In episode 741, Rob Walling talks to Wes Bush, CEO and Founder of ProductLed, about the nuances and misconceptions of product-led growth. Wes debunks common myths and explains how companies can leverage their product to drive user acquisition, engagement, and growth. They dive into a real-world example and explore how founders can avoid the trap of thinking the product will “sell itself” while contrasting PLG and sales-led strategies.

Episode Sponsor:

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Topics we cover: 

• (2:01) – Defining product-led growth
• (6:07) – Are users able to get value for free?
• (11:38) – Hybrid: both product-led and sales-led
• (14:52) – Determining the main outcome of your free model
• (19:23) – Misuse of the PLG terminology
• (22:00) – The benefits of PLG over sales-led growth
• (24:08) – Workshopping SavvyCal’s product-led strategy

Links from the Show:

• Mastermind Applications are open until December 4th
• Wes Bush (@wes_bush) | X
• ProductLed (@productled) | X
• ProductLed
• Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself by Wes Bush
• The Product-Led Playbook: How to Unlock Self-Serve Revenue and Dominate Your Market (With a Tiny Team) by Wes Bush
• Free Audiobook of The Product-Led Playbook
• Product-Led Onboarding by Ramli John
• TinySeed
• SparkToro
• SavvyCal

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify

In today’s episode, Melissa pulls back the curtain on what product strategy really is (and isn’t), how to scale high-performing teams without losing focus, and the biggest mistakes PMs make when balancing user needs and business goals.

This is a masterclass for PMs at every stage who want to excel at rethinking roadmaps, avoiding execution traps, and building products that drive measurable outcomes — not just features.

Agenda:

Are You Stuck in the “Build Trap”? Here’s What It Means — 00:00:14

Founder Mode: Why It’s a Double-Edged Sword — 00:07:58

The Science Behind Crafting a Winning Strategy — 00:13:17

Company vs. Product Strategy: What Most PMs Get Wrong — 00:21:34

What Really Defines Product Strategy? — 00:29:34

The 5 Layers of Strategy Every PM Must Master — 00:33:18

Empowering Teams: The Secret to Unlocking Their Full Potential — 00:39:26

From Tactical to Strategic: A Roadmap for Junior PMs — 00:48:11

How to Create Game-Changing Initiative Lists as a PM — 01:02:41

Why PMs Are Losing Their Seats at the Figma Table — 01:09:36

Prioritization Perfected: Mastering the Cost of Delay Concept — 01:18:29

The Untold Truths About Product Operations — 01:23:22

Scaling Up? Beware of These Common Team Mistakes — 01:32:15

“Product Kata”: The Iterative Framework That Drives Success — 01:35:59

Keeping Up With the Rapid Evolution of Product Management — 01:43:41

How to Land Your Dream PM Job: Proven Advice That Works — 01:52:23

Behind the Curtain: A Business Breakdown You Need to Hear — 02:02:59

Brought to you by:

Enterpret: Transform customer feedback into product growth with custom AI

Anvil : The fastest way to build software for automating documents

Dovetail: The Fastest Way to Understand Your Customer

Where to find Melissa:

LinkedIn

Online training & course

Website

To advertise in the podcast, email productgrowthppp at gmail dot com.

We have some great podcasts coming from Colin Lernell, Andrew Capland, and Ramli John. I’m so excited to share them with all of you.

Get full access to Product Growth at www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe

Product onboarding remains a critical component in the journey from product discovery to full adoption. It’s not just about introducing your users to your product but ensuring they derive real value from it.

In this episode, Hannah Clark is joined by Ramli John—Founder of Delight Path Product Onboarding Consulting Firm & Author of Product-Led Onboarding—to uncover actionable insights for optimizing user activation and retention through effective onboarding strategies.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Check out this episode’s sponsor: Wix Studio
• Connect with Ramli on LinkedIn
• Check out Delight Path
• Product-Led Onboarding: How to Turn Users Into Lifelong Customers
• Ramli John’s New Book — EUREKA: The Customer Onboarding Playbook for High-Growth B2B Companies

If you’re building a racecar, friction is bad news. But when you’re building an onboarding experience for your software product, things are a little more nuanced.

This week, we’re dialing into why the pervasive push for a frictionless user experience in your product onboarding isn’t just overrated—it might be undermining your growth potential.

At some point, SaaS founders and product managers started taking for granted that friction in the user journey was always a bad thing. But that so-called “best practice” isn’t always the best because it doesn’t account for your potential customer’s context. And as we know, context is everything when it comes to their decision-making process.

In fact, your customers often *need* friction to convince them to keep using your product.

How can you tell good friction from bad to make sure your users get to key moments of value, educate your potential customers, and unveil what really matters to them?

On this episode of the Forget the Funnel podcast, Ramli John shares why “remove all friction” is a best practice we should forget. Georgiana and Claire also share why friction gets a bad rap, when to add it in or remove it, and how customer insight unlocks how to add profitable friction for your SaaS.

Discussed:

• Why “remove all friction from your product onboarding” became a best practice and why it’s not actually helpful advice.
• The difference between unnecessary friction and useful friction and how good friction can help users keep going in your product, including real-life examples.
• Why customer intel is essential to getting new users to moments of value when you’re adding and removing friction.

Key moments:

1:56 – Ramli John shares his favorite flawed best practice: “You have to remove all friction from the user journey.” This advice isn’t universal — friction can be helpful and add value to the user experience.

5:31 – Georgiana and Claire second Ramli’s take and break down what friction is, why it gets a bad rap, and why it shouldn’t (at least, not always).

8:29 – Claire describes “Exhibit A” of unnecessary friction: a lengthy demo form where sales don’t actually use all the information gathered. The questions may be intended to create a better experience, but it’s a chore to fill out — and the friction’s unhelpful.

11:47 – Georgiana walks through examples of products where friction is good, like Canva’s approach to catering the product experience and Wave asking for the user’s logo to show what an invoice would look like.

15:26 – Sometimes “

• Follow Georgiana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgianalaudi/
  
• Read the uber-practical Forget The Funnel book: https://forgetthefunnel.com/customer-led-growth/book
  
• Check out Forget the Funnel’s website: https://forgetthefunnel.com/
  
• Get the free Forget the Funnel workbook to help you implement Customer-Led Growth: https://forgetthefunnel.com/workbook

Previous Episodes

• How Customer Blind Spots are Costing Your Team & How to Fix Them on Apple Podcasts
  
• Avoiding Common Customer Research Traps (and What Good Research Looks Like) on Apple Podcasts