The Product-Led Growth Challenge

Developing a product is hard. Delivering it efficiently to many customer segments is an ongoing challenge. It is one thing trying to increase a customer base and another retaining it for the long run.

Finding the optimal point that will make customers keep coming back for more, is a rather complicated task. Especially when we refer to B2B solutions applying to a range of personas and industries.

For a while now, the emerging Product-Led Growth practices, having as panacea products’ superpowers raise the one million dollars question: What defines customer experience?

While optimized product delivery comes first into mind, the challenges following product-led transformation are far greater.

Product-Led Growth Challenge 1: The Dominance of IT Consumerization

The surge to deliver flawless product experiences in B2B is rising. This occurs by the major challenge IT consumerization brings on the table. The frictionless, seamless experience B2C solutions provide is now expected in B2B too.

That shift in the customer acquisition process elevates the product as the primary growth driver. A fact that disrupts the ever-changing SaaS landscape once again.Is not enough anymore for a product to deliver. Product features, should onboard users and sustain engagement levels. Even beyond that first experience, Product-Led organizations retain and expand their user base by exploiting product features. While keeping retention and support costs low.

On the other side of the spectrum, inconsistencies in GTM practices, limited experimentation, and infinite handholding still have their fair share across the SaaS industry. The more organizations deny to optimize product experience, the harder it will become for them to drive accounts towards retention and expansion.

Product-Led Growth Challenge 2: The Rise of the Customer

The abandonment of long term contracts has liberated customers. The subscription economy enables them to make up to 12 buying decisions within a year. If we add on that:

The reduced switching costs Fierce competition and the strength of customers’ voice on social mediums

We have the rise of an era where a sole user can hold all the cards under his sleeve. This shift has raised customer expectations. Any product is now supposed to enable them to grow while offering a stellar experience at the same time.

Products’ complexity and their delivery across an array of devices make things worse. Context, of usage, is no longer optional. Quite the opposite. It is the one ingredient that should follow a Product-Led Growth strategy. Its absence can be detrimental to any SaaS offering. An effect that becomes stronger in case a systemic process delivering personalized and tailored experiences is not in place.

Product-Led Growth Challenge 3: The Abandonment of Silos

Getting rid of silos’ domination is the first step organizations’ should take when striving to deliver a Product-Led Growth Strategy. Customer-facing teams along with Product Management need common metrics when evaluating product experience.

Only the employment of a unified agenda and alignment across departments will bring clarity and optimize product delivery across the board. In the opposite scenario, confusion, misalignment, and decreased ROI will prevail.

Product-Led Growth Challenge 4: The Emerging Role of Product Management

Product Management is also changing face. Gut feelings are not supposed to lead any more product management decisions. Not when a Product-Led Growth agenda is in place anyway.

Product leaders, have to evolve into data-driven experimenters. Experimenters relying both on qualitative and quantitative results. This shift will enable them to get internal buy-in from internal stakeholders and come closer to customers’ needs. The ongoing monitoring of passive feedback, user research, and investment in data will help them better understand the context of usage.

Continuous Investment in a customer-centric approach enables the delivery of optimized experiences. While at the same time Product Management is able to build features compatible with products’ vision and customers’ needs.