PLG
Product-Led Growth
In one line
Product-led growth (PLG) is a model where the product itself drives acquisition, conversion and expansion — making it the default growth strategy for many modern SaaS businesses.
Going deeper
PLG flips the traditional model where sales and marketing drag users in. Instead, the product itself does the work of acquiring, converting and expanding — Slack, Notion, Figma and Canva are the canonical examples.
Three mechanisms make PLG work. A free tier or trial lowers the barrier to entry. The product gets users to an 'aha moment' quickly. Built-in collaboration creates natural team-level expansion. By the time sales gets involved, the buyer has already decided to pay.
PLG isn't right for every company. Complex enterprise products and categories that need on-site implementation usually run a hybrid model that blends PLG with sales-led motions. The 'PLG is always the answer' narrative tends to age badly outside of self-serve-friendly categories.
Related terms
Activation Rate
Activation rate is the share of new signups who reach a defined 'first value' moment shortly after joining — the cleanest read on onboarding quality.
MarketingGrowth Loop
A growth loop is a self-reinforcing cycle in which existing users' actions generate new users — the modern alternative to the linear funnel for sustainable growth.
MarketingFlywheel
The flywheel is a self-reinforcing growth model — happy customers fuel new acquisition — that HubSpot proposed as a replacement for the linear funnel.
MarketingViral Coefficient
Viral coefficient (K-factor) measures how many new users one existing user generates on average — once it crosses 1.0, the product grows on its own without ads.
MarketingNorth Star Metric
A north star metric (NSM) is the single number that best captures the core value your product delivers to customers, used to align decisions across the whole company.
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