Product Growth Report

PLG Checklist: The Phase-by-Phase Implementation Guide

Most product-led growth launches fail because teams try to fix everything at once. This checklist gives you the sequence: Foundation (instrument and baseline), Activation (get users to value), Conversion (turn users into customers). Move to the next phase when you hit exit criteria, not when the calendar says so.

Phase 1: Foundation

Get instrumentation in place and establish baselines before optimizing anything.

Analytics & Instrumentation
  • Track these 5 events minimum If you can't measure it, you can't improve it:
    • - Signup started/completed
    • - Each onboarding step (with drop-off)
    • - Aha moment action (the one that predicts retention)
    • - Invite sent/accepted
    • - Upgrade clicked/completed
  • Record sessions on your worst funnel step Find your biggest drop-off, then watch 10 users fail there
  • Pick 3 metrics, ignore the rest for now Activation rate, Day 7 retention, conversion rate. More metrics = more confusion
  • Name events so a new hire understands them object_action format: user_signed_up, feature_used, invite_sent. No abbreviations
Find Your Aha Moment
  • Write down what you think the aha moment is (The Aha Moment) Then set it aside. The data will probably prove you wrong
  • Split users: retained vs churned at Day 30 You need both groups to find what separates them
  • Find the action with 2x+ retention lift Compare: users who did X vs users who didn't. Look for the biggest gap
  • Ask 5 retained users: "What almost made you quit?" The moment before they stayed is more revealing than why they stayed
  • Fill in this sentence "Users who [action] within [days] retain at [X]% vs [Y]%"
Baseline Your Metrics
  • Know your activation rate today (Benchmarks) % reaching aha moment. Below 20% = activation problem. Above 40% = focus elsewhere
  • Know your Day 7 retention today (Benchmarks) % returning after one week. Below 25% = value problem. Above 35% = solid
  • Know your conversion rate today (Freemium, Benchmarks) Freemium: 2-5% is normal. Free trial: 15-25% is normal
  • Race your own signup with a stopwatch (Time to Value) Fresh email, timer running. Write down the number. That's your TTV
Find Your Biggest Leaks
  • Find your worst onboarding step The one with the biggest drop-off. That's where you start
  • Watch 10 users fail at that step Session recordings. Note what they try before giving up
  • Screenshot every blank screen a new user sees (Empty State Design) Empty states kill activation. Count them
  • Name your #1 friction point Not top 3. Pick one. You'll fix that one first
Collect Feedback Early
  • Add one in-app feedback trigger After first value moment: "How's it going so far?" Simple thumbs up/down
  • Send NPS at Day 14, not Day 1 Too early and users haven't formed an opinion. Too late and churned users are gone
  • Read every support ticket from the last 30 days Patterns in tickets reveal friction you can't see in analytics
  • Ask one open-ended question monthly "What almost made you quit?" or "What's the hardest part?" Rotate the question
Align Your Team on Product-Led Growth
  • Define the handoff between product and sales At what signal does sales engage? Write it down. Make sure both teams agree
  • Share activation metrics weekly with the whole team Not just product. Sales, CS, and marketing need to see the funnel
  • Train CS to recognize expansion signals They talk to users daily. They should know what a PQL looks like
  • Kill one metric that doesn't matter If you track 20 metrics, no one focuses. Pick 3-5 that actually drive decisions

Phase 2: Activation

Get more users to your aha moment faster. This is where 40-60% of product-led growth signups are lost.

Reduce Time to Value
  • Count your signup fields, then cut one Every field drops conversion ~10%. Can you defer it to after first value?
  • Remove email verification before value Verify after users see value, not before. Test this week
  • List everything you ask before the aha moment (Quick Win Architecture) Profile, preferences, integrations. Move each one to after first value
  • Kill one blank screen with sample data (Interactive Sandbox) Show a working example instead of "Add your first..."
  • Get TTV under 5 minutes or know why you can't If it's legitimately impossible, document why. If it's just hard, do it anyway
Fix Empty States
  • Find every "No data yet" message and rewrite it Add what to do and why: "Add your first project to start tracking time"
  • Add one template to your most-seen blank screen A working example users can clone. Measure if activation improves
  • Remove choices from your first screen One obvious button, not three options. Decisions kill momentum
  • Watch a user who churned in 24 hours Where did they stop? That empty state is your biggest leak
Build Onboarding Flow
  • Show users how close they are to value (Time to Value) Progress bar or checklist. 3-5 steps max
  • Remove "skip" and "later" buttons Test guided flow vs optional. Guided usually wins
  • Ask one question that changes the path (Personalized Onboarding) Only if the answer actually changes what users see. Otherwise don't ask
  • Show tooltips one at a time, not all at once (Progressive Disclosure) Trigger on relevant action, not on page load
Set Up Re-engagement
  • Send 3-5 emails in the first week (Aha Moment) Each one should help users reach the aha moment, not list features
  • Email users who signed up but didn't activate Day 3: "Still there?" Day 7: "Here's what you're missing"
  • Trigger notifications on teammate activity "Sarah commented on your doc" pulls users back. Generic reminders don't
Run Experiments
  • Remove one signup field and measure completion Pick the field you're least sure you need. See what happens
  • Add a checklist and measure activation 3-5 steps to value. Compare activation rate before/after
  • Send welcome email at 1 hour vs 24 hours Test which timing gets more users to activate
  • Run at least 2 experiments this month Top teams run 10+/month. Start somewhere. Velocity beats perfection
Speed & Performance
  • Measure time to interactive on signup page Every 1 second delay costs ~7% conversion. Target under 3 seconds
  • Test signup on a slow connection Chrome DevTools → Network → Slow 3G. If it's painful, fix it
  • Lazy-load everything below the fold First screen loads fast, rest loads as needed
  • Check your largest contentful paint (LCP) Google PageSpeed Insights. Under 2.5s is good, under 1.5s is great
Self-Serve Support
  • Answer your top 10 support questions in-app Tooltips, inline help, or a searchable help panel. Don't make users email you
  • Add a help search that actually works Test it yourself. Search for a common problem. Can you find the answer?
  • Link to help from every error message "Something went wrong" helps no one. "This failed because X. Here's how to fix it" does
  • Track which help articles get viewed most High-traffic articles reveal ongoing friction. Fix the product, not just the docs
Mobile Experience (If Applicable)
  • Complete your own signup flow on mobile Real phone, not browser emulator. Note every frustration
  • Check that tap targets are at least 44px Smaller buttons = missed taps = rage
  • Test on both iOS and Android Keyboard behavior, autofill, and scrolling differ. Test both
  • Compare mobile vs desktop activation rate If mobile is 50%+ lower, you have a mobile-specific problem to fix

Phase 3: Conversion

Turn activated users into paying customers. Only optimize conversion after activation is solid.

Design Upgrade Triggers
  • List every moment users want more (Smart Upgrade Triggers) These are your upgrade triggers:
    • - Usage limit reached (Slack's 90-day history)
    • - Teammate invited (collaboration proven)
    • - Premium feature clicked (intent signal)
  • Check that limits hit after the aha moment (Aha Moment) If users hit walls before value, you're killing conversion, not driving it
  • Move one upgrade prompt from generic to contextual Show it when users hit the limit, not in a sidebar they ignore
  • Test two different upgrade messages this month Value prop vs urgency vs social proof. See which converts
Implement Pricing Strategy
  • If you have more than 3 tiers, cut to 3 (PLG Pricing) Free, Pro, Enterprise. Confusion kills conversion
  • Sign up for 3 competitors and note their limits Where do they gate? What do they give away? Steal the best ideas
  • Know what % of new ARR comes from expansion (Usage-Based Pricing) Target: >40%. If yours is lower, your product isn't driving growth
  • Test reverse trial if premium creates dependency (Reverse Trial) Start on paid, downgrade after 14 days. Compare to standard trial
Build PQL Scoring (If You Have Sales)
  • Pull your last 50 conversions and find the pattern (PQLs & Product-Led Sales) What did they have in common before converting?
    • - Used core feature 5+ times
    • - Invited 2+ teammates
    • - Viewed pricing page 2+ times
    • - Hit a usage limit
  • Pick 3 signals and call it a PQL "3+ of these = sales reaches out." Start simple
  • Alert sales within 5 minutes of PQL trigger Slack ping or CRM task. Speed matters
  • Respond within 1 hour, not 24 53% conversion at 1 hour vs 37% at 24 hours
  • Track PQL-to-close rate weekly (Benchmarks) Target: 25-30%. Below that, your signals are wrong
Create Retention Loops
  • Show users what they accomplished this week (Habit Loops) Value summaries pull users back:
    • - "You saved 3 hours this week"
    • - "Alex commented on your project"
    • - "You've completed 100 tasks!"
  • Build a simple health score with 5 signals (Reducing Churn) Logins, feature usage, team size, support tickets, engagement. Weight them
  • Alert CS when health drops, not when users cancel By cancellation it's too late. Catch the warning signs
  • Email churned users at 30, 60, 90 days "Here's what's new since you left." Some will come back
Enable Expansion
  • Name your expansion lever: seats, usage, or features (Land and Expand) Pick the one that drives most growth. Focus there first
  • Find the signal that predicts expansion (PQLs) Approaching seat limit? Near usage cap? 5+ teammates invited? Build an alert
  • Identify your internal champions by behavior (Bottom-Up Adoption) Users who invited 5+ people are your expansion leads
  • Know what % of new ARR is expansion vs new logos (Benchmarks) Target: >40% from existing. Below that, you're not expanding
Test Pricing
  • Ask 10 users what they'd expect to pay (PLG Pricing) Before you set prices. The answer often surprises you
  • Test annual vs monthly default Which converts better? Which retains better? They're often different
  • Try a higher price on 10% of traffic If conversion barely drops, you're underpriced. If it tanks, you learned cheaply
  • Track willingness-to-pay by segment Enterprise pays more than SMB. Charge accordingly
Cancellation & Offboarding
  • Add an exit survey with 4-5 options (Reducing Churn) "Too expensive", "Missing feature", "Switched to competitor", "Not using enough", "Other"
  • Offer a downgrade path before cancel "Would you stay on a smaller plan?" Some will. That's retained revenue
  • Show what they'll lose before confirming "You'll lose 2 years of history and 5 integrations." Make the cost concrete
  • Make cancellation easy, not hostile Dark patterns create angry ex-customers who warn others. Let them go gracefully

Growth Loops

Build these after Phases 1-3. Once your core funnel works, add loops that compound growth.

Virality & Referrals
  • Calculate K: (invites per user) × (acceptance rate) (Two-Sided Referrals) K > 1 = viral. K < 0.5 = referrals aren't your growth lever
  • Give both sides something Referrer gets X, invitee gets Y. One-sided rewards underperform
  • Design one screen users want to screenshot (Achievement Sharing) Achievement, stat, or result worth sharing
  • Add your logo to every output that gets shared (Embedded Virality) Invoices, reports, exports, shared links. Free distribution
Content & Community
  • Let users share templates others can clone (UGC Loop) User-created content scales without your effort
  • Find your top 1% by usage and give them a direct line (Community-Led Growth) Recognition, early access, product input. They'll become evangelists
  • Build pages at scale: "[Template] for [Industry]" (Product-Led SEO) Programmatic SEO. Each page targets a long-tail keyword
Integrations & Ecosystem
  • Build the integration your users ask for most (Workflow Embedding) Survey or check support tickets. Where do they spend 80% of their time?
  • Compare retention: users with integrations vs without (Data Lock-In) 4+ integrations typically means 25-30% better retention
  • Only build a marketplace if you have 10K+ users (Marketplace Ecosystem) Below that, developers won't come. Build integrations yourself

Quick Reference: Key Benchmarks

MetricBenchmarkTop Quartile
Activation rate20-40%>40%
Day 7 retention25-35%>40%
Time to value<5 min<2 min
Freemium conversion2-5%5-10%
Free trial conversion (no CC)15-25%>25%
Net revenue retention100-120%>120%
PQL-to-customer25-30%>35%

See PLG Metrics for the complete benchmark reference.