use this software already without even knowing it’s Zoom. And then afterwards I may one day think about I want to do this myself and I just do that in a sign-up and I already create a host a webinar and I can pay if I need a paid plan or I can use a lot of more advanced features when I, let’s say hit the 40 minutes limit, I can already click that and pay and become a paid customer already.
So I think the key properties also of PLG products, think about it should have a very low barrier to entry. Usually it has a free version, free trial. You don’t need get approval from your boss to use it. You can use it today and then it has some sort of a self-service checkout flow. If you need a better version, you can buy yourself as well. And this product, basically the free product will spread on its own in some way or another.
After Mapping the Funnel
Lenny: Okay, perfect. I think that was really helpful. I think we dive into some of the meat of the discussion that we have planned and where I thought it’d be fun to start is the common pitfalls that people fall into when they’re trying to add a product led growth motion. And so what are the most common ways people fail when they’re trying to figure out product led growth?
Hila Qu: The first of all, as I mentioned, you need to have some sort of vehicle. A lot of the companies, if you go to their website, especially B2B companies, you’ll see the biggest CTA is called book demo. They don’t have anything else. The first step for you to do is submit a form and kind of basically explain yourself to this company, I’m from who and who company and I want to use the tool, can you come back to me and allow me to see a demo of your product? That means the entry point to PLG is cut off. Instead, the first step is you need to either have a free product, free trial, some sort of a low barrier entry for anyone who stumble upon this product to give it a try. A lot of companies don’t have that. That’s the first I would say hurdle or peaceful.
And especially if you are a sales lead and you already have all those things figured out, you try to go to add PLG, it’s not as easy as just say, add a kind of free trial CTA on your website. You need to build this free experience. You also need to convince your sales team, your existing product team, your marketing team, “Hey, let’s try this out.” Because before this process is super clean. Everyone only get only selected future leads and sales work on those. But now you need to allow more people in and there need to be more understanding of their behavior data, the process need to change. So it’s actually a whole process. So I would say that’s first one. And along with that is some companies didn’t think it thoroughly and they are just kind of saying, “Oh, PLG is cool, let’s do PLG.”
And then they maybe spend three months build kind of some sort of a very basic free trial and then they think that’s it. They think the leads will come, conversion will come, self-service revenue will come. It’s not that easy. It’s not that simple. It is definitely a entire motion. So I would say you need to commit to it. Maybe you can do some thinking, collecting some data, build your conviction, but to a certain point you need to commit to at least a year or even two years kind of roadmap to build this entire thing out and change the process internally sometimes as well to support that. The last one, I would say a lot of times the company’s committed, they want to do this, but they don’t know the right way or they don’t have the foundation, they don’t have the expertise of PLG.
Their internal team, they’re really good at sales or maybe really good at as the traditional motion, but they don’t have this part of expertise and foundation. A common thing I see is that company want to do PLG and they have no usage data at all and they’re like, “I will just doing PLG. But PLG I always say is actually fundamentally DLG, data led growth. So when you give away your free product, what you want to get in exchange are two things. One is the broader reach because free product spread itself is lower barrier to entry. Two, you want to understand the usage behavior of those free users, which features do they use and which features kind of correlates with a higher conversion rate, retention rate, all of that.
If you don’t have a foundation of data and understanding of how to analyze those data, you are giving a way of free product for nothing. Like you are really not being able to utilize all of that to build your PLG motion. So I think data foundation and expertise in terms of how do I design that user journey, that journey is very different from the sales user journey. Those are sometimes missing in company when they just begin to doing this. And in those cases I think it’s super helpful to maybe either find someone who have done this as an advisor or hire someone like you need to have that expertise or through advisor to support your PLG motion.
Defining the Aha Moment
Lenny: This is great. We’re going to talk about the data piece more in depth later, but on the commitment piece, I thought that was really interesting. I imagine many times founders or leaders think they have commitment and then they realize maybe not so much. Are there any kind of flags that tell you that, “Oh, you’re not actually committed to working on this for a year or two years, whatever it takes.”
Identifying Activation Milestones
Hila Qu: The red flags I’ve seen basically sometimes, first of all, they think about PLG equals launch of free version or launch of free trial. They made this assumption in their head, “Oh, I already have a product. I already have a software that’s working, customers are using. Now if I add a free version, if I open a free trial, that’s it.” Like that’s basically PLG, and I will have conversions. I will have people becoming a product qualified leads just because I have it. “Hey, I open this for you, just come and use it and [inaudible 00:17:07].” And I think that’s one red flag. Basically they are not thinking about the entire thing through understanding the implication, not only the free product, it’s really just a start. You need to think about how to activate, how to design the upgrade path, how those teams, those new growth teams work with other sales and marketing teams, all of that.
So that’s one. The other one is they don’t have a dedicated team. They just basically assign one person to the thing. They are imagine, “Hey, you already have this. It’s not that big of deal. You can just figure this out by borrowing resources from everywhere and try to coordinate all the stakeholders from sales, marketing, product.” That person need to be a magician in order to be successful in that basically. And I think the third thing is basically they are really doing this because it’s trendy. They didn’t think about the deeper strategic reason why this is a good fit for their business. Do you have a product that’s relatively low complexity, doesn’t require a lot of customization for the customer to see value.
Time to value need to be relatively short or you can figure out a way to make it short. And then do you have a lot of potentially end user S&B business? They are interested in the solution. They want to try that out. If you do not have both, if you for example, develop a software for the [inaudible 00:18:42]. Companies like [inaudible 00:18:44]. Or defense companies, only three target customer exist in the entire world, you don’t probably want to do PLG, right? So think deeper about the fit and then commit. And I would say those are the red flags.
Where to Start Improving
Lenny: Okay. So on that last point, I thought that was a really interesting, we talked about how every company probably should add a product led growth piece, but I think what you’re also saying is actually not every company, there are some companies like defense contractors that are probably going to be sale led.
Hila Qu: I think it’s a spectrum. I would say the defense company, defense software company is a pretty extreme example. And of course in those case, I don’t think it makes sense, but I think majority of B2B software, I’ve seen, you’ve seen, we’ve used even some more complicated ones. Like Salesforce used to be this example of sales motion. They’re the pioneer of SaaS and they do this so well, but they begin to add look into sales service portal and all of that. And even a lot of the bigger players are looking into that. So I think majority of the B2B software, probably they are in the middle of the spectrum rather than the defense company.
Activation, Conversion & Acquisition Priorities
Lenny: You kind of shared some of the attributes of what allows you to be product led, like quick time to value. If you have this in your head, what are some of those bullet points of what you need to figure out for it to be successful potentially as product led?
The Messy Middle of Retention
Hila Qu: The first thing is that have a… And you mentioned you are able to have a vehicle, have a free version, have a free trial. Sometimes it’s a open source product. A lot of developer products start as a open source product. It has its constraints, but it is also a great kind of vehicle for PLG or if none of those are option, you can build a really realistic kind of experience. For example, I remember Amplitude, they are pursuing PLG now, but they used to have a lot of barrier. As an end user, it’s hard for me to put that code into my product and see my data, but they build a really realistic interactive demo that’s getting closer to PLG. So it’s not PLG, but it’s getting closer and you can already see the value and play with it yourself. So that’s the first step. Have a vehicle.
The second step step is time to value. Basically, just because you have this vehicle doesn’t mean people will come and use it and see the value. So you need to figure out how do you give your users a warm start and help them get started. I was talking with a kind of company today, they just realized we have this tool and when people come in into the free trial, they are asked to do some action, but nobody know how to do that. They may not have everything ready to take that action. So we’re like, “What about we gave them some sample video or sample action they can try.” Right? It’s not the same as they do it themselves, but it’s better. It’s getting closer. And after that you can ask them to try the thing on their own and they need to do more work.
So kind of think about all the ways you can reduce time to value. It doesn’t need to be this big aha moment in the first five minutes, but at least give them some mini aha moments, right? So that’s the second thing, third thing is think about from there. If they get aha moment, if they want to buy, you need to have this self-checkout flow ready, self-service flow. It’s the foundation, if you have it, it doesn’t mean they won’t buy immediately, but at least it gave them this option to do that themselves. And the fourth thing I would say, between this kind of activation usage, aha moment to this conversion moment, actually there’s a big gap. And what is the gap? How you can understand the gap, how you can guide people around that journey is basically you need to have a very good grasp of data.
You need to have the foundation to understand their usage, their behavior, and then you can design a user journey in the product, in email, in all those tools to guide user to the next step. So have a very strong data foundation there. I would say. I think those are the main thing. And there are other things like your pricing need to be relatively simple. If your pricing is super complicated, they need to… Whenever they pick, for example, they try the product, they love it, they have a self-checkout flow, but in order to decide how much they need to pay, they need to send your sales some information, you need to do a quote, then that’s broken, right? Or they’re already confused about this process. So that is another kind of important thing as well.
Highest-Impact Retention Experiments
Lenny: Cool. So just to summarize, I took notes on this kind of the things that you got to get. If you want to add a product led growth component, there needs to be something free and kind of self-serve that you can-
… growth component. There needs to be something free and kind of self-serve that you can just start using on your own. There needs to be a quick time to value, there needs to be a self-serve checkout experience. You need a data foundation. I really love the way you phrased it where one of the benefits of product growth is the data component that’ll help you understand what to build on, how to monetize these folks. And then the last piece is pricing that’s simple, that people understand.
Hila Qu: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just imagine you are building, selling something on e-commerce side. You need all of this, right. Just in order for the B2B buyer to buy your software in PLG motion, you need to make all those available to him. It doesn’t mean if you view this, it’ll happen, again, right. That’s the data experimentation. A lot of that need to be there to support a lot of iteration and make this work.
Data and Infrastructure
Lenny: Awesome. Okay, so we’ve been going in a lot of directions. We started with pitfalls and things you probably will… You’ll run into that may set you off track. But let’s zoom out again and let’s get into, just say you’re convinced we need to invest in adding a product-led growth motion to our product. What’s the first step that you recommend for people to go down?
Hila Qu: I think the first step actually, I would recommend founders and leaders to just understand what’s PLG funnel, what’s sales-led funnel with SLG funnel. Because I remember when I begin to work on PLG at GitLab, it was not that clear to me. There’s a lot of things you can read, but they’re not all super clear. What is PLG? How is that different? And through working on that myself, I begin to develop this conviction and kind of this clear picture. The biggest difference from SLG and PLG is that the sales funnel traditionally work like something… You have marketing team working on the top of funnel, bring visitor and then they need to have a process to turn the visitors into lead. And leads is something, it is basically very popular and vitally used in the B2B business. And you go through some qualification process and leads need to be from your target kind of customer, target industry.
The company need to meet certain size, but they also need to show interest. And how marketing team historically gauge interest is how much they interact with your marketing campaigns. Do they open an email? Do they read three white papers? Do they go to this webinar? That’s how they gauge interest. And for each positive action you did as a buyer, they add some points to you. And once you reach certain points, you become this marketing qualified leads. Basically those are the better ones we featured through that process and we gave that to the sales team. And sales team has more process, but then they choose some of them, work on them, and they close some of them. So that’s kind of traditionally B2B sales-led motion works. And then product-led funnel is different. It’s much more similar to B2C. Basically you can still have people visit your website and they sign up for free version or free account or free trial.
The most important thing, the biggest difference, is now you want them to use the product. You can still send all the marketing emails, all of that, but those are supplemental. Those are kind of trying to get them to the product to use, to try, and the usage, product usage, is almost like the leading indicator for success for PLG, versus in the sales funnel, it’s almost like how many do you get and do they interact with the marketing campaigns, which in the old days it’s what you have because nobody can access your product unless the contract is signed. But nowadays that’s almost like an artificial barrier. It’s not there. You can totally build a product in a free version to allow people to use. So usage becomes so important. And that’s the biggest difference from the usage that you have two potential conversion paths.
One is that if this product is not that expensive, the price point fits in most companies’ budget. Some companies may just use their credit card and they buy online. That’s also, you then don’t even need sales team to be involved. And it’s very similar to the B2C product, e-commerce product, buying process. And it’s awesome because it’s automated, you don’t need to have more sales team involved. It’s low cost, it’s efficient, it can happen on its own every day. It will just add up to your revenue. And then the other potential conversion pass is where the product usage is high, but also this customer, this potential prospect, fits into your ideal customer profile. It’s from a Fortune 500 company or it’s from a target industry that you know they need your solution. Then this customer worth more of your time and you should actually not, even if they may want to buy on their own, you may want to still have your sales team or have your customer success team to reach out to them to understand a little bit more of the situation and give them some white glove service. Hopefully you can even close a bigger deal than if they would have buy on their own. So that’s another pass. I call that PQL, PQA, like sales pass.
Recommended Tool Stack
Lenny: And that stands for product qualified lead, right?
Data Enrichment & Acquisition Tools
Hila Qu: Product qualified leads, product qualified account. So the first step is for you to understand those two funnels and then think about if you want to add PLG, right? What is this journey? What are the steps along that funnel you need to establish for your product in order for your user to be able to convert in that funnel?
Lenny: So you talked about these two funnels. One question is, are they basically the same for almost every product or should you try to figure out what’s really unique about my funnel? And then second, is there an example of product that you think about like, here’s the sales led funnel for them and then here’s the product-led version of that, just to make it a little more real even?
Activation & Conversion Tools
Hila Qu: Maybe I can give an example first and then we can talk about the other question. So I can use GitLab as an example since that’s where I’m most familiar. GitLab actually have a enterprise sales team, very strong sales team, from the very beginning. But the company also we started from open source product.
Importance of Data Infrastructure
Lenny: Maybe describe what GitLab is for folks that aren’t super familiar with it.
Hila Qu: Yeah, so GitLab, we are a developer platform, DevOps platform, basically engineer teams, developer teams. They use this product to manage their entire DevOps process, from storing their code, kind of managing the version control, releasing CSAD, like security scan, all of that. It’s an all in one platform for that team. So for the sales-led motion, like I mentioned, the teams, our marketing team, were working bringing a lot of visitors to our website and they sign up for free trial, for free accounts. And then we have this lead nurturing and lead scoring process to surface which are the good ones for our sales team. In our sales team, we have SNB, we have the mid-market, we have enterprise, and they each kind of took their buckets of leads and work on them and close them. They become revenue.
And then how the product led funnel work for us is someone, maybe as a developer, I heard about GitLab, I go to website, I see, “Oh, I can actually sign up for a free account.” I may use it for my personal project. My company may be using another solution, but I have some side project I’m doing as a developer. I want to use GitLab to host that. And I did that. And so you begin to see this, individual users having some usage but nothing to do with his company. And then one day maybe this person’s employer, “We want to look into some other solutions. We have way too many point solutions for each step of DevOps. Now we want to potentially consolidate them. So what are the options?” And this engineer raise his hand, “Hey, I have been using GitLab for a very long time and I really like it. I think we should check them out.” And then this team, maybe this engineer manager or CTO depending on the size of company, they’re like, “Okay.”
He went to their website and he kind of signed up for a free trial because that allow him to test some more advanced features. It’s 30 days, but he already has… This person knows how to use it. This person already set up the foundation with the free version and they started the free trial. They use their 30 day to do a proof of concept, the entire company already using it for part of their process. And they’re like, “Oh, awesome. I tried this feature, that feature, that feature. It’s a great tool. It can support our workflow and I’m pretty sure we should be able to get ROI from this product.” And then in this case they are like, “I only need five seats. It’s cheap. I will just go to the pricing page and check out the pricing and buy from there.” Or in some cases, this is a big company and we see this big company is using our product, our sales team get that data signal, they may send an email and reach out and say, “Hey, I saw you were checking it out. How can I help?” And that may start a sales conversation, eventually become a contract from there.
Tool Selection Advice
Lenny: Great. Thank you for sharing that example. Maybe a last question on this first step of mapping out the funnel. Do you recommend people just get in front of a whiteboard and just sit together and like, “Here’s what it would be potentially if we added a product-led growth motion?”
Hila Qu: Yes. Yes. And I think it’s not that… The devil is in the details. Just mapping out the big steps is not that hard. You think about, ” I have a marketing site already. I can build a free version.” And then they use the free version and I build a checkout flow and that’s it. That’s the story. But that’s the first step. If you don’t even have those components, mapping out the funnel will allow you to see a missing checkout flow, a missing free version, you already identified that. But the devil is in the detail one layer down. How do you design an experience for each of the step? What do you say on your marketing side to drive free signup? In the free signup, how do you guide them to use the three most important features? And in the checkout flow, which payment option do you offer so that customers from everywhere can buy very smoothly? So that’s the next layers kind of detail that actually has so many opportunities for optimization, maximization and all of that.
Building a Data Warehouse
Lenny: That’s actually a really good segue to the next question, which is just, okay, you’ve mapped out the funnel, what do you do next?
Hila Qu: If you don’t have the foundational components, you need to build all of that. But if you have something, if you already have this funnel exist, right, it’s just not working perfectly at least, but it’s working, it’s there. I think the next step is you need to pick a starting point. Where do you want to focus first to drive the maximum impact? Personally, I’m a big fan of finding leverage. I think doing growth is always about finding leverage. If you can always find the area that with relatively small investment can give you the biggest results, that can be such a kind of momentum, can empower you through future experiments and more work. And just finding leverage is a beautiful thing in my mind. So I always want to do that. So when I think about pick a starting point, one thing I actually do with a lot of my advisory clients as a first step is, we do a full funnel audit, full PLG funnel audit.
Think about, we go through me as a kind of end user, go through the entire journey, pretend I am interested, semi interested, and I want to buy from the website. Does that kind of attract me? Is it super clear the value proposition? And then from there, going through the sign up of the free account or free trial, is that smooth? And when I begin to use the product, do I get to my aha moment fast or I am very confused and frustrated, abandoned at that moment? And from there, if I’m like, think this is good, right, I hit my aha moment, I want to buy. Can I even buy? You will never believe, like when I do this audit,, there are so many low hanging fruits usually in this process. For example, one client, when I go to the checkout flow, the kind of checkout form is so confusing.
They ask a bunch of questions that only let’s say UK customer need. Every other places they don’t need to answer, but they ask the question anyway. And I as a US based person is very confused and I drop off at that point. And then there are other things, for example, the aha moments like I talk about. I don’t know what to do when I land inside a product for the first time, I’m super excited and ready, but I don’t know what to do. I’m so lost and confused. That’s usually a pretty big focus area and opportunity area. Just getting your users to aha moments. They are already over so many hurdles here, but don’t just turn down them and they leave because it’s so confusing.
Internal vs External Growth PMs
Lenny: It might be helpful just to explain an aha moment. I know people hear this term a lot. What’s a simple way to think about what is an aha moment?
Lightning Q&A Session
Hila Qu: I think it as a moment, as a first time a user experienced value of your product. So it gets popular because Facebook has this example from the early growth days. I think you added 10 friends in seven days, you hit your aha moment. But there are many layers under that. The reason why Facebook used that to define its aha moment is because in early days, if you add these friends, you begin to form some connection. You can see an interesting feed, you can interact with your friends, and that social interaction, it’s the core value of Facebook, and Facebook leaves by looking at a lot of data. If you meet that data metric criteria it’s kind of very likely you will hit that aha moment. But I think for a lot of, especially we’re talking about many SaaS product, B2B software, the value of such product is usually either you see a workflow can be supported by this, it can save your time, it can save your money, it can help you make more money, or it just solve this pain point that you never get to solve on your own without a software product.
So at GitLab we actually did a bunch of analysis. We’re trying to understand what is the aha moment for our new users. We ended up have something along the line of two users, two features used in the first 14 days. So it’s very similar to Facebook’s kind of format. But deep down, because we are a platform, we are a team product, two users is talking about the team components. Whatever the first user is trying and using that is so valuable, he or she is confident to invite another coworker to come in. That itself is very, very valuable action and indicates this first user is seeing value. And if together they use two or more features, that means we are seeing the collaboration, the platform components of the product. And within the first 14 days, because it has to be reasonably quick but not unrealistic, because we are a complicated product, we’re not Facebook, we’re not Zynga or a game app, it’s hard for you to figure it out in the first day. So yeah, I think it’s a very important concept for any PLG company to figure out because that’s often the biggest opportunity area I see.
Lenny: Aha moment and activation is often interchangeable, right?
Hila Qu: Yeah.
Lenny: So those are kind of two things you’ll hear. And just to reframe, re-say what you say, so GitLab’s activation slash aha moment milestone was two users using two features in 14 days.
Hila Qu: Mm-hmm.
Lenny: And I imagine the way you got to that was you looked at what point does retention improve if they got to a certain milestone, right? Is that roughly how you [inaudible 00:41:48]?
Hila Qu: Yeah, exactly. So there are how you can get to that, right? First of all, the internal team, our growth team, actually we did some brainstorming. We think about what are the potential action or behavior that indicate they’re getting value. We ideally want to do something like they maybe successfully merge their first PR or they successfully run their first pipeline. All of that. There are some potential high value actions we can think of. We just list all of them. And then the next step is, we did a correlation analysis to understand, hey, those are the 10 high value actions we believe we want to look at. If a new user did this action, what’s the maybe 30 day conversion rate and… Not 30 day, 90 day conversion rate. What’s the 30 day retention rate? Because we look at both. Sometimes you only look at retention or you only look at conversion, it doesn’t give you the full picture.
So we look at if you did this action, let’s say if, Lenny, you are trying our product, you are able to successfully merge the PR in your first 30 days. Does that improve your likelihood to convert? Does that improve your likelihood to retain? And we compare across those 10 high value actions, compare with the average. And we begin to see, oh, some actions actually if you do that, it lift your conversion, lift your retention much bigger. And those are the candidates for potential aha moments. And from there, the reason why we ended up not picking one single action… For some products, actually you can pick a single action. If one action really stands out, I don’t know, for Airbnb [inaudible 00:43:39] is probably, you book a hotel, you go to there, you are so happy, you leave a high star review. That’s the key action for this platform.
For GitLab, we have so many different workflow components. Teams are here for different reasons. Some are here for security, some are here for like CSAD. So that’s why we ended up combining like two action. It can be any of the two high value features. The next step is actually you need to launch some experiments to try to get more people to do those high value action. And you then see, do I see higher conversion? Do I see higher retention? Because in data you are only isolating correlation. You are not proving causation. You just saw people who are doing this are more likely to convert. But it doesn’t mean if you get people to do that, they will convert. So experimentation is the step. You will finally kind of validate that.
Lenny: Hila, this is amazing. This is like a mini podcast on activation. We should do another one just on this. And then in the show notes, I’ll link to a couple posts that I’ve written with a bunch of advice on setting activation milestones and improving them. I forget if you’ve contributed to that post or not, but if not, we should add some of these stories. But let’s get back to our core. We have enough to talk about on just product led growth. So just to summarize the audit that you do, I wrote some notes as you were talking, and maybe we can keep going from that point. What you look for when you’re auditing a product to see where they may pick a starting point, what I wrote down is, one, are you just excited to try it? Is the landing page pulling you in? Two, can you actually use it on your own and just try it? Three, do you get to the aha moment where you’re like, okay, I get it, [inaudible 00:45:25] it, and then can I actually buy this on my own? Is that roughly the audit? Is there anything more to that?
Hila Qu: Exactly. And I also look at their initial first few emails they send to me, because sometimes the email magically can help a lot. If I’m frustrated the first time… The other day I’m trying a product, I’m frustrated, I’m like, I will give up. And then in the night I saw an email, I’m like, oh, maybe I just click the CTA and give it one more try. And that time actually I figured out I get to the aha moment.
So I also look at the email, the first initial emails, and then when I map this out, I ask the company to give me the data at very high level for each of the step. How many people are on your website? How many people go through signup? How many people hit this aha moment? We need to define that. We need to… Usually a lot of discussion, like how many people get to the aha moment, how many people started self-checkout and being successful. And then like that between my experience from a user perspective and the data, we usually immediately begin to see, oh, this is the biggest opportunity. Usually activation and conversion are two of the common starting places.
Lenny:
Okay, so let’s get into that then. So you’ve done this audit, what other advice do you have for folks to figure out where they should start and invest in that part of the product to help launch product-led growth?
Hila Qu: You can do a audit like this yourself, right. Just imagine if you are a B2C user trying to buy a product, you want it to be easy. Ideally, PLG for B2B can be that easy as well. So go through that process and identify, where is confusing, where do you get stuck? If you find-
… where is confusing. Where do you get stuck if you find that you have a problem with activation, meaning if you enter into the product you are like what do I do, I don’t know what should I do, and maybe I just left. And then, if that’s the biggest opportunity, activation, then you need to think about find the right aha moment metric as the first step, as we just talked about, because that’s the success, that’s the goalpost. And then, design a product experience to help more people together. And I usually think about do is better than show is better than tell, meaning you want to remove all the frictions and somehow give them a warm start, give them some sample template, give them some sample thing they can play with initially in that very moment already, and you can supplement that with your email to bring them to the product if they don’t do that. So that’s activation. If activation is okay, but your conversion, your self-check checkout flow, usually there are also room for improvement. Many company I work with, when I try to buy, I cannot even find where to buy. It’s very hard to find where do I click to start this checkout process, or they may have some frictions in the checkout flow where it’s not localized. One company, when I look at their data, they find that India has very low success rate, which is expected, but we begin to say it’s because the payment solution they choose actually doesn’t support that market well. And they added another payment solution, immediately they are seeing much better success rate. And if they’re already in the checkout, you don’t want to lose any of them, right? Just do a hundred experiments to get to as much higher kind of commercial possible, because you don’t want to lose any of them. So activation, conversion, usually are two great place to start.
And then from there, I would say think about your PQL/PQA, motion, which is the other conversion pass, which is if you also want to have sales blended into this, right, product-led sales motion, how do you set up the structure, the foundation so that you can know what are some data signal to tell you those are better leads? And what are some customer criteria, in terms of size segment, you should set up, how do you get those data, and then how do you hand this to your sales team, how they can close using those data, use this knowledge? That’s another very big opportunity area. That’s a bigger effort, compared to those two low-hanging fruits.
And the last thing I would say, product-led acquisition is a great place to start. If your product is a collaboration software, think about Airtable and it’s Figma, right? As part of my workflow, I invite my team to join, I spread this out. If you have that use case, you can build that into a product that’s awesome, that’s very powerful.
Lenny: So there’s a lot there. So let me try to summarize what you just shared and how it connects. So you have a self-serve product, you’ve gotten to a point where you can sign up and try something for free?
Hila Qu: Mm-hmm.
Lenny: And then you do this audit of where along this journey do we think the biggest opportunities lie and the most leverage lives? And you have these, I think, four buckets of opportunity?
Hila Qu: Mm-hmm.
Lenny: Acquisition, which is top of funnel, do you want to double down and invest there first, or activation, which is help people see the value more quickly?
Hila Qu: Mm-hmm.
Lenny: Bucket three would be, you called it conversion, which essentially help them buy it more efficiently?
Hila Qu: Mm-hmm.
Lenny: And then there’s a bucket of retention, of just keeping them around longer, which I don’t know if you mentioned this, but I know that’s probably not where you want to start, so it’s even not worth chatting about too much.
Hila Qu: Yeah.
Lenny: Cool. And so the question, basically, a founder or product team has to decide is which of these three buckets do they go in on when they’re trying to add product growth, acquisition, activation or conversion?
Hila Qu: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Lenny: It’d be cool, maybe just one example of each of these three buckets, like what’s a product that did a good job here? And then you also talked about how to know which one to start with. Maybe just again, just a quick summary of you should probably start activation if this, if you have something like that?
Hila Qu: You should probably start with activation. Activation is actually a common good starting place for most B2B software.
Lenny: Awesome.
Hila Qu: Because usually B2B softwares are not designed to really get you to use quickly, historically. A good example, there are, I think, all the best PLG companies, they do a awesome job. That’s almost like my criteria to say whether this is a great PLG product or not. Think about Miro, as an example. If you go through their activation experience and sign up to usage, they ask very limited questions, very targeted. They drop you, kind of, they ask you about your use case, what are you here for? Are here to do a brainstorm session? Are you here to develop a roadmap? And they quickly gave you templates to get started. Just like in maybe five minutes, you finish the entire journey from go to the website and sign up, answer a few questions, and you are already using the template they provided to do the thing you want to do. That’s time to value. That’s a success. I think that’s a really great standard for all the PLG, like a B2B product, try to follow. So that’s activation is usually a good place. If you don’t know where to start, do that.
And then conversion, I would say, is a place, again, worth investing, but there are two layers. One is the self-check-hub flow, just do some experiments there. You can actually go to any E-commerce website, like, I don’t know, go to Lululemon, go to Amazon, make your conversion process as easy as theirs. That should be your goal. The consumers shouldn’t be confused about complicated pricing, where to find all of that, so that’s a place always worth investing, testing more, because that’s revenue so close to be added into your book.
And then the PQL/PQA part, the other more-complicated path, I would say that’s something you want to figure out activation and self-checkout a little bit, and you want to have some reasonable user number and then invest there, otherwise it can be a little bit jumping too fast and jumping too ahead. And the acquisition, a product-led acquisition is a great place to invest, if you have a collaboration workflow, you have some inherent, internal viral components in your products. Think about Figma, think about Calendarly even, right? It can spread. This product is so easy. You can build something to allow it to spread on its own.
Lenny: Okay. I’m hoping that was really helpful, because I think a lot of people are like where do I start, what do I do to help start moving down this road of product growth? And what I’m hearing generally is just activation is probably where you want to focus, which is essentially getting people to your value quicker. And what’s cool about that, and we had a podcast with Lauryn Isford from formerly Airtable, now at Notion, talking about all the ways to do that. And interestingly, one of the biggest levers for retention, and moving retention, is often onboarding and improving activation, so win-win.
Hila Qu: Yeah, definitely. And I could talk a little bit about retention expansion, if you think that’s helpful as well?
Lenny: Sure, let’s do that here.
Hila Qu: Yeah, I know that I didn’t talk about that in the post, and there are people asking, hey, do you plan to write another post on this specific topic? So the reason why I didn’t cover too much retention expansion is, as you mentioned, it’s not usually a first place to start. I call retention the messy middle. It’s actually a messy part of the entire funnel. A quick activation, conversion, those are fast. Those are almost sometimes shorter time span, right? You have a lot of never, and you can test very quickly, and that acquisition is a very big leverage. You need to get more users, always.
Retention is super important, but it’s a little bit messy. It’s over a very long period of time, and your customers can be, at any given moment, they can be retained or not, like if they just cancel or they just decided not to use anymore, you already lost them, so it’s a very messy part. But how I think about retention, there are two steps. One is how to build a habit in their usage pattern, so that they are using this maybe every week, every day. The key to do that is, first of all, your product need to have a high enough frequency. If you are using this once per month, it’s not likely you can build this into a habit.
Before GitLab, I worked at Acorns. We started as an investment app, and the whole thing is passive investment, passive investing. You bought some ETFs, and then you basically don’t even need to check, and you just keep adding money and it will grow, and after 10 years is awesome. It’s actually the right investment philosophy, but when I worked as a head of growth, it made a big challenge for me, because think about set and forget it. They don’t even need to go back to a product to be successful. And that make it very hard, as a head of growth, to drive engagement, drive retention. I don’t even know whether they’re retained or not, if they are not coming back, right? I can only gauge from other indicators. So I think one thing I would say about building habit is think about how to build those habit feature or collaboration feature into your workflow already, into the product already. That is the reason they can retain, fundamentally, if it’s high frequency, if it involves collaboration with other people, if it’s part of their workflow. So that’s the first step. You can obviously use a lot of the looks to reinforce that. You can send them an email if they take certain action, and get them back, and to repeat that action, but fundamentally you need to build that into your product.
And then the next part around retention is I actually think extension is part of retention. Basically you already have a steady usage flow. You are using this habitually every week, every day. What are the right moment to prompt you to think about maybe buying more? And there are three buckets of product-led extension. The first one is up upgrade to a higher tier. The second one is buying more seeds, buying more license. The third one is if you have some sort of a consumption add-on component, just consuming more, right? Like for GitLab, you can go from bronze tier to a silver tier, you can go to a higher tier, and then you can buy more seeds, and you can also buy more CSCD minutes to consume. Those are all the different moments. How you can do that is really understand data, understand usage, and trigger a lot of the right conversation at the right moment to the right person.
And you can, again, a lot of similar tactics you use in activation conversion actually can be beautifully applied in expansion, because it’s almost a combination of getting people to the aha of that feature, use that feature, try that feature, getting them to convert.
Lenny: You’re leaving all these gold bricks that I have to resist not following and getting off track with, because there’s so much, and like retention is its own conversation. We could have maybe just one question along those lines. What’s something that you’ve launched that had a tremendous impact on retention? Is there an example of just like, wow, that really had a big impact, you talk about frequency maybe, but what comes to mind?
Hila Qu: I can share some of my example at a course my-
Lenny: Yeah.
Hila Qu: I think there are two things. One thing is actually very similar to what you just said. When I was asked to work on retention, I did a bunch of analysis. The biggest leverage for me is actually activation. So I ended up doing tons of experiments in activation. I identified what are the features for users to take experience value quickly so that they are more likely to retain. For us, it’s a feature called recurring investment, which makes sense in hindsight, but at that time nobody’s caring about that. We have some other very cool investment features called roundup investment, so nobody is really paying a lot of a attention on this, but when I look at data, I saw recurring investment has a high correlation with retention. So I did a lot of work trying to get more people to set this up, and which has been a great success, actually, in a very short period of time.
And then from there, I would say we begin to add more use cases that has a higher frequency, like I mentioned, right? If you only come here once per month to check our investment, it’s very hard to retain you. We don’t have any lever to engagement with you as well, if you are not in the product. So we ended up adding IRA account, retirement account. We ended up adding spending account, like a debit card, like more high-frequency use cases. Those use cases come with higher frequency and better retention by nature, so now you change the problem from how do I improve retention to how do I drive adoption of higher-frequency use cases? So I did, again, a bunch of experiments how to drive more adoption of retirement account. Once you have a retirement account, an IRA, there’s tax consequences, all of that. There it’s very hard for you to leave. So you flip the question into, again, adoption/activation problem in that case as well.
Lenny: Amazing. Thank you for sharing those. Oh man, there’s so many other things we could talk about retention, but we have enough to talk about on product-led growth. So there’s two other areas that I want to touch on. One is data and infrastructure, and what people should know about how to set that up for success, and the other is hiring your team, and how to build out your product-led growth team. So starting with the data piece, maybe just as a big picture, just like what are the buckets of data and infrastructure people should be thinking about that they’re going to have to invest in or should start thinking about early?
Hila Qu: I think there are two big buckets. The first bucket is product usage data. As I mentioned, a lot of B2B software, they’re really lacking in that, because when you sell via sales team, you don’t need to know so many details, so granular usage data, all of that. The second bucket is I call this customer 360 database, because product usage data is one component, is the most essential. In order for your product-led gross motion to be successful, you also need to connect that with your marketing teams, marketing campaigns, your CRM, your sales force, who are the customers, prospects, what their stage. So those ideally need to be connected so that you have a 360 picture of your customer. If I have an Airbnb as a potential, like a target account, do I know there are users from Airbnb that are using my product, which features are they using, and do I send any marketing campaigns to each of them, do they respond, all of that. All of those ideally need to be connected, but in reality is all over the place. It’s all in its own tools in most of the B2B companies.
Lenny: What are just some tools that you think people should check out, start with maybe? What’s Hila’s recommendations on an initial stack or areas to explore, in terms of tooling?
Hila Qu: I say there are two piece. One is infra, the other piece are some tools that are kind of secondary. So from infrastructure perspective, on data tool, my first tool usually, one is some sort of data hub segment, right? This next one is some sort of a product analytics tool. Think about Amplitude. I know PostHog is actually a pretty popular one. It’s an open-source product analytics tool. There are Mixpanel, Pandle, all of that. So have some sort of data hub, data collection tool, and have some sort of product analytics tool. That’s the data infrastructure.
And then you need to have an experimentation tool because, like I said, you cannot just imagine you build everything and everything works perfectly. So you need either like Optimizely, I know Amplitude has some experimentation components. Eppo is a new and upcoming one. You need some tool to allow you to do experimentation.
The third piece I think that’s pretty essential, I counted in the infra, is some sort of a lifecycle marketing tool. I know many B2B companies, they use HubSpot or they use something for their email marketing, but those are usually least nurturing. And it’s very different from lifecycle marketing tool, meaning you need to connect with Segment, Amplitude. You know what customers are doing your product, your design, your email, your in-app, your push notification, based on their behavior, at the right moment, to the right person. And you measure success by do they take the right action in a product, versus the lead nurture email marketing tool is do I get them to read the article, open the email, I add 10 points to their lead score, and they are a next step further in their list funnel? So, data tool, experimentation tool, lifecycle marketing tool, those are the infra.
And then from there, there are a lot of PLD tools you can add on top to make your day-to-day much easier. Just to start, as so like that are most essential for acquisition, you need to have some sort of a like a data enrichment tool. Think about ZoomInfo, Clearbit, because the biggest difference between B2B and B2C is that you still need to know about their company. You want to know this person, but you also want to know this person’s company, right? That’s a very important thing, and you can get a lot out of those data enrichment tool, and then you can design your journey differently based on that.
For activation, a lot of my clients are finding a lot of value in those tools like Appcues, User-Led, basically the tools that allow you to build onboarding flow quickly in a product without engineer kind of resource. So you need to do some initial integration, but as soon as you did that a marketing manager, a PM or someone, can just build some customized onboarding step-by-step flows himself. I think that’s quite neat, because you need to test the tongue in that area.
And in terms of conversion, I would say there are many product-led growth, product-led sales tools. I think those are great. If you want to build out your PQL/PQA conversion pass, think about Endgame, Pocus, Tableau and Pace. There are a couple of them.
Lenny: Wow. Amazing. That was an awesome list and really well-structured. Is there anything else along the data or infrastructure piece that you want to touch on before we move on to hiring and the team?
Hila Qu: I just want to go back to the point, as I mentioned, product-led growth is data-led growth deep down. So in most of the situation when I see a company want to get started, where they are really missing or they need to invest more, is data. So if you identify you have a gap in this area, don’t feel bad as well. A lot of pretty big companies are in the same shoes, and if you can’t invest the time, money, the team, the tool, to figure this out, the benefit of this, right, the data collection, understanding usage data, can not only power your PLG motion, it can really power your entire product team, even your customer success team. Now you gave them the ingredients they need to develop the next feature, based on not only what your top customer asked for, but also what everybody’s using, right?
Your customer success team can take a much deeper view in understanding what the clients are using, rather than just talk with the executives from the client and get a rough gauge of the situation. So I think it is a area worth investing, and every B2B company should be investing in.
Lenny: I’m trying to channel what listeners might be thinking right now, and I imagine some people might be like what if I pick the wrong tool? I’m kind of stressed, I have to do all this research. I’m kind of worried about starting, because it’ll set me up for failure later. Which of these buckets do you think is most important to get right, right from the beginning, and any advice on how to just avoid messing that up?
Hila Qu: To get started, I would say probably a product analytics tool is the first step, and maybe the data hub, such as Segment. So if you have Segment and particle tools like that, it allows you to plug into so many different tools. You can basically try all the different tools, and if it doesn’t work, you just flip a switch, you can try another tool. So there is a benefit there, but it is expensive, so I know companies may just go right into the product analytics tool. I would say it’s hard to get it wrong completely, right?
In order for a product analytics tool to be meaningful, the first step is you need to collect the data, you need to do some instrumentation, you need to have the foundation. And then, because it’s garbage in, garbage out, if you send a bunch of garbage data into your product analytics tool, your analyst will be just even more confusing, right? It’s like he doesn’t know whether to trust the data, what to use. So a lot of company I work with, the first step is maybe not looking into tool, but do an audit of your data instrumentation situation, to understand how many of the key actions are intact, is the format correct, is the data, what are the gaps? And you may need to do some re-instrumenta …
Right, what are the gaps? And you may need to do some reinstrumentation, reformatting and things like that before you even plug into a product analytics to make it useful.
Lenny: For someone that may want to do that audit, is there a thing you would point them to, or, I don’t know, a blog, a course, something to help them understand if they’re doing it right? Or is it like, “Bring Hila on,” and you need someone like you to kind of help them through it?
Hila Qu: No, you can bring me, but you don’t have to bring me. I think there are, if you search on Google just the data dictionary, or data product usage, data audit, a lot of companies published template and spreadsheet you can use. I can even send you a few afterwards.
Lenny: That’d be amazing.
Hila Qu: And then you can just scroll through. Basically the key idea is go through your product experience, identify the key actions, and go through your data instrumentation and see, “Do they match?”
And the success of this is you identify the gaps and eventually you want to establish something called the data dictionary. I basically do that for a lot of my clients. And the data dictionary will include, here are all the key actions, what’s the event name for each of those, and what are the property and things like that.
But you now know, “Hey, I have this action track, this is the name. If I have a new product manager or analyst, we can all refer to this.” And everyone know the same definition rather than people are interpreting differently. So that’s a very important part to success even before the tooling.
Lenny: Awesome. It also reminds me a previous guest, Crystal Widjaja, has a awesome post on why most analytics efforts fail. And she talks a lot about this, of how to set your events up for success. So we’ll link to that as well.
Hila Qu: Mm-hm.
Lenny: Maybe one last thing here, I’m trying to think about what would screw people up most, and it’s probably not having a data warehouse and ETL sorts of tooling in place, because that feeds a lot of this.
Hila Qu: Yep.
Lenny: Is there anything you want to add there about just the importance of a data warehouse and how to set that up?
Hila Qu: Some of the early stage companies I work with, when they just get started in the very beginning, they don’t have data warehouse. They just basically have their product and they have some sort of a Google Analytics or Amplitude, and that’s it. It’s pretty wild, but it’s working and they can get to someplace from there.
But as soon as you begin to have data user, it’s time to get serious to establish a data warehouse, have some ETL solution. I think there are the most common best practice ones, like AWS and things like that. There are also some startups that are doing this and you can utilize as well.
But again, as soon as you become a serious business, you should invest in that. Otherwise, it’s pretty wild and it’s pretty fragile as well.
Lenny: And when you say AWS, you mean at Redshift, I imagine?
Hila Qu: Yeah.
Lenny: Cool. Awesome. Okay, final area that we have time for, which is awesome, which is around building your team. So maybe just two questions here. What is your advice for starting the initial team investing in PLG? How does that usually look and what do you think people should do? And then later, how does that evolve over time?
Hila Qu: How I see most companies started is the founder or the leadership team realize that they need to do PLG. And they build a conviction. Maybe initially there isn’t even a dedicated team, but they did something here and there, they decided to invest in this.
And the common place to start is to hire a head of growth, or it can be a lead growth PM, but someone who has a little bit of experience in this area. And then they begin to build this core growth squad as the first growth team. And I think that’s a very common place to start.
The other place to start that’s less common, but I also think it happening in reality, is maybe they will start a cross-functional, almost like a tiger team. Because if the initial focus area is, let’s say, they want to do a product qualified lead, or basically add that funnel. That involves not only product team, that will involve data team because you want to know what are the usage pattern that indicate these is better leads. You also need to bring sales team in because they need to work on those leads to close them.
So if that’s the initial starting area, a cross-functional tiger team is also possible option. But the most common way is hire a head of growth, usually a growth PM, and then start a team with engineering, design, data to support that core growth squad.
Lenny: And the main difference between these two. One is dedicated, “We are going to dedicate full-time people to helping us grow.” Like I say we talked about earlier, let’s say they’re going to focus on activation and that’s their whole job. Versus tiger team is basically they’re borrowing resources from other teams and this is kind of a side project for them.
Hila Qu: Yeah. A little bit, for a period of time. So it’s temporary. It’s kind of they almost to want to get into… I would say usually the cross-functional team, the tiger team, is a little bit prior to a full commitment. They’re pretty much committed, but they still want to try this out and get a final conviction, and then they begin to dedicate resources.
And you ask about how do they evolve from there.
Lenny: Before we actually get there, maybe one more quick question. Which would you recommend? I imagine you’d recommend a dedicated team, if you can do that.
Hila Qu: Mm-hm.
Lenny: When would it make sense to go the tiger team route? In what cases?
Hila Qu: One situation I would recommend is that if the initial focus area is, like I said, product qualified leads, the sales conversion path. Because if you think about you have a head of growth or a core growth PM, that person usually has a growth PM background and is in the product organization. And they’re awesome if the initial focus areas are activation, conversion, those kind of involve a lot of experimentation. But activation and conversion are relatively confined, it’s something the growth PM and engineer design data, they can work on.
If your initial focus area you felt like, “My biggest bit is actually do this PQL thing,” it is a little bit harder for the growth PM to socialize all those cross-functional resources, because he need to get pretty deep into data. He need to have a counterpart in sales, even in marketing. So in that case, I think it’s possible that maybe you start a tiger team.
You can combine both. You can have a growth PM dedicated, but have some tiger team to be working with him or her on this PQL project as well.
Lenny: Got it. And I like this term tiger team, by the way. I haven’t heard that before. It sounds like a lot of fun. Very dynamic. Okay, cool. And then yeah, what happens next after you have this initial team?
Hila Qu: Once you have this initial team, it’s important to give them the resources they need, and give them an initial focus area, give them support and a little bit time, allow them to try things out and get some early wins. And early win is the biggest thing I would say for, and whenever you start a new growth team, try to look for some opportunity, try to get some early wins in whichever focus area you choose.
And from there, if you get some of the wins, the team has some momentum, there are more confidence from the organization in PLG, right? It’s time to potentially extend and formalize. So fundamentally I think you should not only think about the PLG team, you should think about the PLG org. Because PLG is a motion, it’s cross-functional by nature, it’s not just a product team or growth team.
Eventually you need to get to the place basically there is a head of growth product, that’s the center of the PLG org. But there’s also need to be a head of growth marketing, that’s his or her counterpart in marketing organization. And then a head of product led sales, that’s the counterpart in the sales organization.
Exactly where they sit, how they sit, it’s different company by company. The most common one is head of growth product report to product org, head of growth marketing report to marketing, head of product led sales report to sales. But they have some sort of a very strong collaboration, because they are working in the same motion and same funnel. But I think that’s next step, think about this org.
Once you have those counterparts in product, in sales, in marketing, the next step is think about what are the metrics they own to make sure you can manage this funnel, this motion, in the data-driven way. Because the PLG metrics are very different from SLG. The top of funnel is more about high quality signups. You don’t want a lot of traffic, you want free signup, free trials. But it need to meet certain quality bar, it’s not just anyone.
And then the head of growth product, he or her top KPI is about usage, activation. Activated teams is a very common metric. And then maybe number of PQLs, that’s another. You want to get those teams to certain usage threshold basically.
And then the head of product led sales, he will be focused on converting those PQLs into revenue. So he will focus a lot on conversion rate, efficiency and maybe revenue, things like that.
Lenny: Got it. And you’re sharing a lot of org design verbally in the post, which we’ll share obviously in the show notes. You can actually see a diagram of what these look like, to help kind of make it super clear.
I have maybe just one more question. Going back to the initial team, what are the functions you recommend they have on this like MVP PLG team?
Hila Qu: The most important one is have a growth PM to be the lead, right? Head of growth, director of growth, lead growth PM. And then the growth PM, as you know probably very well, growth PM, he is a PM but has a much stronger skill set in analytics, experimentation, very data-driven. Think about metrics.
The growth PM’s way of working is similar to other product manager, but his KPIs is actually more similar to the sales and marketing work. He’s very focused on the conversion rate, the journey, the funnel versus the feature specifically itself.
And then the other functions you need to have for sure, I would often say actually a data analyst needs to be the very first hire. Sometimes even try to find a growth PM who can do analysis if you’re really small, you can find that type of unicorn person.
Or even before hiring growth PM, hiring analyst, I would actually go as far as that. Because without insight, without a lot of foundation, your experimentation, your effort is really directionless in a sense.
So growth PM, analyst. And from there definitely you need some dedicated engineer, you need a designer. Designer can be somewhat not dedicated in early days, but engineer needs to be. Some sort of user research support as well, it doesn’t need to be dedicated. But those are the core growth squad.
Lenny: Okay. Real actual last question here for the growth PM. In your experience, are they most often coming from within the company already and they kind of shift to this role? Or do you recommend they find someone externally?
Hila Qu: That’s an excellent question. I have seen both. I actually recommend if you can find someone internally, maybe he’s a PM, he want to do growth. Or he is an analyst who want to become more like a product role.
I even have a one client, the head of growth I work with used to be a investor relationship, like head of investor relationship. And he reports to the CEO and founder. He’s very analytical. He hasn’t been a PM before, but he can socialize the resource within the company to launch experiments in product, in marketing, in all of that. And I, as an advisor, will come in, guide him in the area he’s not familiar with. And we actually drive pretty good results together.
So I think prefer hiring internally if possible. If not, if you really don’t have anyone internally with that knowledge or with that interest, you can look outside. I would say map the initial growth PM hire to your starting point. If we already decided activation is the biggest focus area, try to find some growth PM with that experience. And if the conversion is a focus area, acquisition is the focus area, try to find someone with that experience.
Lenny: I love that advice. We’ve reached our very exciting lightning round. I’ve got actually seven questions for you, the most ever we’ve had for a lightning round. Are you ready?
Hila Qu: I’m ready.
Lenny: Okay. What are two or three books that you’ve recommended most to other people?
Hila Qu: This first one is called The Almanack Of Naval. Yeah, I don’t know whether we read that one. I really love that one. That’s kind of a life-changing book for me. I have it-
Lenny: Do you have a favorite Naval-ism that comes to mind?
Hila Qu: I learned finding leverage from him. He talked about there are four type of leverage. It can be your writing, it can be code, it can be capital, it can be team. So the reason why I invest a lot in writing is I felt like that’s my leverage. And I love that.
The second book is called How Women Rise. I really love this one. I gifted this to a lot of my female team member and I really learned a lot from them.
And the third one is my book, it’s called [Chinese 01:27:01]. It’s only in Chinese, if you don’t read Chinese you cannot read it. But I heard, my friends told me, if you are launching an email campaign, if you’re doing experiments, have this book by the side, it will help with conversion rate just by its appearance.
Lenny: That’s amazing. Is there an English translation or is it only in Chinese right now?
Hila Qu: It’s only in Chinese, so you have to learn.
Lenny: All right, I see. All right. There’s an advantage there, if you can speak Chinese your email conversion will go up.
Hila Qu: Yes.
Lenny: And then just to the first book, it was called The Almanack Of Naval, right?
Hila Qu: Okay.
Lenny: Is that right?
Hila Qu: Yes, yes.
Lenny: Okay, cool. Sweet. And we’ll link to all these. Okay, favorite recent movie or TV show?
Hila Qu: I watched a movie, it’s a sci-fi movie from China, it’s called The Wandering Earth 2. It’s by the famous author, Cixin Liu. He’s the author of Three Bodies. I don’t know whether you heard of it?
Lenny: Mm-hm. Oh my God, love that.
Hila Qu: That movie is awesome. It’s kind of really cool. I really highly recommend it.
Lenny: I have to go check that out. Oh my God. I heard they’re bringing Three Body Problem to Apple TV or Netflix. There’s like a show coming.
Hila Qu: Yes, yes. I look forward to that as well. I watched many versions already kind of film, none of them are good. So-
Lenny: That’s the problem it’s so hard to do well. Oh man, I’m not optimistic, but I’m excited anyway.
Hila Qu: Yeah, yeah.
Lenny: Favorite interview question that you like to ask.
Hila Qu: When I interview a growth PM or analyst, I will always ask, “What is a experiment you launched that has a very unexpected result? And what did you do after that?”
Lenny: What do you look for in an answer there that makes you feel like they are strong?
Hila Qu: So first of all, they have to be launching a lot of experiments to get very unexpected answer. So if you are only… Many people remember their success for the interview, they prepare that very well. I don’t want to ask, “What’s your successful experiment?”
Secondly, I want to know just why it’s unexpected. That reveals the deep, deep level of their thinking, how deep they are thinking. If they should expect that based on what they described, then they are not thinking deep enough, they are not understanding customer enough.
And what they do afterwards is also awesome. Like, “How do you face a failure or unexpected result? What are the clues you can pursue? What are the actions you can take? How do you learn something out of it?”
Lenny: I love it. What’s a favorite recent product you’ve recently discovered that you love?
Hila Qu: I would say, similar to everyone, ChatGPT. But also Lululemon yoga pants.
Lenny: Amazing. Great. What’s something relatively minor you’ve changed in your product development process that has had a tremendous impact on a team’s ability to execute?
Hila Qu: Yeah. At first I added basically a section in the dock, in the ticket stack. Ask the PMs to write the success metric ahead of time. As well as adding which of the growth lever this is helping. Is this contributing to acquisition, activation, retention, monetization? And it forced them to sometimes think through deeply, “Why are we even doing this?” Sometimes they ended up not doing that by just writing it down.
Lenny: I love that. Next question. I know you’re big on children’s books, do you have a favorite children’s book?
Hila Qu: My favorite children’s book is called Someday, and I recommend everyone to check it out. And basically it’s talking about how our children used to be our baby, become our kids, and when they are taller and more stronger than us and they will remember us.
Lenny: I’m going to need to check that out now. And final question. I know you’re big on growth concepts, you have all these frameworks and concepts. And so what is your favorite growth concept?
Hila Qu: I would say north star metric, because I find it’s not only valuable to growth, it’s valuable to just everything.
When I think about what do I want to do with my career, does that fit my own personal north star metric? When I think about how I want to raise my kids, I think about what’s the north star metric for successful education for my kid?
Because it forced me to think long term. It forced me to think about what’s valuable to me, to them, not only by the society standards, ARR revenue, like salary. And also what’s my vision for myself and for my kids.
Lenny: I love that. It reminds me of a recent guest where she always asks, “What are you optimizing for?” Whether she’s talking with her kids or her husband or her team, and it’s a similar concept.
Hila, this was incredible. I think we’ve shared tens of thousands of dollars of value, and it will probably lead to millions of dollars of revenue for a lot of companies. And it’s everything I hoped it would be. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing so much wisdom.
Two final questions. Where can folks find you online if they want to reach out and learn more? And how can listeners be useful to you?
Hila Qu: Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn. Just search Hila Qu, H-I-L-A Q-U. You can find me. I have a personal website that’s under development, but I contracted it to my kid, to my 12-year-old. So he need to wait until summer and hopefully this summer he can finish it.
Yeah, if you are a founder, you are looking for a growth advisor, feel free to hit me up. I’m always happy to just have a call with founders and leaders, get to know more people. And I’m a growth nerd, so I always want to nerd about growth anyway.
Lenny: Amazing. Hila, again, thank you so much for being here.
Hila Qu: Thank you.
Lenny: Bye, everyone.
Hila Qu: Bye.
Lenny: Thank you so much for listening. If you found this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving a review, as that really helps other listeners find the podcast. You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com. See you in the next episode.
Glossary
| English | 中文 |
|---|---|
| activation | 激活(activation) |
| aha moment | 啊哈时刻(用户首次体验到产品核心价值的瞬间) |
| book demo | 预约演示(book demo) |
| Calendly | Calendly(产品名) |
| causation | 因果关系 |
| CI/CD | CI/CD(持续集成/持续交付) |
| correlation analysis | 相关性分析 |
| Crystal Widjaja | Crystal Widjaja(人名,首次出现) |
| CTA (Call to Action) | 行动号召按钮(CTA) |
| customer 360 database | 客户 360 数据库(customer 360 database) |
| data dictionary | 数据字典 |
| data enrichment tool | 数据增强工具 |
| data hub | 数据中枢(data hub) |
| data warehouse | 数据仓库 |
| DevOps | DevOps |
| DLG (Data-Led Growth) | 数据驱动增长 |
| drop off | 流失/放弃 |
| ETL | ETL(提取、转换、加载) |
| full funnel audit | 全漏斗审计 |
| funnel | 漏斗 |
| growth nerd | 增长极客 |
| habit | 习惯 |
| high value action | 高价值动作 |
| Hila Qu | Hila Qu(人名,首次出现) |
| ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) | 理想客户画像(ICP) |
| instrumentation | 埋点 |
| IRA (Individual Retirement Account) | 个人退休账户(IRA) |
| Lauryn Isford | Lauryn Isford(人名,首次出现) |
| Lenny | Lenny(人名,首次出现) |
| leverage | 杠杆 |
| lifecycle marketing tool | 生命周期营销工具 |
| localized | 本地化 |
| low hanging fruit | 低垂果实 |
| LTV (Lifetime Value) | 客户终身价值(LTV) |
| messy middle | 混乱的中间地带 |
| Miro | Miro(产品名) |
| MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) | 营销合格线索(MQL) |
| north star metric | 北极星指标 |
| payment solution | 支付方案 |
| pipeline | pipeline(此处指 CI/CD 流水线) |
| PLG (Product-Led Growth) | 产品驱动增长 |
| PLG motion | PLG 模式 |
| PLG purist | PLG 纯粹主义者 |
| PQA (Product Qualified Account) | 产品合格账户(PQA) |
| PQL (Product Qualified Lead) | 产品合格线索(PQL) |
| product analytics | 产品分析(product analytics) |
| product qualified lead | 产品合格线索 |
| product-led acquisition | 产品驱动获客 |
| product-led sales | 产品驱动的销售 |
| proof of concept | 概念验证(proof of concept) |
| Ravi | Ravi(人名,首次出现) |
| recurring investment | 定投(recurring investment) |
| retention | 留存率 |
| retention expansion | 留存率扩展 |
| ROI (Return on Investment) | 投资回报(ROI) |
| roundup investment | 零钱投资(roundup investment) |
| sales motion | 销售模式 |
| seat | 席位 |
| self-checkout flow | 自助结账流程 |
| SLG (Sales-Led Growth) | 销售驱动增长(SLG) |
| SMB (Small and Medium Business) | SMB(中小企业) |
| time to value | 价值实现时间 |
| warm start | 热启动 |
| white glove service | 白手套服务(指高端定制化服务) |
Reformatted by reformat_english.py
添加 PLG 模式的终极指南 | Hila Qu(Reforge, GitLab)
文字稿
Hila Qu: ……我总是说,它从根本上其实是 DLG,数据驱动增长。当你提供免费产品时,你想换取两样东西。一是更广的触达面,因为免费产品本身就会传播,进入门槛更低。二是你希望了解这些免费用户的使用行为——他们用了哪些功能,哪些功能与更高的转化率、留存率等指标相关联。如果你没有数据基础,也不知道如何分析这些数据,那你就是在白白送出免费产品。
Lenny: 欢迎来到 Lenny 的播客。在这里,我会采访世界级的产品领导者和增长专家,从他们打造和增长当今最成功产品的宝贵经验中学习。今天的嘉宾是 Hila Qu。
我听说有些听众会组织”听播客聚会”——团队通过 Zoom 一起收听某一期节目,然后在共享聊天中交流各自的洞察和收获。我想说,这期节目非常适合这样做。它极其密集地包含了关于如何启动和优化产品驱动增长模式的方法建议。我们讨论了你可能遇到的常见坑、Hila 最喜欢的工具、她对初始 PLG 团队的建议、如何审计你现有的漏斗,还涉及如何提升激活和留存,以及产品驱动增长的基础概览和一些核心概念。
就像我在节目最后说的那样,这期节目价值数万美元,是你无法在其他地方免费获取的。我非常激动能把它带给大家。
Hila Qu 的写作经历
Lenny: Hila,欢迎来到播客。
Hila Qu: 谢谢 Lenny 邀请我,我非常激动。
Lenny: 我也很激动。不知道你知不知道,你有一个非常独特的荣誉——我的newsletter历史上阅读量最高的25篇文章中,你的文章占了两篇,也就是你那个关于如何添加产品驱动增长模式的系列的两部分。所以我非常期待深入聊聊产品驱动增长,帮助更多人在这方面取得成功。
Hila Qu: 太好了。我当时应该写成三篇的,三部曲。
Lenny: 我喜欢这种野心。总有更多可写的。嗯,我觉得下一个里程碑是进入前十,两篇都进前十。
Hila Qu: 对。
Lenny: 好吧。也许这期播客会……哦,这期播客会出现在newsletter的信息流里,所以也许能达成。没压力,没压力。我想问你一个问题——写那些客座文章之后有什么收获吗?有没有什么好事因此发生?
Hila Qu: 我对写作一直采取很长远的眼光。我自己很享受写作。那篇文章我实际上花了四个月。发表之后,我看到很多人分享,还写了很长的总结。这总是非常令人鼓舞。还有很多我没想到会读到它的人也主动联系我,告诉我”嘿,我读了那篇文章。“比如 Ravi,他也在你的播客上出现过。我之前并不认识他,有一天他突然说:“Hila,我读了那篇文章,写得太好了。“还有一些 VC 圈的朋友也读了,他们告诉我写得很好。我甚至还因此获得了一个咨询客户。所以真的很棒。
Lenny: 太棒了,听到这些我真的很高兴。我也很好奇——我们一会儿会深入讨论你写过的所有内容,甚至超越你写过的范围——但在写完那个系列之后,你对 PLG 的看法有什么转变吗?
PLG 与销售并非非此即彼
Hila Qu: 我不会说完全转变了,因为我一直认为你不需要做一个 PLG 纯粹主义者。也就是说,有些人会说”PLG 是未来,它是唯一的方向,你不需要销售团队”,对吧?我从来不这么想。但最近通过与几个客户合作,我亲眼看到,现实中很多初创公司其实是两者兼有的。它们有一个 PLG 模式,同时也有销售团队。PLG 模式非常适合降低门槛,让更多人尝试,扩大触达面,本质上是一个量的游戏。而销售模式,你可以有一份非常精准的大客户目标清单,去逐一拿下它们,拿下的是大单。通常收入是一个公司非常坚实的基础。我实际上看到很多客户两者都在做,他们从早期阶段就尝试同时获得两者的好处,这非常酷。
Lenny: 一个简单的理解方式是,最终每个人都需要两者兼顾,不是二选一,而是都要有,只是什么时候加另一个的问题。可以这样想吗?
Hila Qu: 我认为是这样的。因为假设你处于以销售为主导的传统 B2B 软件行业,你的竞争对手会加入 PLG。一旦他们加入,就能吸引更多终端用户,而这些终端用户会成为向雇主、向客户推动采购的力量,你就会失去这一块。而如果你只有 PLG,别的地方可能有人去追大客户。PLG 要走到大客户并完成销售是需要时间的,所以你在这方面也会损失一些时间。我觉得最终两者都需要。
Lenny: 对,这也是我一直以来的看法。我做过几个关于传统产品驱动增长公司的系列……那些公司,最终都加了销售团队。那些以纯产品驱动著称的公司,最后也都加了销售团队。所以所有人最终都会加销售团队。我认为更近的趋势是,以销售为主导的企业级产品都在意识到他们需要一个产品驱动增长的组件。这也是我一直在观察到的趋势。
Hila Qu: 对,没错。但我想说的是,如果你从一开始就有 PLG,会更容易。如果你是纯销售驱动的,然后想加 PLG,这个转变会更难。
什么是产品驱动增长
Lenny: 有意思。我们先打一点基础。在深入讨论之前,先简单解释一下什么是产品驱动增长其实会很有帮助,因为大家经常听到这个词,有一个整体的理解会很有用。还有就是,为什么它这么受欢迎?为什么所有人都希望自己的业务有一个产品驱动增长的组成部分?
Hila Qu: 用一个简单的 B2C 产品来举例。当你想到 Facebook,当你想到你每天作为终端消费者使用的很多产品时,它们默认就是产品驱动增长的,因为没有销售团队。产品的客户终身价值(LTV)支撑不了销售团队。我认为 PLG 这个术语之所以流行起来,是因为传统上在 B2B 领域,销售是主要的模式。你需要一个销售团队来促成交易。合同签完之后,终端用户才能终于开始使用产品。
但现在情况未必如此了。你可以把你的 B2B SaaS 产品设计成允许终端用户先试后买的方式。所以我认为这就是它变得越来越受欢迎的原因。而背后的根本驱动力是——B2B 软件的使用者也是人,是同样一批人在使用 B2C 软件,而我们已经习惯了先使用、先体验,再做任何决定。我们在 B2B 领域也有这样的需求。所以这必然会发生。越来越多的公司捕捉到了这个趋势,他们试图以此作为切入点来颠覆现有的 B2B 玩家,或者为终端用户打造真正出色的产品。这就是为什么它越来越受欢迎。
PLG 产品的关键特征
Lenny: 顺着这个思路再展开一点,帮助大家更直观地想象一个产品驱动增长的产品是什么样的——是什么让它成为产品驱动的?有一个自助服务组件,那产品驱动和销售驱动的产品之间,还有哪些属性或者说常见要素上的区别?
Hila Qu: 好,当然可以。我觉得我们可以用一个产品来举例。想想 Zoom——想想我或者你这样的日常用户是怎么接触到 Zoom 的。不一定是通过销售团队给我打电话或发邮件,向我介绍、给我做 Zoom 的演示,然后我才认识了 Zoom,对吧?而是可能 Lenny 你办了一场线上讲座,我参加了,我就可以直接使用这个软件,甚至不知道它就是 Zoom。然后之后某天我可能想自己也办一个,我就去注册,已经可以创建和主持一场线上讲座了。如果我需要付费方案我可以付费,或者当遇到 40 分钟限制时,我就可以直接点击付费,成为一个付费用户。
所以我觉得 PLG 产品的一个关键特性是进入门槛非常低。通常有免费版本、免费试用。你不需要得到老板的批准就能使用它,今天就可以开始用。然后它有某种自助付费流程,如果你需要更好的版本,自己就能购买。而且这个免费产品基本上会以某种方式自行传播。
实施 PLG 的常见陷阱
Lenny: 好,非常好。我觉得这部分非常有帮助。我们可以开始深入讨论我们计划好的一些核心内容了。我想从一个有趣的地方开始——人们在尝试加入产品驱动增长模式时常见的坑。那么人们在尝试做产品驱动增长时,最常见的失败方式有哪些?
Hila Qu: 首先,正如我提到的,你需要有某种载体。很多公司,如果你去他们的网站,尤其是 B2B 公司,你会看到最大的行动号召按钮(CTA)叫”预约演示”(book demo)。除此之外什么都没有。你要做的第一步就是提交一个表单,基本上就是向这家公司解释你自己——我是谁谁,来自某某公司,我想用这个工具,你能回复我让我看一下你的产品演示吗?这意味着 PLG 的入口被切断了。相反,第一步是你要么有一个免费产品,要么有免费试用——某种低门槛的入口,让任何偶然发现这个产品的人都能试一试。很多公司没有这个。这是我认为的第一个障碍或者说陷阱。
尤其是如果你是销售主导的,而且已经把所有事情都理顺了,你想去加 PLG,它不像只是在你的网站上加一个”免费试用”的 CTA 那么简单。你需要构建这个免费体验。你还需要说服你的销售团队、现有的产品团队、市场团队——“嘿,我们来试试这个。“因为之前流程非常干净。每个人只处理筛选过的潜在客户,销售就负责这些。但现在你需要允许更多人进来,需要更多地理解他们的行为数据,流程需要改变。所以这其实是一整套流程。这是第一点。与此相关的是,一些公司没有深思熟虑,就是觉得”哦,PLG 很酷,我们来做 PLG 吧。”
然后他们可能花三个月搭建某种非常基础的免费试用,然后就觉得万事大吉了。他们觉得线索会来、转化会来、自助服务的收入会来。没那么容易。没那么简单。这绝对是一整套完整的模式。所以我觉得你需要全身心投入。也许你可以先做一些思考,收集一些数据,建立你的信念,但到了某个节点你需要承诺至少一年甚至两年的路线图来把这整套东西建起来,有时还需要改变内部流程来支撑它。最后一点,很多时候公司有决心,他们想做这件事,但他们不知道正确的方法,或者他们没有基础,没有 PLG 的专业能力。
他们内部团队非常擅长销售,或者可能非常擅长传统模式,但他们缺乏这部分的专业能力和基础。一个常见的现象是,公司想做 PLG,但他们完全没有使用数据,然后说”我就要做 PLG 了”。但我一直说,PLG 从根本上讲其实就是数据驱动增长(DLG)。所以当你提供免费产品时,你想换取两样东西。一是更广泛的覆盖,因为免费产品会自行传播,进入门槛更低。二是你想了解这些免费用户的使用行为——他们使用哪些功能,哪些功能与更高的转化率、留存率等等相关。
如果你没有数据基础,不知道如何分析这些数据,你就是在白白赠送免费产品。你真的无法利用所有这些来构建你的 PLG 模式。所以我觉得数据基础,以及在如何设计用户旅程方面的专业能力——这个旅程跟销售用户旅程非常不同——这些有时候在刚开始做 PLG 的公司里是缺失的。在这些情况下,我觉得非常有帮助的做法可能是找一个做过这件事的人来做顾问,或者招一个人——你需要有那样的专业能力,或者通过顾问来支撑你的 PLG 模式。
Lenny: 这些很有价值。我们稍后会更深入地讨论数据这部分,但关于投入承诺这一点,我觉得很有意思。我想很多时候创始人或领导者觉得自己有决心,然后发现可能并非如此。有没有什么信号能告诉你,“哦,你其实并没有真正准备好在这个上面投入一两年,不管需要多长时间”?
判断是否真正适合 PLG
Hila Qu: 我见过的危险信号,首先,有时候他们会把 PLG 等同于推出一个免费版或者推出一个免费试用。他们心里会这样假设:“我已经有产品了,我已经有在正常运行的软件,客户也在用。现在我加一个免费版,开一个免费试用,这就行了。“好像那就等于 PLG 了,然后就自然会有转化,自然会有人变成产品合格线索,就因为我提供了免费的东西。“嘿,我给你开了,你来用就行了。“我觉得这就是一个危险信号。他们没有从全局去思考整个事情的内在逻辑——免费产品仅仅是个开始。你还需要思考如何激活用户,如何设计升级路径,这些新的增长团队怎么和其他销售、营销团队协作,所有这些。
第二个危险信号是他们没有专门的团队。基本上就是派一个人来负责这件事。他们觉得,“你已经有了,这不是什么大事,你从各个地方借点资源,然后去协调销售、营销、产品各个方面的利益相关者就行了。“那个人得是个魔术师才能在这种情况下成功。
第三个就是他们做这件事其实是因为这很时髦。他们没有深入思考更根本的战略原因——为什么这对他们的业务是一个好的选择。你的产品复杂度是否相对较低,客户不需要大量定制化就能看到价值?价值实现时间需要相对较短,或者你能找到办法让它变短。然后你是否有大量潜在的终端用户和中小企业客户?他们对你的解决方案感兴趣,想要试用。如果这两者都不具备,比如说你开发的是国防类软件,整个世界上只有三个目标客户,那你大概不应该做 PLG,对吧?所以要深入思考适合度,然后再投入。这些就是我觉得的危险信号。
Lenny: 好的。关于最后一点,我觉得非常有意思。我们之前谈到每家公司可能都应该加入 PLG 的部分,但我觉得你同时在说的是,其实并非每家公司都适合,像国防承包商这类公司可能更适合以销售为主导的模式。
Hila Qu: 我觉得这是一个光谱。国防公司、国防软件公司确实是一个比较极端的例子。当然在那种情况下,我觉得做 PLG 没有意义。但我认为大多数 B2B 软件——我见过的、你见过的、我们用过的,甚至一些比较复杂的——比如 Salesforce 曾经是销售模式的典型代表,他们是 SaaS 的先驱,做得非常好,但他们已经开始加入自助服务门户等功能。甚至很多大型厂商都在往这个方向探索。所以我认为大多数 B2B 软件其实处于光谱的中间位置,而不是像国防公司那样的极端。
成功落地 PLG 的关键要素
Lenny: 你刚才分享了一些让 PLG 成立的条件,比如快速的价值实现时间。如果你在脑海中梳理一下,要成功走 PLG 路线,需要搞清楚哪些要点?
Hila Qu: 第一件事是,你需要有一个载体——免费版也好,免费试用也好,有时候是开源产品。很多开发者产品就是从开源产品起步的,它有局限性,但同时也是很好的 PLG 载体。如果这些都不行,你可以构建一个非常接近真实体验的演示。比如我记得 Amplitude,他们现在在推进 PLG,但以前门槛很高。作为终端用户,我很难把他们的代码嵌入我的产品然后看到我的数据,但他们做了一个非常逼真的交互式演示,这就越来越接近 PLG 了。虽然还不是完整的 PLG,但已经很接近了,你可以自己看到价值、自己上手操作。所以第一步是:拥有一个载体。
第二步是价值实现时间。仅仅有载体并不意味着用户会来用、能看到价值。你需要想办法给用户一个热启动,帮助他们上手。我今天正好在跟一家公司聊,他们刚意识到一个问题——用户进入免费试用后,被要求执行某些操作,但没有人知道怎么做,他们可能也不具备执行那些操作的条件。于是我们就讨论,“要不我们先给他们一些示例视频或者示例操作让他们先试试?“这不如他们自己动手那么真实,但比什么都不做强,更接近目标。在这之后你再让他们自己动手,那时候他们需要做更多的工作。所以要思考所有能缩短价值实现时间的方式。不需要在头五分钟就给用户一个大大的”啊哈时刻”,但至少给他们一些小的”啊哈时刻”。
第三件事是,从这里出发——如果他们获得了”啊哈时刻”,如果他们想购买,你需要准备好自助结账流程,自助服务流程。这是基础设施,有了它不代表用户会立刻购买,但至少给了他们自己完成购买的选项。
第四件事我想说的是,在用户激活、使用、“啊哈时刻”到最终转化之间,其实存在一个很大的鸿沟。这个鸿沟是什么?你怎么理解它,怎么引导用户走过这段旅程——这需要你对数据有非常好的把握。你需要有基础设施来了解用户的使用情况、行为模式,然后才能在产品内、邮件里、各种工具中设计用户旅程,引导他们走向下一步。所以要建立非常强大的数据基础。
这些是主要的方面。还有一些其他的事情,比如你的定价需要相对简单。如果你的定价非常复杂,用户需要……比如说他们试用了产品,很喜欢,也有自助结账流程,但为了决定要付多少钱,他们需要给你的销售发信息,你需要出一份报价,那这个链条就断了。或者他们在这个流程中已经感到困惑。所以这也是很重要的一点。
Lenny: 好的,我来总结一下。我记了一下你提到的要点——如果你想加入 PLG 组件,首先需要有某种免费且自助的东西,让用户可以自己开始使用。然后需要快速的价值实现时间,需要自助结账体验,需要数据基础。我特别喜欢你表述的一点——PLG 的一个好处就是数据维度,它能帮助你理解该构建什么、如何从这些用户身上变现。最后一点是定价要简单,让用户能理解。
Hila Qu: 对,对,对。想象一下你在电商平台上卖东西,你也需要所有这些,对吧。就是为了让 B2B 买家能够在 PLG 模式下购买你的软件,你需要把所有这些都给他准备好。但这不代表你准备好了就一定会发生,还是需要数据支撑和大量实验。需要大量的迭代才能让这一切真正跑通。
添加 PLG 模式的第一步
Lenny: 太好了。好的,我们聊了很多方向。一开始讲了那些陷阱,以及你可能遇到的、会让你偏离轨道的问题。现在让我们再拉远视角,假设你已经确信需要在产品中加入产品驱动增长模式,你建议人们迈出的第一步是什么?
Hila Qu: 我认为第一步,我会建议创始人和领导者先理解什么是 PLG 漏斗,什么是销售驱动增长(SLG)漏斗。因为我还记得在 GitLab 开始做 PLG 的时候,这些东西对我来说并不是那么清晰。你可以读到很多内容,但它们并非都很清楚。什么是 PLG?它和传统方式有什么不同?通过自己的实践,我逐渐建立起了这种信念和清晰的认知。SLG 和 PLG 最大的区别在于,传统的销售漏斗大致是这样运作的:市场团队负责漏斗顶部,把访客引过来,然后需要一个流程把这些访客转化为线索。线索这个东西,基本上在 B2B 业务中被广泛使用、至关重要。你会经过某种资质审核流程,线索需要来自你的目标客户类型、目标行业。公司需要达到一定规模,同时也需要表现出兴趣。而市场团队历史上怎么衡量兴趣呢?就是看他们与你的营销活动的互动程度。他们是否打开了一封邮件?是否阅读了三份白皮书?是否参加了这场网络研讨会?这就是他们衡量兴趣的方式。作为买家,你每做一个正面动作,他们就给你加一些分数。一旦你的分数达到某个阈值,你就变成了营销合格线索(MQL)。基本上就是通过这个流程筛选出来的比较好的那些,然后交给销售团队。销售团队还有更多流程,他们从中挑选一部分来跟进,最终成单一部分。这就是传统 B2B 销售驱动模式的运作方式。
PLG 漏斗与 SLG 漏斗的核心区别
然后产品驱动增长漏斗则不同,它更接近 B2C。基本上用户同样可以访问你的网站,然后注册免费版、免费账户或免费试用。最重要的一点,也是最大的区别,就是现在你希望他们使用产品。你仍然可以发送各种营销邮件,做各种营销活动,但那些都是辅助性的,目的是引导他们进入产品去使用、去尝试。而使用量,即产品使用数据,几乎是 PLG 成功的核心领先指标。相比之下,在销售漏斗中,核心指标更像是你获取了多少线索、他们是否与营销活动进行了互动——因为在过去,这就是你所能掌握的,因为在合同签署之前没有人能接触到你的产品。但如今那几乎是一种人为障碍,它已经不存在了。你完全可以通过一个免费版本来让人们使用产品。所以使用量变得如此重要。这是最大的区别,而基于使用量,你有两条潜在的转化路径。
两条转化路径
一条是,如果这个产品不算太贵,价格在大多数公司的预算范围内,有些公司可能直接用信用卡就在线购买了。这种情况下你甚至不需要销售团队介入。它非常类似于 B2C 产品、电商产品的购买流程。这很棒,因为它是自动化的,你不需要更多销售人员参与。成本低、效率高,它可以每天自行发生,不断累加到你的收入中。另一条潜在的转化路径是,产品使用量很高,同时这个客户、这个潜在客户,符合你的理想客户画像(ICP)。比如来自财富 500 强公司,或者来自你知道他们需要你解决方案的目标行业。那么这个客户值得你投入更多时间。你应该做的恰恰相反——即使他们可能想自行购买,你也可能希望让销售团队或客户成功团队去接触他们,进一步了解情况,并提供一些白手套服务。这样你有望谈成一个比他们自行购买更大的合同。这就是另一条路径。我称之为 PQL、PQA 路径,也就是销售路径。
Lenny: 也就是产品合格线索(product qualified lead),对吧?
Hila Qu: 产品合格线索(PQL)、产品合格账户(PQA)。所以第一步就是让你理解这两种漏斗,然后思考如果你想加入 PLG,这段旅程是什么样的?为了让用户能够在这条漏斗中完成转化,你需要为你的产品建立哪些环节?
GitLab 的 SLG 与 PLG 实例
Lenny: 你讲了这两种漏斗。一个问题是,它们对几乎所有产品来说基本相同吗?还是你应该去搞清楚自己的漏斗到底有什么独特之处?第二个问题是,你能否举一个具体产品的例子,比如这是它的销售驱动漏斗,然后这是它的产品驱动版本,让这一切更具体一些?
Hila Qu: 也许我可以先举一个例子,然后我们再聊另一个问题。我可以用 GitLab 作为例子,因为那是我最熟悉的。GitLab 实际上从一开始就有一支企业级销售团队,非常强大的销售团队。但公司同时也是从开源产品起步的。
Lenny: 也许可以给不太熟悉的人描述一下 GitLab 是什么。
Hila Qu: 好的,GitLab 是一个开发者平台、DevOps 平台,基本上是工程师团队、开发团队使用的产品。他们用这个产品来管理整个 DevOps 流程——从存储代码、管理版本控制、发布、CI/CD、安全扫描等等。它是一个面向该团队的一站式平台。在销售驱动模式中,就像我提到的,我们的市场团队负责把大量访客引到网站,他们注册免费试用、免费账户。然后我们有线索培育和线索评分流程,筛选出好的交给销售团队。我们的销售团队分为 SMB(中小企业)、中型市场和大型企业,每个组各拿一批线索去跟进和成单,转化为收入。而产品驱动增长漏斗对我们来说是这样的:某个人,也许是一名开发者,听说了 GitLab,去了网站,看到”哦,我可以注册一个免费账户”。他可能用它来做个人项目。他的公司可能在用另一个解决方案,但他作为开发者有一些个人项目想做,想用 GitLab 来托管。他就这么做了。于是你开始看到这些个人用户有了一些使用量,但和他的公司没有任何关系。然后有一天,也许这个人的雇主说:“我们想看看其他解决方案。我们在 DevOps 的每个环节都有太多分散的工具了,现在想考虑整合一下。有什么选择?“这位工程师就举手说:“嘿,我已经用 GitLab 很长时间了,非常喜欢。我觉得我们应该看看他们。“然后这个团队,可能是工程师经理或者 CTO,取决于公司规模,就说:“好的。”
Hila Qu: 他去了网站,注册了一个免费试用,因为这样可以测试一些更高级的功能。试用是30天,但这个人已经知道怎么用了。他已经用免费版搭建好了基础,然后开始免费试用。他们用这30天做一个概念验证,整个公司已经在部分流程中使用它了。然后他们说:“太好了,我试了这个功能、那个功能、还有那个功能,工具很棒,能支撑我们的工作流,而且我很确定能从这个产品获得投资回报。“在这种情况下,他们可能会想:“我只需要五个席位,很便宜。我直接去定价页看看价格,从那里购买就行了。“或者在某些情况下,这是一家大公司,我们看到这家大公司在使用我们的产品,销售团队拿到这个数据信号后,可能会发邮件联系他们,说:“嘿,我看到你在试用我们的产品,有什么我可以帮忙的吗?“这可能就会开启一段销售对话,最终转化为一份合同。
白板上的漏斗地图
Lenny: 很好,感谢你分享这个例子。关于梳理漏斗这第一步,也许还有一个问题——你建议人们直接站在白板前,大家一起坐下来讨论:“如果我们加入一个产品驱动增长模式,大概会是什么样子”?
Hila Qu: 是的,是的。而且我觉得这个事情……魔鬼在细节里。把大的步骤画出来其实并不难。你想:“我已经有一个营销网站了,我可以做一个免费版。“然后用户使用免费版,我搭建一个结账流程,这就完了。故事就是这样。但这是第一步。如果你连这些组件都没有,梳理漏斗能让你发现缺少的结账流程、缺少的免费版本,你已经把它们识别出来了。但再往下一层,魔鬼就在细节里。你如何为每个步骤设计体验?你在营销页面上说什么来推动免费注册?在免费注册中,你如何引导用户使用三个最重要的功能?在结账流程中,你提供哪些支付选项,让来自各地的客户都能顺畅购买?这些下一层的细节,才是真正有大量优化空间、有大量提升机会的地方。
漏斗梳理之后做什么
Lenny: 这正好可以很自然地引出下一个问题——你已经梳理完漏斗了,接下来做什么?
Hila Qu: 如果你还没有这些基础组件,你需要把它们都搭建起来。但如果你已经有了一些东西,漏斗已经存在了,可能运行得不够完美,但它在运作、它在那里。我觉得下一步就是你需要选择一个切入点。你想先聚焦哪里来驱动最大影响?我个人非常喜欢寻找杠杆。我觉得做增长永远是关于寻找杠杆。如果你总能找到那个投入相对较小但能产出最大结果的领域,这种势头可以支撑你后续的实验和更多工作。找到杠杆在我心中是一件很美的事情。所以我总是想这么做。所以在选择切入点这个问题上,我实际上和很多顾问客户做的第一步就是,我们做一次全漏斗审计,一次完整的 PLG 漏斗审计。
我会把自己当作终端用户,走完整个旅程,假装我有兴趣、半有兴趣,想从网站购买。它的价值主张是否非常清晰?然后从那里开始,注册免费账户或免费试用,流程是否顺畅?当我开始使用产品时,我是否能快速到达啊哈时刻,还是我非常困惑和沮丧,在那一刻就放弃了?再往下,如果我觉得产品不错,我到达了啊哈时刻,我想购买。我甚至能不能买到?你绝对不会相信,当我做这种审计的时候,这个过程中通常有特别多的低垂果实。举个例子,有一个客户,当我进入结账流程时,那个结账表单非常令人困惑。
他们问了一堆只有英国客户才需要回答的问题,其他地区根本不需要回答,但他们照样问了这些问题。而我作为一个美国用户,非常困惑,直接在那一步就放弃了。还有其他问题,比如我提到的啊哈时刻。当我第一次进入产品内部时,我不知道该做什么。我非常兴奋,准备好了,但我不知道该做什么。我非常迷茫和困惑。这通常是一个相当大的关注点和机会点——就是让你的用户到达啊哈时刻。他们已经越过了这么多障碍,不要就这样把他们挡在门外、让他们因为太困惑而离开。
什么是啊哈时刻
Lenny: 也许解释一下啊哈时刻会有帮助。我知道大家经常听到这个词。用一个简单的方式来理解,啊哈时刻是什么?
Hila Qu: 我把它理解为一个用户首次体验到产品价值的时刻。这个概念之所以流行,是因为 Facebook 在早期增长阶段有一个经典的例子——七天之内添加10个好友,你就到达了啊哈时刻。但这背后有很多层次。Facebook 之所以用这个来定义啊哈时刻,是因为在早期,如果你添加了这些好友,你就开始建立一些联系,可以看到有趣的动态消息,可以和朋友互动。而这种社交互动正是 Facebook 的核心价值。Facebook 通过大量数据验证了这一点——如果你达到那个数据指标标准,就很可能到达了啊哈时刻。但我认为对于很多——尤其是我们现在讨论的许多 SaaS 产品、B2B 软件——这类产品的价值通常要么是你看到一个工作流可以被这个产品支撑,它可以帮你省时、省钱、帮你赚更多钱;要么就是它解决了一个你靠自己没有软件产品就永远无法解决的痛点。
所以在 GitLab,我们实际上做了大量分析,试图理解我们新用户的啊哈时刻是什么。我们最终得出的结论大致是:14天内两个用户、使用两个功能。这和 Facebook 的格式非常相似。但深入来看,因为我们是平台产品、是团队产品,两个用户讲的是团队层面的事情。无论第一个用户在尝试和使用什么,那个东西如此有价值,以至于他或她有信心邀请一位同事加入。这个行为本身就是非常有价值的行动,表明这第一个用户正在看到价值。而如果他们一起使用了两个或更多功能,说明我们看到了产品中的协作和平台特性。限定在14天之内,是因为它需要合理地快,但不能不切实际——因为我们是一个复杂的产品,我们不是 Facebook,不是 Zynga 或者一个游戏应用,你很难在第一天就搞明白。所以是的,我认为这是一个任何 PLG 公司都需要弄清楚的非常重要的概念,因为这通常是我看到的最大的机会领域。
Lenny: 啊哈时刻和激活(activation)经常可以互换使用,对吧?
Hila Qu: 对。
Lenny: 换个方式重新表述一下你说的——GitLab 的激活/啊哈时刻里程碑是14天内两个用户使用两个功能。
Hila Qu: 对。
Lenny: 我猜你们得出这个结论的方式,是去看当用户达到某个里程碑后留存率是否提升了,对吧?大致是这样吗?
如何确定激活里程碑
Hila Qu: 对,完全正确。你可以通过这样的方式来得出结论。首先,我们的增长团队内部做了一些头脑风暴,思考哪些潜在的动作或行为能表明用户正在获得价值。我们理想中想找的是类似成功合并第一个 PR,或成功运行第一条 pipeline 这样的动作。我们列出所有这些潜在的高价值动作。接下来,我们做了相关性分析来理解——这里是我们认为值得关注的 10 个高价值动作,如果新用户执行了某个动作,90 天转化率是多少?30 天留存率是多少?我们两个指标都看,因为如果只看留存或只看转化,无法呈现全貌。
所以我们看的是,如果你做了某个动作——比如 Lenny 你在试用我们的产品,你在前 30 天内成功合并了一个 PR——这是否提高了你转化的可能性?是否提高了你留存的可能性?我们把这 10 个高价值动作逐一比较,与平均值对比。然后我们发现,有些动作做了之后,对转化和留存的提升幅度明显更大。这些就是潜在的啊哈时刻候选。从那之后,我们之所以最终没有只选单一动作,原因是——对于某些产品,其实你可以只选一个动作。如果有一个动作特别突出,比如对 Airbnb 来说,大概就是预订酒店、入住体验很好、留下高星评价,那就是这个平台的关键动作。
但对 GitLab 来说,我们有非常多不同的工作流组件。团队来这里的原因各不相同——有的是为了安全,有的是为了 CI/CD。所以最终我们选择了组合两个动作,可以是任意两个高价值功能。下一步就是设计一些实验,尝试让更多用户去完成这些高价值动作,然后观察转化率是否提高了?留存率是否提高了?因为在数据分析阶段,你只是在分离相关性,并没有证明因果关系。你只是观察到做了这些动作的人更可能转化,但这不代表你引导人们去做这些事他们就一定会转化。所以实验验证是关键的一步,最终用来确认因果关系。
Lenny: Hila,这太精彩了,简直就是一个关于激活的迷你播客。我们应该单独再做一期专门讲这个。我会在节目笔记里链接几篇我写过的文章,里面有大量关于设定激活里程碑和优化它们的建议。我忘了你是否也给那篇文章贡献过内容,如果没有的话,我们应该把这些案例也加进去。不过让我们回到核心话题,关于产品驱动增长我们有足够多可以聊的。总结一下你做的审计——你讲的时候我记了些笔记,我们可以从这里继续。你在审计一款产品、寻找切入点时,关注的是什么:第一,你是否对这个产品充满期待想要试用?着陆页是否吸引你?第二,你是否能独立使用并上手体验?第三,你是否达到了啊哈时刻——就是你心里想”好,我明白了,这东西真的有用”?然后第四,我能不能自己完成购买?这大致就是审计框架吗?还有其他补充吗?
Hila Qu: 完全正确。我还会看他们最初发给我的几封邮件,因为有时候邮件能起到很大作用。如果我第一次体验时很挫败——前几天我在试一款产品,很沮丧,心想算了放弃吧。结果晚上看到一封邮件,我想,也许我点一下那个 CTA 再试一次。结果那次我真的搞明白了,达到了啊哈时刻。
所以我也会审查邮件——最初的几封邮件。然后当我把这些都梳理出来后,我会让公司提供每个步骤的高层数据:你的网站有多少访客?多少人完成了注册?多少人达到了啊哈时刻?这一步需要先定义好,通常会有很多讨论。多少人开始自助结账并成功完成?然后,结合我作为用户的切身体验和这些数据,我们通常很快就能发现最大的机会在哪里。通常激活和转化是最常见的两个切入点。
从哪里开始改进
Lenny: 那么我们接下来就深入聊聊。你完成了审计之后,对于如何确定应该从哪里入手、应该投资产品的哪个部分来推动产品驱动增长,你还有什么建议?
Hila Qu: 你可以自己做这样的审计。想象一下你是一个 B2C 用户去买一个产品,你希望过程是简单的。理想情况下,B2B 的 PLG 也应该那么简单。所以自己去走一遍这个流程,找出哪里让人困惑,哪里会卡住。如果你发现激活是最大的问题——也就是说,进入产品后你不知道该做什么,不知道下一步是什么,可能就离开了——那么你需要首先找到正确的啊哈时刻指标,就像我们刚才讨论的那样,因为那就是成功的标志,是终点线。然后设计产品体验来帮助更多人达成目标。我通常的思路是”做”比”展示”好,“展示”比”告诉”好——也就是说你要消除所有摩擦,给用户一个热启动,提供一些示例模板,一些可以立刻上手玩的东西。同时你可以用邮件来引导那些还没有操作的用户回到产品中。这是关于激活的部分。
如果激活做得还可以,但转化——你的自助结账流程——还有优化空间,那也值得关注。很多我合作的公司,当我去尝试购买时,我甚至找不到在哪里买,很难找到从哪里点击开始结账流程。或者结账流程中存在各种摩擦,比如没有做本地化。有一家公司,当我看他们的数据时发现印度的成功率很低,这在预料之中,但进一步分析后发现,是因为他们选择的支付方案并不很好地支持那个市场。他们增加了另一个支付方案后,成功率立刻明显提升。用户已经进入了结账环节,你绝对不想流失其中任何一个。想尽一切办法做实验,把成功率提到尽可能高,因为你不想失去任何一个已经到这一步的人。所以激活和转化,通常是两个最好的切入点。
Hila Qu: 然后在此基础上,我会建议你考虑 PQL/PQA 模式,这是另一层转化,也就是说如果你还希望将销售融入其中——产品驱动的销售模式——你该如何搭建结构和基础,以便知道哪些数据信号能告诉你哪些是更优质的线索?你应该设定哪些客户标准,比如规模、细分市场,你如何获取这些数据,然后如何将这些交给销售团队,他们如何利用这些数据和知识来成单?这是另一个非常大的机会领域。不过相比前面两个低垂果实,这是一个更大的工程。
最后我想说的是,产品驱动获客是一个很好的切入点。如果你的产品是协作软件,想想 Airtable 和 Figma——作为我工作流的一部分,我会邀请团队成员加入,我把产品传播了出去。如果你有这样的使用场景,可以把它构建到产品中,那就太棒了,非常强大。
Lenny: 内容很多。让我试着总结一下你刚才分享的内容以及它们之间的关联。你有一个自助服务产品,已经做到用户可以注册并免费试用的程度了?
Hila Qu: 嗯。
Lenny: 然后你做这个审计,判断在整个用户旅程中哪些地方存在最大的机会、最高的杠杆?你有这四个机会类别?
Hila Qu: 嗯。
Lenny: 获客,也就是漏斗顶部,你是否要先加倍投入这里?还是激活,帮助用户更快地看到价值?
Hila Qu: 嗯。
Lenny: 第三类是你说的转化,本质上是帮助他们更顺畅地完成购买?
Hila Qu: 嗯。
Lenny: 然后还有一个留存率的类别,就是让他们停留更长时间。我不知道你是不是提过这个,但我知道那可能不是你想起步的地方,所以甚至不值得多聊。
Hila Qu: 对。
激活、转化与获客的优先级
Lenny: 好。所以核心问题是,一个创始人或产品团队必须决定的是,当他们试图加入产品增长时,应该投入这三个类别中的哪一个——获客、激活还是转化?
Hila Qu: 嗯,嗯。
Lenny: 如果能分别给这三个类别各举一个做得好的产品例子就很棒。然后你也谈到了怎么判断该从哪个开始。也许再快速总结一下——什么情况下你大概应该从激活开始?
Hila Qu: 你很可能应该从激活开始。实际上,激活对于大多数 B2B 软件来说都是一个很好的起点。
Lenny: 很好。
Hila Qu: 因为历史上 B2B 软件通常并不是为了让你快速上手而设计的。一个很好的例子——我认为所有最优秀的 PLG 公司在这方面都做得非常出色。这几乎是我判断一个 PLG 产品是否优秀的标准。以 Miro 为例,如果你体验一下他们的激活流程,从注册到开始使用,他们问的问题非常精简,非常有针对性。他们把你引入产品,先问你的使用场景——你来这里是为了什么?是做头脑风暴?还是做路线图规划?然后迅速给你提供模板让你开始。大概五分钟之内,你就完成了从访问网站、注册、回答几个问题,到已经用他们提供的模板做你想做的事情的整个旅程。这就是价值实现时间。这就是成功。我认为这是所有 PLG、所有 B2B 产品都应该努力达到的标准。所以激活通常是一个好的起点。如果你不知道从哪里开始,就做激活。
然后转化,我认为也是一个值得投入的地方,但有两个层面。一个是自助结账流程,在那里做一些实验。实际上你可以去看看任何电商网站,比如 Lululemon、Amazon,让你的转化流程像他们的一样简单。这应该是你的目标。用户不应该被复杂的定价、不知道去哪里找这些信息而搞糊涂。所以这是一个始终值得投入、持续测试的地方,因为这几乎是已经进了账本的钱。
然后 PQL/PQA 部分,那条更复杂的路径,我认为你应该先把激活和自助结账理顺一些,等有了一定的用户规模再投入,否则可能会跳得太快、走得太超前。至于获客,产品驱动获客是一个很值得投入的方向,如果你有协作式工作流,你的产品本身就带有一些内在的病毒式传播组件。想想 Figma,甚至 Calendly——它可以自发传播。这个产品太易用了。你可以构建一些功能让它自己传播开来。
Lenny: 好。我希望这些内容对大家很有帮助,因为我觉得很多人在想”我该从哪里开始,我该做什么来开始走上产品增长这条路”。我听下来大概是激活可能是你最应该聚焦的地方,本质上就是让人们更快地到达你的产品价值。而且有意思的是,我们之前和 Lauryn Isford(前 Airtable,现在 Notion)做过一期播客,聊了各种实现这个目标的方法。有趣的是,影响留存率的最大杠杆之一,往往是引导流程和改善激活——一举两得。
留存率的”混乱中间地带”
Hila Qu: 没错,确实如此。我也可以聊聊留存率扩展,如果你觉得有帮助的话?
Lenny: 好啊,我们就在这里聊聊。
Hila Qu: 是的,我知道我在文章中没有太多涉及留存率,有人问我是否计划专门写一篇关于这个话题的文章。我没有太多覆盖留存率扩展的原因是,正如你所说,它通常不是首选的起点。我把留存率称为”混乱的中间地带”。它实际上是整个漏斗中比较混乱的部分。激活、转化,这些都是快的,有时候时间跨度更短,对吧?你可以有很多次尝试,可以很快测试,而获客则是一个非常大的杠杆——你总是需要获取更多用户。
留存率超级重要,但它有点混乱。它横跨很长的时间周期,你的客户在任何时候都可能留存或不再留存——如果他们刚取消了,或者决定不再使用了,你就已经失去他们了。所以这是一个非常混乱的部分。但我对留存率的思考方式是两步。第一步是如何在他们的使用模式中建立习惯,让他们可能每周、每天都在使用。做到这一点的关键,首先你的产品需要有足够高的使用频率。如果一个月只用一次,那不太可能形成习惯。
在 GitLab 之前,我在 Acorns 工作。Acorns 最初是一个投资应用,整个产品理念就是被动投资——你买入一些 ETF,基本上连看都不用看,只需要不断往里加钱,它就会增长,十年后回报非常可观。这其实是正确的投资理念,但当我作为增长负责人工作时,这给我带来了巨大挑战,因为想象一下”设好就忘”的模式——用户甚至不需要回到产品就能获得成功。这让作为增长负责人的我很难推动用户参与和留存率。如果用户不回来,我甚至不知道他们是否留住了,对吧?我只能通过其他指标来推断。所以关于建立习惯,我想说的一点是:思考如何将习惯功能或协作功能嵌入到用户已有的工作流中、嵌入到产品本身中。他们能够留存的根本原因,在于使用频率高、涉及与他人协作、已经成为工作流的一部分。这是第一步。当然,你可以用很多手段来强化这一点——比如当用户采取某个动作时发邮件把他们拉回来,让他们重复那个动作——但从根本上说,你需要把习惯机制构建到产品中。
留存扩展的三个方向
关于留存率的下一步,我实际上认为扩展是留存的一部分。基本上你已经有了稳定的使用流程,每周、每天都在习惯性地使用。那么什么是提示你考虑购买更多产品的合适时机?产品驱动的扩展有三个方向:第一个是升级到更高的版本层级;第二个是购买更多席位、更多许可证;第三个是如果你有某种按消耗量计费的附加组件,就是消耗更多。比如对于 GitLab,你可以从 bronze 层级升级到 silver 层级,然后购买更多席位,还可以购买更多 CI/CD 分钟数来消耗。这些都是不同的扩展时机。实现方式就是真正理解数据、理解使用情况,在合适的时机向合适的人触发合适的对话。
你同样可以将激活转化中使用的很多类似策略出色地应用到扩展中,因为这几乎是让用户体验到某个功能的啊哈时刻、使用那个功能、尝试那个功能,然后促使他们转化的组合。
对留存率影响最大的实验
Lenny: 你留下了太多金砖,我不得不忍住不去追问,否则就会跑题,因为内容实在太多了。留存率本身就是一个可以单独聊的话题。在这个方向上也许我们只能再问一个问题:你有没有推出过什么对留存率产生巨大影响的功能?有没有那种”哇,这个真的影响很大”的例子?你可能想到了频率之类的,但具体想到的是什么?
Hila Qu: 我可以分享一些我的例子,当然我的——
Lenny: 嗯。
Hila Qu: 我认为有两件事。第一件事其实和你刚才说的非常相似。当我被安排负责留存率时,我做了大量分析。对我来说最大的杠杆其实是激活。所以我最终在激活上做了大量实验。我找出了哪些功能能让用户快速体验到价值,从而更可能留存。对我们来说,这个功能叫定投(recurring investment),事后看来非常合理,但当时没有人关注这个。我们有一些其他很酷的投资功能,比如零钱投资(roundup investment),没有人太注意定投这个功能。但当我看数据时,我发现定投与留存率有很强的相关性。所以我做了很多工作,推动更多用户设置这个功能,在很短的时间内就取得了巨大成功。
从那之后,我们开始增加更多使用频率更高的场景,就像我前面提到的。如果你每个月只来一次查看投资情况,很难留住你。如果你不在产品里,我们也没有任何杠杆来与你互动。所以我们最终增加了 IRA 账户,也就是退休账户。我们还增加了消费账户,比如借记卡,也就是更高频的使用场景。这些场景天然具有更高的使用频率和更好的留存率。所以你把问题从”如何提高留存率”变成了”如何推动更高频使用场景的采纳”。我又做了一系列实验来推动退休账户的采纳。一旦你有了退休账户、IRA,就会涉及税务影响等等,你很难离开。于是你再次把问题转化为了采纳/激活问题。
数据与基础设施
Lenny: 太精彩了,感谢分享。天哪,关于留存率还有很多可以聊的,但我们在产品驱动增长上已经有很多内容了。还有两个领域我想聊一下——一个是数据与基础设施,关于如何搭建才能保证成功,大家需要了解什么;另一个是招聘团队,如何搭建你的产品驱动增长团队。先从数据这块开始,宏观地看,大家需要考虑的数据和基础设施有哪些类别?哪些是需要投入或者应该及早开始考虑的?
Hila Qu: 我认为有两个大的类别。第一类是产品使用数据。正如我之前提到的,很多 B2B 软件在这方面非常匮乏,因为当你通过销售团队销售时,你不需要了解那么多细节,不需要那么细粒度的使用数据。第二类我称之为客户 360 数据库(customer 360 database),因为产品使用数据只是一个组成部分,虽然是最核心的。要让你的产品驱动增长模式成功,你还需要将这些数据与营销团队的营销活动、你的 CRM、你的 Salesforce 连接起来——谁是客户、谁是潜在客户、他们处于什么阶段。这些理想情况下都需要打通,这样你才能获得客户的 360 度全景视图。如果 Airbnb 是我的目标客户,我是否知道有来自 Airbnb 的用户正在使用我的产品?他们在使用哪些功能?我有没有向他们中的任何一个发送过营销邮件?他们有没有回复?所有这些信息理想情况下都需要打通,但在现实中,数据散落各处。在大多数 B2B 公司中,数据都各自存在于自己的工具里。
推荐工具栈
Lenny: 你觉得大家应该看看哪些工具?从哪些开始?在工具方面,Hila 推荐的初始技术栈或探索方向是什么?
Hila Qu: 我认为有两个层面。一个是基础设施,另一个是一些辅助工具。从基础设施的角度来看,在数据工具方面,我通常会推荐的第一类是某种数据中枢(data hub),比如 Segment。第二类是某种产品分析工具,比如 Amplitude。我知道 PostHog 也挺受欢迎的,它是一个开源的产品分析工具。还有 Mixpanel、Pendo 等等。所以要有某种数据中枢、数据采集工具,以及某种产品分析工具。这就是数据基础设施。
然后你还需要一个实验工具,因为正如我所说,你不能想象建好一切就能完美运行。你需要 Optimizely 之类的工具,我知道 Amplitude 也有一些实验功能。Eppo 是一个新兴的工具。你需要某个工具来支持你做实验。
Hila Qu: 第三件我认为非常关键的,我把它算在基础设施里,就是某种生命周期营销工具(lifecycle marketing tool)。我知道很多 B2B 公司使用 HubSpot 或其他工具做邮件营销,但那些通常是线索培育(lead nurture)类的。它和生命周期营销工具有很大区别——后者需要与 Segment、Amplitude 对接,你需要知道客户在产品里在做什么,然后基于他们的行为,在对的时刻、给对的人,设计邮件、应用内消息、推送通知。你衡量成功的标准是:他们是否在产品中采取了正确的动作。而线索培育类的邮件营销工具,衡量标准是:我是否让他们读了文章、打开了邮件,给他们的线索评分加了 10 分,他们在列表漏斗中又推进了一步。所以,数据工具、实验工具、生命周期营销工具,这些就是基础设施。
数据增强与获客工具
Hila Qu: 在此之上,还有很多 PLG 工具可以叠加使用,让你的日常工作轻松很多。先说对获客最关键的——你需要某种数据增强工具(data enrichment tool)。想想 ZoomInfo、Clearbit 这样的工具,因为 B2B 和 B2C 最大的区别在于,你仍然需要了解客户所在公司的情况。你想了解这个人,但你也想了解这个人所在的公司,对吧?这一点非常重要,你可以从这些数据增强工具中获得很多信息,然后基于此差异化地设计用户旅程。
激活与转化工具
Hila Qu: 对于激活,我的很多客户在 Appcues、User-Led 这类工具中发现了很大价值——基本上就是那些让你无需工程师资源就能快速在产品中搭建引导流程的工具。你需要做一些初始集成,但一旦完成,营销经理、产品经理或其他同事就可以自己搭建定制化的分步引导流程。我觉得这很实用,因为你需要在这方面不断测试。
Hila Qu: 至于转化,我想说现在有很多产品驱动增长、产品驱动的销售工具。这些都很不错。如果你想搭建自己的 PQL/PQA 转化路径,可以看看 Endgame、Pocus、Tableau 和 Pace。有好几个这样的工具。
数据基础设施的重要性
Lenny: 哇,太棒了。这个清单非常棒,结构也很清晰。在我们进入招聘和团队话题之前,关于数据或基础设施方面还有什么要补充的吗?
Hila Qu: 我只想回到我之前提到的那个观点——产品驱动增长,归根结底就是数据驱动增长。所以在大多数情况下,当我看到一家公司想要起步时,他们真正缺失的、或者需要加大投入的地方,就是数据。如果你发现自己在这一块有差距,也不必沮丧,很多规模相当大的公司也面临同样的问题。如果你能投入时间、资金、团队和工具来解决这个问题,收益是很可观的——数据采集、理解使用数据,不仅能驱动你的 PLG 模式,它真正能赋能你整个产品团队,甚至客户成功团队。现在你给了他们所需的素材来开发下一个功能,依据不再只是头部客户提出的需求,而是所有人的实际使用情况。
Hila Qu: 你的客户成功团队也能更深入地了解客户在用什么,而不是仅仅和客户方的高管聊聊、对情况做个粗略判断。所以我认为这是一个值得投入的领域,每家 B2B 公司都应该在这方面进行投资。
工具选择建议
Lenny: 我在尝试代入听众此刻的想法,我猜有些人可能会想:如果我选错了工具怎么办?我压力有点大,要做这么多调研。我有点不敢开始,怕一步错步步错。你觉得这些类别中,哪一类从一开始就最需要选对?对于如何避免搞砸,有什么建议吗?
Hila Qu: 要起步的话,我觉得产品分析工具可能是第一步,然后可能还需要一个数据中枢,比如 Segment。因为如果你有 Segment 这类工具,它允许你接入非常多的不同工具。你基本上可以尝试各种不同的工具,如果不好用,你只需要切换一下开关,就可以换另一个工具。所以这是它的好处,但它确实比较贵,所以我知道有些公司可能直接就上产品分析工具了。我觉得完全选错的概率不大,对吧?
Hila Qu: 要让产品分析工具有意义,第一步是你需要采集数据,需要做一些埋点(instrumentation),需要打好基础。否则就是垃圾进、垃圾出(garbage in, garbage out)——如果你往产品分析工具里灌入一堆垃圾数据,你的分析师只会更加困惑,对吧?他不知道该不该信任这些数据,该用哪些数据。所以我合作的很多公司,第一步可能不是去看工具,而是先对自己的数据埋点状况做一次审计——了解有多少关键动作是正确追踪的,数据格式是否正确,差距在哪里?你可能需要做一些重新埋点、重新格式化之类的工作,然后才能接入产品分析工具让它真正有用。
Lenny: 如果有人想做这样的审计,有没有什么可以参考的东西?比如博客、课程之类的,帮助他们判断自己做对了没有?还是说,“请 Hila 来”,需要像你这样的专家来帮忙?
Hila Qu: 不用,你可以请我,但不是必须的。我觉得如果你在 Google 上搜索”数据字典”(data dictionary)、或者”产品使用数据审计”(data product usage data audit),很多公司都发布了模板和电子表格可以使用。我之后甚至可以发给你几个。
Lenny: 那太好了。
Hila Qu: 然后你就可以对照着梳理。核心思路是:过一遍你的产品体验,识别出关键动作,然后对照你的数据埋点,看看”它们是否匹配?”
Hila Qu: 做这件事的成功标志是你找出了差距,最终你要建立一份所谓的数据字典(data dictionary)。我基本上为很多客户都做这件事。数据字典会包括:所有关键动作是什么,每个动作对应的事件名称是什么,有哪些属性等等。
Hila Qu: 这样你就清楚了:“好,我有这个动作的追踪,名称是这个。如果我来了一个新的产品经理或分析师,我们都可以参照这个。“大家的定义是一致的,而不是各自有各自的解读。所以这是在工具选型之前就非常重要的一步。
Lenny: 太好了。这也让我想到之前的嘉宾 Crystal Widjaja,她有一篇很棒的文章讲为什么大多数分析工作会失败。她在里面详细讲了如何正确设置事件。我们也会把那篇文章的链接放上。
Hila Qu: 嗯。
数据仓库
Lenny: 也许最后再提一点——我在想什么最容易让人栽跟头,大概就是没有数据仓库(data warehouse)和 ETL 相关的工具,因为那些东西为以上所有环节提供数据支撑。关于数据仓库的重要性和搭建方式,你有什么要补充的吗?
Hila Qu: 我合作的一些早期公司,刚起步的时候根本没有数据仓库。他们基本上就只有一个产品,再加上某种 Google Analytics 或 Amplitude,就这些了。听起来挺疯狂的,但它确实能跑,他们也能从那个基础上走到一定阶段。
但一旦你开始有数据用户,就该认真起来了——建立数据仓库,搭建某种 ETL 方案。市面上有一些最常见的主流最佳实践方案,比如 AWS 之类的。也有一些初创公司在这方面提供服务,你同样可以利用。
但话说回来,一旦你成为一家正式运营的企业,就应该在这方面投入。否则,整个数据体系会相当混乱,也非常脆弱。
Lenny: 你说 AWS 的时候,我想你指的是 Redshift,对吧?
Hila Qu: 对。
Lenny: 好的,太棒了。我们还有时间聊最后一个板块,也非常精彩,就是关于团队建设。这里可能就两个问题。你对组建初始的 PLG 投入团队有什么建议?通常是什么样的,你觉得大家应该怎么做?然后后续这个团队如何演进?
Hila Qu: 我看到大多数公司的起点是创始人或领导层意识到他们需要做 PLG,并建立了信念。也许一开始甚至没有专职团队,但他们东做一些西做一些,最终决定在这方面投入。
最常见的起点是招聘一位增长负责人,或者也可以是一位首席增长 PM,但需要是在这个领域有一定经验的人。然后他们开始组建核心增长小组,作为第一个增长团队。我认为这是一个非常常见的起点。
另一个不太常见、但我也在现实中看到的起点,是组建一个跨职能的、类似于”老虎队”的小组。因为如果最初的聚焦领域是——比如说——他们想做产品合格线索,或者基本上就是搭建那条漏斗。那不仅涉及产品团队,还需要数据团队参与,因为你要弄清楚哪些使用模式能指示出更优质的线索。你还需要把销售团队拉进来,因为他们需要跟进这些线索并完成成交。
所以如果那是最初的切入点,跨职能的老虎队也是一个可选方案。但最常见的方式还是招聘一位增长负责人——通常是一位增长 PM——然后组建一个由工程、设计、数据组成的团队来支撑这个核心增长小组。
Lenny: 这两种方式的主要区别在于——一种是专职的,“我们要安排全职人员来帮助增长”。就像我们之前聊的,比如他们专注于激活,这就是他们的全部工作。而老虎队基本上是从其他团队借用资源,对他们来说这有点像是个副项目。
Hila Qu: 对,有点像,而且是一段时间内的。所以是临时的。它更像是——他们差不多想进入……我会说通常跨职能团队、老虎队,是在全面投入之前的一个阶段。他们已经基本下定决心,但还是想先试一试,获得最终的信念确认,然后再开始投入专职资源。
你问到他们之后如何演进——
Lenny: 在聊这个之前,也许再快速追问一个问题。你更推荐哪种方式?我猜如果条件允许,你会推荐专职团队?
Hila Qu: 嗯哼。
Lenny: 那什么情况下适合走老虎队路线?哪些场景?
Hila Qu: 有一种情况我会推荐,就是如果最初的聚焦领域像我刚才说的——产品合格线索,即销售转化路径。因为你想,如果你招了一位增长负责人或核心增长 PM,这个人通常有增长 PM 背景,身处产品组织中。如果最初的聚焦领域是激活、转化这些涉及大量实验的工作,他们非常合适。而且激活和转化相对来说是封闭的领域,增长 PM 加上工程、设计、数据就能搞定。
但如果你觉得最初的聚焦领域是”我最大的抓手其实是做 PQL 这件事”,那对增长 PM 来说协调这些跨职能资源会稍微困难一些,因为他需要深入数据,还需要在销售甚至营销那边有对接人。在这种情况下,我觉得可以从老虎队开始。
两者也可以结合。你可以有一位专职增长 PM,同时让一些老虎队成员和他一起推进 PQL 项目。
Lenny: 明白了。另外我挺喜欢”老虎队”这个说法的,之前没听过。听起来很有意思,非常有活力。好的,那初始团队搭建好之后,接下来怎么发展?
Hila Qu: 一旦有了初始团队,重要的是给他们所需的资源,给他们一个初始聚焦领域,给予支持并给他们一点时间,让他们尝试一些事情,取得一些早期胜利。早期胜利是我认为最重要的——无论什么时候启动新的增长团队,都要寻找机会,在你选择的任何聚焦领域里争取一些早期成果。
从那里开始,如果你取得了一些胜利,团队就有了势能,组织对 PLG 也会有更多信心,对吧?这时就可以考虑扩展和正式化了。所以从根本上说,你不应该只考虑 PLG 团队,你应该考虑的是 PLG 组织。因为 PLG 是一种模式,它天然就是跨职能的,不仅仅是产品团队或增长团队的事。
最终你需要达到这样一个状态:有一位增长产品负责人,作为 PLG 组织的核心。同时还需要一位增长营销负责人,作为他(她)在营销组织中的对应角色。然后还有一位产品驱动的销售负责人,作为销售组织中的对应角色。
他们具体坐落在哪里、组织架构怎么安排,每家公司都不同。最常见的是增长产品负责人汇报给产品线,增长营销负责人汇报给营销线,产品驱动的销售负责人汇报给销售线。但他们之间需要有某种非常紧密的协作,因为他们在同一种模式和同一条漏斗中工作。但我觉得下一步就是思考这个组织架构。
一旦你在产品、销售、营销中都有了对应角色,下一步就是思考他们各自负责什么指标,确保你能以数据驱动的方式管理这条漏斗、这种模式。因为 PLG 的指标和 SLG 差异很大。漏斗顶部更关注高质量注册。你要的不是大量流量,你要的是免费注册、免费试用。但它必须达到一定的质量门槛,不是什么人都要。
然后增长产品负责人,他(她)的顶层 KPI 是关于使用量和激活。激活团队数是一个非常常见的指标。然后可能还有 PQL 数量,这是另一个。你基本上要让这些团队达到一定的使用阈值。
再往下,产品驱动的销售负责人,他专注于将这些 PQL 转化为收入。所以他会大量关注转化率、效率和收入等指标。
Lenny: 明白了。你在文章中口头分享了很多组织设计方面的内容,我们当然会在节目笔记中附上链接。你可以实际看到这些结构的图示,帮助理解得更清楚。
我可能还有最后一个问题。回到初始团队,你建议这个 MVP PLG 团队包含哪些职能?
Hila Qu: 最重要的是有一位增长 PM 来担任负责人——增长负责人、增长总监、首席增长 PM 都行。然后这位增长 PM——你可能也很清楚——他是一名 PM,但在分析、实验方面的技能要强得多,非常数据驱动,善于思考指标。
Hila Qu: 增长 PM 的工作方式和其他产品经理类似,但他的 KPI 实际上更接近销售和市场的工作。他非常关注转化率、用户旅程、漏斗,而不是某个具体功能本身。
其他你必须配备的职能——我经常说,数据分析师其实应该是第一个招聘的人。有时候如果你团队真的很小,可以试着找一个能做分析的增长 PM,找到那种全能型人才。我甚至建议,在招聘增长 PM、招聘分析师之前,就先把分析师招了。因为如果没有数据洞察,没有扎实的基础,你的实验和努力在某种意义上是毫无方向的。
所以:增长 PM、分析师。在此基础上你肯定还需要专职的工程师,还需要设计师。设计师在早期阶段可以不用全职,但工程师必须是专职的。还需要一些用户研究方面的支持,同样不需要是专职的。但这些就是核心的增长小组的构成。
增长 PM 应该内部转岗还是外部招聘
Lenny: 好的。关于增长 PM,这真的是最后一个问题了。根据你的经验,他们更多是从公司内部转过来的,还是你建议从外部找人?
Hila Qu: 这个问题非常好。两种情况我都见过。我其实倾向于,如果能在内部找到合适的人选最好——也许他本身是个 PM,想做增长;或者他是个分析师,想往更偏产品的角色发展。
我甚至有一个客户,跟我合作的增长负责人以前是做投资者关系的,是投资者关系负责人,向 CEO 兼创始人汇报。他分析能力非常强,之前没有做过 PM,但他能在公司内部协调资源,在产品、营销等各个领域推进实验。而我作为顾问,会在我到他不太熟悉的领域给予指导。我们实际上合作取得了相当不错的结果。
所以我倾向于尽可能内部选拔。如果实在不行,内部确实没有具备相关知识或兴趣的人,那可以向外寻找。我建议根据你的起点来匹配增长 PM 的招聘方向。如果我们已经确定激活是最大的重点领域,就去找有这方面经验的增长 PM。如果转化率或获客是重点领域,就去找有相关经验的人。
Lenny: 这个建议太好了。
闪电问答
我们来到了非常精彩的闪电问答环节。我实际上为你准备了七个问题,是节目历史上闪电问答环节最多的一次。准备好了吗?
Hila Qu: 准备好了。
Lenny: 好。你推荐最多的两三本书是什么?
Hila Qu: 第一本叫 The Almanack of Naval。不知道你读过没有,我非常喜欢这本书,对我来说是一本改变人生的书。我有——
Lenny: 你有没有最喜欢的 Naval 名言浮现在脑海里?
Hila Qu: 我从他那里学到了寻找杠杆。他谈到杠杆有四种类型:你的写作、代码、资本和团队。所以我之所以在写作上投入很多,就是因为我感觉那就是我的杠杆。我很喜欢这个理念。
第二本书叫 How Women Rise。我非常喜欢这本书。我把它送给了很多女性团队成员,也从中学到了很多。
第三本是我的书,叫《增长黑客》。只有中文版,如果你不会读中文就看不来了。不过我听朋友说,如果你在发起邮件营销活动、做实验的时候,把这本书放在手边,光凭它的出现就能提升转化率。
Lenny: 太厉害了。有英文翻译版吗,还是只有中文版?
Hila Qu: 只有中文版,所以你得学中文。
Lenny: 好吧,明白了。看来会说中文还有这个好处,你的邮件转化率会提高。
Hila Qu: 是的。
Lenny: 回到第一本书,叫 The Almanack of Naval,对吧?
Hila Qu: 对。
Lenny: 好的,很棒。我们会在节目笔记里附上所有链接。下一个问题,最近最喜欢的电影或电视剧?
Hila Qu: 我看了一部电影,是一部中国的科幻电影,叫《流浪地球 2》。作者是著名的刘慈欣,他是《三体》的作者。不知道你听说过没有?
Lenny: 嗯,天哪,我超喜欢。
Hila Qu: 那部电影太棒了,真的很酷,我强烈推荐。
Lenny: 我得去看看。天哪,我听说他们要把《三体》搬到 Apple TV 或 Netflix 上,好像要出剧集了。
Hila Qu: 对对,我也很期待。我已经看过很多版本的电影改编了,没有一个是好的。所以——
Lenny: 这就是问题所在,太难拍好了。唉,我不太乐观,但还是挺期待的。
Hila Qu: 是的。
Lenny: 你最喜欢在面试中问什么问题?
Hila Qu: 当我面试增长 PM 或分析师的时候,我总是会问:“你做过的一个结果非常出乎意料的实验是什么?你之后做了什么?”
Lenny: 你在回答中寻找什么,让你觉得这个人很强?
Hila Qu: 首先,他们必须做过大量实验才能得到非常出乎意料的结果。如果你只是……很多人在面试时记住的都是自己的成功案例,他们准备得非常好。我不想问”你最成功的实验是什么”。
其次,我想知道为什么这个结果出乎意料。这能揭示他们思考的深度。如果根据他们的描述,这个结果本应该是可以预期的,那说明他们思考得不够深,对客户理解得不够深。
然后他们之后做了什么也很关键。比如:“你如何面对失败或意外的结果?你能追踪哪些线索?你能采取什么行动?你从中能学到什么?”
Lenny: 很喜欢。你最近发现的、非常喜欢的产品是什么?
Hila Qu: 我觉得跟大家一样,ChatGPT。另外还有 Lululemon 的瑜伽裤。
Lenny: 太棒了。下一个问题。你在产品开发流程中做了什么相对较小的改变,却对团队的执行力产生了巨大的影响?
Hila Qu: 我在文档、在工单模板里加了一个板块。要求 PM 事先写清楚成功指标,同时还要标注这个任务在帮助哪个增长杠杆——是获客、激活、留存还是变现?这迫使他们有时候去深入思考”我们到底为什么要做这件事”。有时候他们写完之后反而决定不做了。
Lenny: 很好。下一个问题。我知道你很喜欢儿童读物,有没有最喜欢的儿童书?
Hila Qu: 我最喜欢的儿童书叫 Someday,推荐大家去看看。它讲的是我们的孩子曾经是我们的婴儿,然后长成小孩,当他们比我们更高、比我们更强壮的时候,他们会记得我们。
Lenny: 我现在得去找来看看。最后一个问题。我知道你对增长概念很着迷,有各种各样的框架和概念。你最喜欢的增长概念是什么?
Hila Qu: 我会说是北极星指标,因为我发现它不仅对增长有价值,对一切都很有价值。
Hila Qu: 当我思考职业方向时,我会问自己:这是否符合我个人的北极星指标?当我思考如何养育孩子时,我会想:对我孩子来说,成功的教育的北极星指标是什么?因为它迫使我进行长期思考,迫使我思考什么对我和他们才是真正有价值的,而不仅仅是按社会的标准——ARR、收入、薪水。也让我思考我对自己的愿景是什么,对我孩子的愿景是什么。
Lenny: 我很喜欢这个说法。这让我想起最近一位嘉宾,她总是会问:“你在优化什么?“不管是在跟孩子、丈夫还是团队对话时,她都会问这个问题,概念很类似。Hila,这次对话太棒了。我觉得我们分享了价值数万美元的内容,可能会为很多公司带来数百万美元的收入。这就是我所期望的一切。非常感谢你来这里,分享了这么多智慧。最后两个问题。如果大家想联系你、了解更多,可以在哪里找到你?听众可以怎么帮到你?
Hila Qu: 大家可以在 LinkedIn 上找到我,搜索 Hila Qu,H-I-L-A Q-U 就能找到。我有一个个人网站正在开发中,不过我把这个活外包给了我 12 岁的孩子,所以得等到夏天,希望今年夏天他能搞定。如果你是创始人,正在寻找增长顾问,随时联系我。我一直很乐意跟创始人和领导者通电话,认识更多人。而且我是个增长极客,所以我总是想聊增长相关的话题。
Lenny: 太棒了。Hila,再次感谢你来这里。
Hila Qu: 谢谢。
Lenny: 大家再见。
Hila Qu: 再见。
Lenny: 非常感谢大家的收听。如果你觉得这期节目有价值,可以在 Apple Podcast、Spotify 或你喜欢的播客应用上订阅。也请考虑给我们评分或留下评论,这真的能帮助其他听众发现这个播客。你可以在 lennyspodcast.com 找到所有往期节目或了解更多关于这个节目的信息。下期再见。
术语表
| 原文 | 中文 |
|---|---|
| activation | 激活(activation) |
| aha moment | 啊哈时刻(用户首次体验到产品核心价值的瞬间) |
| book demo | 预约演示(book demo) |
| Calendly | Calendly(产品名) |
| causation | 因果关系 |
| CI/CD | CI/CD(持续集成/持续交付) |
| correlation analysis | 相关性分析 |
| Crystal Widjaja | Crystal Widjaja(人名,首次出现) |
| CTA (Call to Action) | 行动号召按钮(CTA) |
| customer 360 database | 客户 360 数据库(customer 360 database) |
| data dictionary | 数据字典 |
| data enrichment tool | 数据增强工具 |
| data hub | 数据中枢(data hub) |
| data warehouse | 数据仓库 |
| DevOps | DevOps |
| DLG (Data-Led Growth) | 数据驱动增长 |
| drop off | 流失/放弃 |
| ETL | ETL(提取、转换、加载) |
| full funnel audit | 全漏斗审计 |
| funnel | 漏斗 |
| growth nerd | 增长极客 |
| habit | 习惯 |
| high value action | 高价值动作 |
| Hila Qu | Hila Qu(人名,首次出现) |
| ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) | 理想客户画像(ICP) |
| instrumentation | 埋点 |
| IRA (Individual Retirement Account) | 个人退休账户(IRA) |
| Lauryn Isford | Lauryn Isford(人名,首次出现) |
| Lenny | Lenny(人名,首次出现) |
| leverage | 杠杆 |
| lifecycle marketing tool | 生命周期营销工具 |
| localized | 本地化 |
| low hanging fruit | 低垂果实 |
| LTV (Lifetime Value) | 客户终身价值(LTV) |
| messy middle | 混乱的中间地带 |
| Miro | Miro(产品名) |
| MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) | 营销合格线索(MQL) |
| north star metric | 北极星指标 |
| payment solution | 支付方案 |
| pipeline | pipeline(此处指 CI/CD 流水线) |
| PLG (Product-Led Growth) | 产品驱动增长 |
| PLG motion | PLG 模式 |
| PLG purist | PLG 纯粹主义者 |
| PQA (Product Qualified Account) | 产品合格账户(PQA) |
| PQL (Product Qualified Lead) | 产品合格线索(PQL) |
| product analytics | 产品分析(product analytics) |
| product qualified lead | 产品合格线索 |
| product-led acquisition | 产品驱动获客 |
| product-led sales | 产品驱动的销售 |
| proof of concept | 概念验证(proof of concept) |
| Ravi | Ravi(人名,首次出现) |
| recurring investment | 定投(recurring investment) |
| retention | 留存率 |
| retention expansion | 留存率扩展 |
| ROI (Return on Investment) | 投资回报(ROI) |
| roundup investment | 零钱投资(roundup investment) |
| sales motion | 销售模式 |
| seat | 席位 |
| self-checkout flow | 自助结账流程 |
| SLG (Sales-Led Growth) | 销售驱动增长(SLG) |
| SMB (Small and Medium Business) | SMB(中小企业) |
| time to value | 价值实现时间 |
| warm start | 热启动 |
| white glove service | 白手套服务(指高端定制化服务) |
此文档由 AI 分片翻译(translate_long_document)