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WTH is Product-led growth? | Occam's Razor | Create mind-maps with ChatGPT

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Table of Contents

  1. Curated Careers

  2. Trends and Tidbits:

    • WTH is Product-led growth?

    • Occam’s Razor

  3. AI Arena:

    • How to create mind-maps with ChatGPT

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💎 Trendy Tidbits 💎

WTH is a PLG? Product-led growth —

➡️ Product-led Growth is basically a strategy where the product itself is the main driver of customer acquisition, expansion, and retention.

Otherwise, which is marketing or sales.

Here — the product drives growth. It’s like having a self-selling product.

So, imagine this:

You're checking out Slack or Zoom for the first time — they’re super user-friendly right off the bat. It's so easy, you could almost do it in your sleep! You can jump in and start using them with practically no learning curve.

Now, that's by design, not by accident.

Both Slack and Zoom are built to show off their value instantly.

You don't need someone from sales to walk you through how great they are. You see it for yourself the moment you start using them.

But here's where the magic of PLG really kicks in…

Magic Penguin GIF by Pudgy Penguins

Because your experience is so smooth and the benefits so clear, you naturally want to keep using them. And not just you — you're likely to invite coworkers or friends to join in.

Having your co-workers joined — the product becomes even more useful and valuable to you due to network effects.

This kind of organic spread, where users not only love the product but also become its biggest advocates, is the heart of what makes PLG so powerful. It's like your users turn into mini-marketers, all without a marketing degree!

Example: Dropbox.

When you sign up, they offer you free storage space.

You easily run out of free storage though.

GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants

But hey, don’t worry, you can get more free space — if you get your friends to sign up. Your friend signs up, you get more storage and you store more files.

Now that you have more files — you have invested your time and resources on the platform, giving you one more reason to stick with it (retention).

🔑 The key here is that with PLG, the product is made to be so good that users not only stick around but also naturally become promoters of the product.

Why is it good for business?

  • Costs: Less money to be spent on traditional marketing and sales.

  • Growth: Happy users share the product, helping it spread quickly.

  • Retention: Users love the product → they stick around → less churn.

What are some important metrics to monitor?

  • PQLs (Product-Qualified Leads)

    Users who have shown buying intent based on their engagement with the product (ex - reached a usage milestone).

    For example: In a project management app, a user who has used the trial version to manage three separate projects shows potential interest in upgrading. This qualifies them as a PQL.


  • Activation rate

    The percentage of users who reach a key moment of realization of the product’s value ("aha moment").

    For example: If an educational app's key feature is a personalized learning plan, and 200 out of 500 new users create such a plan within the first three days — the activation rate is 40%.


  • TTV (Time to value)

    The duration between a new user starting to use the product and the moment they first gain significant value from it.

    For example: A user signs up for a streaming service and finds and watches their first movie within 2 hours. The TTV for this service is 2 hours.


  • CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) & CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

    Understanding these financial metrics helps in understanding the efficiency of the PLG approach.

In other thoughts…

Occam’s Razor 🪒

First of all — WTH is a Razor?

A Razor, in this context, is a principle or rule of thumb that allows one to eliminate (or "shave off") unlikely explanations or unnecessary elements — making your decisions easier. The term "razor" comes from the notion of shaving away complexities to reveal the simplest underlying explanation.

What’s an example?

Well, the most famous one is Occam's Razor.

Occam’s Razor suggests that when faced with competing hypotheses about the same prediction, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions.

Which One Reaction GIF by Audible

In other words, the answer that requires the fewest assumptions is generally the correct one.

Think of this situation: Over the past month, you’ve noticed a steady decline in sales at your coffee shop. Oh, assume you run one.

cat cafe GIF

What could be some possible reasons?

  • A new coffee shop has opened with better coffee and prices, pulling away your customers.

OR

  • There have been sudden changes in the local economy:

    • Perhaps people now have less disposable income or

    • There are new regulations decreasing the foot traffic.

OR

  • Perhaps the decline is due to internal issues. For instance, a recently hired barista might be undertrained. Because of that — you have slower service and frustrated customers.

Mayim Bialik Coffee GIF by FOX TV

The first two sound… umm… a little fancy. Probably, something you are more attracted towards because of its complexity. But, these explanations require assumptions that are hard to immediately validate without research or data.

While, the third explanation is more straightforward to verify. You can observe your staff, gather feedback directly from customers, and review service times.

This approach aligns with Occam's Razor: it makes the fewest assumptions and relies on evidence that is easiest to obtain.

Why does this matter?

Well, if you start with the simplest explanation (in this case, internal issues) —you focus on factors within your control and can quickly implement changes. If service improvements don't lead to better sales, then it might be time to explore the more complex scenarios involving competition or economic factors.

Not to misinterpret — Occam's Razor isn't just about choosing the simplest path. It's about efficient problem-solving and resource management.

🤖 AI Arena 🤖

Create a mindmap with ChatGPT in 3 steps

1) Go to ChatGPT and ask it to create an online in a Markdown format by giving it an already existing piece of content or asking it to create from scratch. You can use this prompt: “Create a markdown outline for a mindmap about [Topic] by listing down topics and sub-topics".

For example, I did: “Create a markdown outline for a mindmap about SEO by listing down topics and sub-topics" and here’s what I got.

2) Now go to MarkMap and paste the output from ChatGPT.

Here’s what I got.

There… you got it. In less than a minute! 🙂 

Thanks,
Deep Kakkad, your marketer friend.

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