Product Led Growth Maturity Grader

Welcome to OpenView’s Product Led Growth Maturity Grader. The overall goal of this tool is to give you a quick idea of how far along your organization is on the PLG maturity spectrum. As you answer these 10 questions, we’ll adjust your Maturity Score and give you advice on how to improve in real-time. After you complete the Grader, we’ll show your final score and give you access to a 50+ question version of this assessment to help you dig deeper on your PLG strategy.

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Does your product and sales process address a specific and common pain point for an individual user (example: submitting expenses is hard, so I use Expensify), or more for a common pain point that an organization would feel (example: I need to keep track of employee time off, so I use Bamboo HR)?

We focus on solving for user pain We focus on solving for broad organization pain

PLG Coaching Note

Many SaaS companies are awesome at solving organization-level pain points, but they fail in seeing adoption or delivering value with the individual user. We’ve observed the rise of the individual user as a powerful champion for evangelizing new technologies before a buyer will actually purchase an organization-wide license. Not convinced? Here’s a primer about what’s happening in the market and how to build a software company that puts the <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/its-a-rough-time-to-be-a-startup-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">end user first</a>.

If you were to add a new paid feature or product in the next 3 months, would you be more likely to:

Build a self-serve workflow (where customers can purchase and configure it on their own) Lean on customer-facing staff to sell and configure this new product or feature

PLG Coaching Note

A fully self-service model might not work for all companies, especially those with complex products that require configuration. But that shouldn’t stop you from adopting a self-service mindset for new features! Self-service reduces the friction for your customers to adopt and purchase, which amplifies your sales team and fuels faster in-account growth.

Can a prospective customer visit your website and purchase your product or get into a trial version without assistance from an employee at your company?

Yes No

PLG Coaching Note

You noted that you don’t have a way for prospective users to try your product before they buy. According to our <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/the-state-of-product-led-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of Product Led Growth</a> survey, that puts you in the minority (58% of respondents said that they offer a free version of their software). Freemium and free trial offerings help end users fall in love with your product before they need to engage with a human.

Does your organization perform growth experiments?

Yes No

PLG Coaching Note

If you’re not running growth experiments, chances are you’re missing out on many important learnings about your product and your users. You’re likely wasting precious sales and marketing dollars by letting prospective customers drop out of your funnel. Product led companies need growth teams to drive these initiatives forward. If your growth team is still in its infancy, <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/growth-what-does-this-role-actually-mean/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">learn more about how to hire for the role</a>, as the definitions and skill sets required are continuously changing.

Does your team capture product usage data by user?

Yes No

PLG Coaching Note

Only 21% of SaaS companies we surveyed say that they’re not tracking user-based product data today. In-product activity is a stepping stone to understanding leading indicators of churn, running growth experiments and improving your product. While qualitative feedback is always valuable, <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/3-steps-to-choosing-your-next-product-build/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">great product managers turn to user analytics first</a> when deciding what to build next.

What activities does your product team perform in order to inform and make roadmap decisions? Choose as many as you see fit.

The product team builds new features and products based on product usage data The product team spends time optimizing existing features and products based on product usage data The product team performs surveys of prospects in order to make product decisions The product team performs surveys of existing users in order to make product decisions The product team revisits product usage data regularly in order to define whether or not a product is successful The product team reaches out to a handful of existing users to gather feedback on new products or features they are thinking about The product team reaches out to a handful of prospects to gather feedback on new products or features they are thinking about None of these things

PLG Coaching Note

It may feel like you have a million inputs to your roadmap as a product owner. The best PLG companies root their decision making in a thorough understanding of how customers interact with the product. It can be challenging to separate the signal (example: what are people actually doing) from the noise (example: what your sales team says prospects want to do), but that radical focus is required to get your product to the next level of growth.

At what point do users pay for an upgrade or additional use of your product?

Before they can begin to use it Before they can actually use it productively When they want to add more users When they want to add advanced features

PLG Coaching Note

Pricing is one of the most powerful growth levers for any SaaS business. In fact, <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two-in-five companies</a> that altered pricing reported a 25% or higher increase in ARR as a result. The top PLG companies <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/how-to-build-your-product-for-viral-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remove pricing barriers</a> that might impact a user’s ability to get started in a product. Paywalls should only come after the user has activated in order to unlock more advanced features or add more users in their account.

Have you defined the point in which a product user sees value? This is commonly referred to as “user activation” and this data is leveraged to surface “product qualified leads” to the sales team (examples include Spotify’s time spent per session or Jira’s invitation for a new user and creating 3+ issues within the first week of usage). Does your organization have a definition of a ‘product qualified lead’ or a metric that illustrates that a user has seen value in the product?

Yes No

PLG Coaching Note

If you’re not tracking user activation metrics, don’t worry. This is still very advanced in terms of PLG maturity. According to our most recent survey, <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/the-state-of-product-led-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">only 44% of companies</a> do this well. Interested in learning more about how to identify and track activation indicators? <a href="https://ryangum.com/chamath-palihapitiya-how-we-put-facebook-on-the-path-to-1-billion-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook can teach you a thing or two</a>.

Does your support team have a self-serve option, like an online knowledge hub or articles with answers to frequently asked questions?

Yes No

PLG Coaching Note

<a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/creating-self-service-customer-success-that-works-for-everyone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Self-serve customer support</a> can work for all organization sizes. A great self-service support model not only helps all of your customers fall in love with your product (day or night), but also helps your product grow on a logarithmic scale rather than a linear one.

Do you know how often this self-service option leads to a no-touch resolution?

Yes No

PLG Coaching Note

It’s important to track how often customers are finding the answers they’re looking for without direct assistance. Why? Helping customers find answers to their questions quickly and efficiently reduces friction and keeps users engaged. Taking the time to set up a self-serve knowledge hub or FAQs will greatly increase customer happiness.

50%

Consider Yourself a PLG Master

Wow, look at that score! You’re leading the pack and walk the walk when it comes to Product Led Growth. PLG companies grow faster and more efficiently than their peers, check out the data we’ve collected <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. For an even better understanding of where you are in your PLG journey and ideas on what comes next, fill out the form below to get access to our in-depth assessment.

Almost There

You’re well on your way to becoming a PLG organization. Why is that awesome? Our data shows product-led companies grow faster and more efficiently than their peers. See for yourself in our <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 survey of over 400 SaaS companies</a>. For an even better understanding of where you are in your PLG journey and ideas on what comes next, fill out the form below to get access to our in-depth assessment.

Let's Get Back to Basics

You have received a novice score. Be honest, have you answered whether your product is right for product led growth? If not, you can do so <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/blog/is-your-product-right-for-product-led-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. If the answer is yes, it’s time to get serious about leveraging product led strategies across acquisition, retention and expansion. Why? Our data shows product led companies grow faster and more efficiently than their peers. See for yourself in our <a href="https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 survey of over 400 SaaS companies</a>. Fill out the form below to get access to our in-depth assessment that will show you where you can improve in your PLG journey.

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Product Led Growth<br> Maturity Grader

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