Understanding product-led growth with Laura Schaffer, VP of Growth at Amplitude

Enterprise companies like Salesforce, Oracle and Cisco use sales-led growth to drive revenue and build relationships with potential customers.

Early-stage startups can't afford to rely on traditional sales and marketing, which is where product-led growth (PLG) comes in. Instead of creating slick sales collateral and hiring aggressive go-getters, PLG presents the product itself as the primary driver for customer acquisition, expansion and conversion.

"It's an end-user-based revenue motion," said Laura Schaffer, VP of Growth at analytics platform Amplitude. "So you're trying to ultimately drive revenue growth by focusing on the end user."

I invited her on the podcast to talk about how founding teams with limited resources can build a robust PLG framework that gathers actionable data and drives engagement.

"If you think of payment, it's just a kind of friction. Just like completing a signup is friction. Just like learning a new product is friction," said Laura. "Payment and pricing and charging is just another friction."

Episode breakdown

• Introduction to Laura Schaffer and her background in sales and growth
• Defining Product-Led Growth (PLG) as an end-user based revenue motion
• Key components of PLG: Acquisition, Monetization, Retention
• Initial steps for startups adopting PLG with limited resources
• “There are bad, high-friction questions, and then there's good questions.”
• Identifying and prioritizing target personas based on user engagement
• Minimizing bias by focusing on user problems and using quantitative data
• Strategies for moving from freemium to paid versions based on engagement signals
• Using free tools like Google Drive and Amplitude for tracking and data collection
• Techniques for embedding personas into organizational culture for alignment
• Avoiding vanity metrics and ensuring engagement metrics are linked to value
• Laura’s advice on maintaining focus and prioritizing effectively for growth

Links

• Laura Schaffer, VP Growth, Amplitude
• Amplitude
• Amplitude glossary of common terms
• How to run painted door tests that don’t piss off your users, CommandBar
  Elena’s Growth Scoop [Substack newsletter]
• Product-led Geek [Ben Williams’ newsletter]
• Follow Fund/Build/Scale on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to FBS on Substack

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.