A 20-26 week installation of Wes Bush's Product-Led Growth methodology (MOAT + UCD + Triple-A + Bowling Alley) for $3-30M ARR B2B SaaS evaluating PLG or stuck on a revenue plateau. Decides motion (free trial / freemium / hybrid / sales-led), redesigns onboarding to first-value, ships a value-based pricing page, installs paywalls + in-product upgrade triggers + self-serve billing, stands up a 35-event PLG taxonomy with PQL scoring, and operates the Triple-A monthly sprint with a Tiger Team and SDR/AE hybrid comp. Reference methodology: https://productled.com/book/product-led-growth. Total scope: 8 modules, 36 sections, 150 tasks, 1058 hours canonical (560-680h typical-customer after gates). 8 feature gates fork the playbook by GTM motion, billing-vendor presence, trust-center status, analytics-stack presence, and sales-team configuration.
Decide the right motion. Output is a written, signed-off MOAT decision doc covering the four Bush axes: Market strategy (dominant/disruptive/differentiated), Ocean conditions (red/blue), Audience (top-down/bottom-up), Time-to-Value archetype (Mission Impossible/Rookie/Veteran/Spoiled). STOP-frame: this is the Standardize step that anchors every downstream module. If MOAT recommends sales-led, the playbook's go/no-go gate routes to the sales-methodology playbook. Source: https://productled.com/book/product-led-growth.
Pull the last 12 months of revenue, funnel, and CAC data; run aha-moment customer interviews; confirm the four PLG triggers (CAC payback >18mo, free-trial conversion <15%, demo-request bottleneck, competitor with free product); map stakeholders for rollout comms. Establishes the baseline scorecard the entire playbook is measured against.
Pull last 12-mo revenue snapshot (ARR, MRR, churn, ARPU)
Before a single MOAT axis is scored, the PLG transformation needs a documented financial baseline. This snapshot is the anchor for the Market-Strategy axis and the raw material…
Pull current funnel: visitor -> signup -> activation -> paid
This is the second baseline the MOAT decision tree depends on: the Time-to-Value axis cannot be scored without knowing where users actually fall out today. It is also the direct…
Calculate blended + self-serve CAC payback
CAC payback is the single number that most strongly bends the MOAT decision tree. If blended CAC payback exceeds 18 months, one of the four PLG triggers is firing — the sales-led…
Run 8 customer aha-moment interviews
The quantitative funnel tells you where users drop; these eight interviews tell you what value the ones who stayed actually discovered. The output is the qualitative seed for M5…
Confirm PLG triggers (CAC, conv, demo bottleneck, competitor)
This task is the go/no-go conscience of the entire transformation. Wes Bush's trigger framework holds that PLG is a response to a structural pressure, not a fashion — if none of…
Stakeholder map + rollout comms plan
PLG transformations fail less on strategy and more on alignment: the most common failure mode is that "everyone has a slightly different take on what PLG is supposed to achieve."…
Bush's M axis. Classify market posture (dominant / disruptive / differentiated), validate TAM (50M-user threshold for dominant freemium), map competitor pricing + free-tier strategies, and write the 1-page Market-Strategy axis output that feeds the MOAT decision tree.
Classify market posture: dominant / disruptive / differentiated
This is the M in Bush's MOAT decision tree — the Market-Strategy axis. Your market posture dictates which PLG motion is even viable, so misclassifying it propagates a wrong…
Validate TAM (50M users threshold for dominant freemium)
Freemium economics only work at scale. Bush's M-axis treats roughly 50M addressable users as the threshold below which dominant freemium breaks: when the free tier is large and…
Map competitor pricing + free-tier strategies
You cannot pick a PLG model in a vacuum — the market has already trained your buyers to expect a certain free-tier shape and a certain value metric. This scan feeds two things at…
Bush's O / A / T axes. Classify ocean color (red/blue) for competitive density, map buyer vs end-user (top-down vs bottom-up), measure current time-to-value, classify TTV archetype (Mission Impossible / Rookie / Veteran / Spoiled). All three axis writeups feed the MOAT decision tree.
Classify ocean color (red / blue)
This is the O in Bush's MOAT decision tree — the competitive-ocean axis. The classification reads how crowded your market is and pairs that with product complexity to determine…
Write Ocean axis output
This 1-pager turns the red/blue classification into a motion recommendation the weighted MOAT decision tree can consume. The O axis is unusual in Bush's framework because color…
Map buyer vs end-user (top-down vs bottom-up)
Before you commit a sales-led company to a PLG motion, you have to know whether the product can actually sell itself. The single most predictive diagnostic is the buyer-vs-user…
Decision-gate section. Fill the weighted MOAT decision tree (1-5 each axis), build the 10-slide readout deck, run the 60-min exec readout to capture decisions and dissent, capture the signed MOAT decision doc (CEO + CPO + Head of Growth), record the STOP framework Standardize-step checkpoint, draft Pain-Claim-Gain narrative for board / company-wide comms, and execute the go/no-go gate (route to MEDDPICC if MOAT says sales-led).
Fill MOAT decision tree (weighted 1-5 each axis)
This is the synthesis keystone of the M1 diagnostic and one of the T2D3 IP gap-fills: Bush's book defines the four MOAT axes but stops short of a quantified decision tool, so most…
Build MOAT readout deck (10 slides)
The MOAT readout deck is how the four axis 1-pagers and the weighted decision tree become an executive decision rather than an analyst's spreadsheet. It matters because a PLG…
Run 60-min exec readout, capture decisions + dissent
The 60-minute executive readout is the live moment the MOAT diagnosis becomes a committed organizational decision. It matters because, per Bush, the MOAT call must be a documented…
Pick free trial vs freemium vs hybrid; design the value metric the customer pays on; draft the pricing thesis. Includes Van Westendorp willingness-to-pay survey (n>=150), economic-value analysis, anti-per-seat check (only viable with Slack-class network effects), and a grandfathering plan for existing accounts. Source: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/elena-verna-on-why-every-company.
Build the trial-vs-freemium-vs-hybrid decision matrix on 8 inputs, decide credit-card policy (opt-in vs opt-out — Bessemer's State of the Cloud shows opt-out trial conversion at 48-50%), pick trial length if trial (7/14/30), choose tier-limit shape if freemium (usage / feature / collab), and capture the signed decision doc.
Build trial-vs-freemium-vs-hybrid decision matrix (8 inputs)
Bush's MOAT decision tells you whether PLG is right, but it stops short of choosing which PLG model to ship. This is the canonical T2D3 IP gap-fill: a quantified comparator that…
Decide credit-card policy (opt-in vs opt-out)
Once the model is trial or hybrid, the credit-card policy is the single highest-leverage funnel decision in M2. It governs the fundamental trade between signup volume and…
Decide trial length (7 / 14 / 30 days) if trial
If the model is trial or hybrid, trial length is a deliberate lever, not a default. The mistake teams make is copying a competitor's 14 days without checking their own…
If freemium: decide tier-limit shape (usage / feature / collab)
If the model is freemium or hybrid, the tier-limit shape decides how the free tier converts to paid — it is the mechanism by which a free user feels the ceiling and reaches for…
Capture signed model-selection decision doc
This is the Standardize gate for the entire M2 model decision. Bush's framing is explicit: model selection is downstream of MOAT but must be its own signed document, because if it…
Brainstorm 5-8 value-metric candidates, score each on comprehension / value alignment / scaling, customer-test the top 2 with 6 customers, pick the metric with documented rationale, and run the anti-per-seat check (per-seat is only viable with Slack-class network effects per Kyle Poyar).
Brainstorm 5-8 value-metric candidates
The value metric is the unit the customer is charged for, and it is the second-most-consequential decision in the whole playbook after MOAT. Before you can score or test a metric,…
Score each candidate on 3 criteria (comprehension / value alignment / scaling)
With 5-8 candidates in hand, Bush's 3-criteria rubric turns a subjective debate into a ranked shortlist. A great value metric is one customers understand instantly, that tracks…
Customer-test top 2 metrics with 6 customers
Internal scoring tells you which metric you find elegant; customer testing tells you which one survives contact with the buyer. The metric must pass comprehension before it scales…
Run Van Westendorp WTP survey (n>=150), build economic-value analysis (alternatives x differentiated value), draft 3-tier shape (free/pro/business) with feature splits, write the 8-10 page pricing thesis doc, draft the grandfathering plan + customer-comms script for existing accounts, and lock OKR baselines for O1/O2 KRs.
Run Van Westendorp willingness-to-pay survey (n>=150)
With the value metric locked, you need to anchor what to charge per unit. The Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter is the industry-standard, low-cost way to extract a defensible…
Build economic-value analysis (alternatives x differentiated value)
Willingness-to-pay tells you what customers *feel*; economic-value analysis (EVA) tells you what the value is *worth*. Used alone, WTP anchors low (buyers always under-state). EVA…
Draft 3-tier shape (free / pro / business) with feature splits
The 3-tier shape is where the abstract pricing thesis becomes a concrete product surface. In a PLG transformation the tiers do double duty: the free tier is your acquisition…
UCD step 1. Run JTBD interviews across power users, mid-tier, and churned; tag and code snippets; synthesize 5 canonical job stories; build the canonical PLG persona (job, day-in-life, anti-persona); lock the value statement (CEO-signed). The output is the foundation every downstream module references for messaging, paywall copy, onboarding bumpers, and PQL scoring. Source: https://www.producttalk.org/.
Bush's three outcome layers. List 5-8 functional outcomes (task completion), 3-5 emotional outcomes (how the user feels), 3-5 social outcomes (how the user wants to be perceived), and rank via 12 customer card-sorts. The ranked output drives the value statement and onboarding bumpers.
List 5-8 functional outcomes (task-completion)
Functional outcomes are the jobs a customer hires your product to finish — the concrete, task-completion results they can point to and say "done." This is step 1 of Bush's…
List 3-5 emotional outcomes
Emotional outcomes are how the customer wants to feel after the job is done — in control, confident, unblocked, calm. This is step 2 of Bush's Understand-Value layer, sitting…
List 3-5 social outcomes
Social outcomes are how the customer wants to be perceived by others when they use your product — professional, technical, modern, on top of things. This is step 3 of Bush's…
Rank outcomes via 12 customer card-sorts
You now have an inventory of functional, emotional, and social outcomes (M3.S1) — but a flat list can't anchor a value statement. The headline can carry exactly one promise, so…
Write the 16-question JTBD interview guide, recruit 12 customers (4 power, 4 mid, 4 churned), run 45-min interviews recorded, tag and code snippets in the research repo, and synthesize 5 canonical job stories ('when / I want / so I can').
Write JTBD interview guide (16 questions)
The Jobs-to-be-Done interview guide is the instrument that turns 12 customer conversations into structured, comparable evidence. In a PLG transformation you can't rely on a sales…
Recruit 12 JTBD interview customers (4 power, 4 mid, 4 churned)
The quality of your JTBD synthesis is capped by who you talk to. Recruit a skewed sample and you'll write a persona that flatters your happiest users and quietly mis-targets the…
Run 12 JTBD interviews (45 min each, recorded)
This is where the evidence is actually captured. Each of the 12 interviews runs 45 minutes, recorded and transcribed (Otter / Grain / Fathom), against the locked 16-question…
Draft the canonical PLG persona (job, day-in-life, anti-persona), validate with sales / CS / product (3 meetings), and lock a versioned persona doc that downstream Pain-Claim-Gain triplets, paywall copy, lifecycle emails, and onboarding bumpers all reference.
Draft canonical PLG persona (job, day-in-life, anti-persona)
The canonical PLG persona is the single source of truth for every piece of customer-facing copy downstream — signup microcopy, lifecycle emails, paywall PCG triplets. If the…
Validate persona with sales / CS / product (3 meetings)
A persona drafted by one team and shipped to the org lands flat — the functions that have to act on it never bought in. This task validates the persona draft in three focused…
Lock persona doc (versioned)
An unlocked persona is a moving target, and in a PLG build every downstream artifact references it. This task locks the persona as v1 under explicit version control so the copy in…
Draft 3 value statement versions, A/B test with 8 customers, lock the CEO-signed statement, and execute STOP-Templatize step (templatize the value-statement + persona kit for org-wide use). Closes UCD step 1.
Draft value statement (3 versions)
The value statement is the load-bearing sentence of the entire PLG funnel — it's what the pricing page promises, what the message house spins out, and what a self-serve visitor…
A/B test value statements with 8 customers
You don't lock a value statement on internal preference — you lock it on customer reaction. This task tests the 3 draft versions with 8 customers in 20-minute sessions, applying…
Lock value statement (CEO-signed)
A customer-validated value statement still isn't safe until it carries executive authority. This task locks the v1 statement with the CEO's signature — not as ceremony, but as the…
UCD step 2. Pricing page redesign that passes the five-second test, feature-flag tier matrix shipped in product, value-metric usage meter and customer-facing quota dashboard, Pain-Claim-Gain triplets per persona, message house with promise + 3 pillars, signup-flow redesign (<=3 fields, social auth, async email verify), and prebuttals for the top 5 upgrade objections. Closes with a monthly pricing-page A/B test cadence. Source: https://productled.com/bowling.
Audit 8 competitor pricing pages (annotated), wireframe new page (3 tiers + feature comparison + FAQ), build high-fidelity design (mobile + desktop), run the five-second test (n>=30) per Bush's pricing-page test, and ship via web release. Targets KR1.1 (free-to-paid conversion >=18%).
Audit 8 competitor pricing pages (annotated screenshots)
In a PLG transformation, the pricing page is the highest-intent conversion surface you own — high-intent SaaS pricing pages should convert at 5-8%, and a buyer who reaches it has…
Wireframe new pricing page (3 tiers + feature comparison + FAQ)
The wireframe is where the 3-tier shape from M2 (free / pro / business) becomes a layout that a buyer can parse in five seconds. Bush's five-second test is the design constraint:…
High-fidelity pricing-page design (mobile + desktop)
The high-fidelity design turns the approved wireframe into a build-ready, on-brand pricing page that survives the five-second test under real visual load. This is the surface that…
Run five-second test (n>=30)
The five-second test is Bush's cheapest, highest-leverage pricing-page check: if a high-intent visitor can't grasp what the product does, who it's for, and how pricing works in…
Ship new pricing page (web release)
Shipping the new pricing page is where the M4 communicate-value work meets live traffic. The release must do two things at once: replace the old page cleanly and wire the…
Implement the feature-flag matrix (free / pro / business), implement the usage meter for the value metric, and build the customer-facing quota / usage dashboard so customers can see how close they are to upgrade triggers.
Implement feature-flag matrix (free / pro / business)
The feature-flag matrix is the load-bearing engineering layer that turns the M2 tier shape into enforceable product reality. Every paywall placement (M6.S1) and in-product upgrade…
Implement usage meter for value metric
The usage meter is the single most important piece of M4 instrumentation: it counts the value metric the customer is charged for, and everything monetization-related downstream…
Build customer-facing quota / usage dashboard
The quota dashboard is where the usage meter becomes organic upgrade intent. When customers can see how close they are to their tier limit — and watch the friction approach before…
Write Pain-Claim-Gain triplets (3 versions x top-3 personas) and build the message house (1 promise + 3 pillars + proof points). Provides the canonical messaging library that paywall copy, lifecycle emails, and signup-flow microcopy all reference.
Write Pain-Claim-Gain triplet (3 versions x top-3 personas)
The Pain-Claim-Gain (PCG) triplet is T2D3's load-bearing positioning unit, and here you author nine of them — three versions across the top-three personas. Each triplet binds a…
Build message house (1 promise + 3 pillars + proof points)
The message house is the canonical positioning map every cross-functional team consults before writing customer-facing copy. Its job is to stop the nine Pain-Claim-Gain triplets…
Audit current signup flow step-by-step (screenshot every screen), redesign to <=3 fields with social auth + async email verify, ship the new flow + A/B test against control. Single biggest TTV swing in M4.
Audit current signup flow step-by-step (screenshot every screen)
Signup-flow friction is a time-to-value multiplier — every extra field, verification gate, and dead-end error pushes the activation event further from the moment of intent, and in…
Redesign signup flow (<=3 fields, social auth, async email verify)
The redesigned signup flow's single job is to collapse time-to-value by getting the user into the product before any friction can intercept them. The target shape — ≤3 fields,…
Ship new signup flow + A/B test against control
Shipping the redesigned signup flow without an A/B test against the control would forfeit the proof the whole M4 effort needs. You ship behind an experiment, hold the old flow as…
Pull top 10 upgrade objections from sales / CS / churn surveys, write FAQ + in-flow prebuttals for the top 5, ship on the pricing page + signup flow, and execute STOP-Optimize (monthly pricing-page A/B test cadence scheduled).
Pull top 10 upgrade objections from sales / CS / churn surveys
Objections are where high-intent customers silently exit the upgrade funnel — and you can't pre-empt what you haven't catalogued. This task assembles the top-10 upgrade-objection…
Write FAQ + in-flow prebuttals for top 5 objections
A prebuttal answers an objection before the customer voices it — and in PLG it's the load-bearing trust mechanism that keeps high-intent users inside the pricing page and signup…
Ship prebuttals on pricing page + signup flow
A prebuttal answers the objection before the prospect thinks to raise it — and in a self-serve PLG funnel, an unanswered objection at the paywall is a silent drop-off, because…
UCD step 3 and the biggest activation lift in the playbook. Map current onboarding step-by-step with funnel data; pull retention curves per signup cohort; hypothesize 3 candidate aha events and run a logistic regression to pick the strike; lock the PQL threshold; color-code every step red/yellow/green; cut red, delay yellow, ship the new straight line; build product bumpers (empty-state checklist, tour, progress bar, explainer video); ship lifecycle email cadence (8 emails) plus in-app nudges; A/B test 3 onboarding variants over 4 weeks. Source: https://www.productled.org/blog/bowling-alley-framework.
Screenshot every onboarding screen (annotated), list every step with owner / event / drop-off, pull funnel data per step (last 90 days), and plot retention curves by signup cohort. Establishes the baseline before the straight-line redesign.
Screenshot every onboarding screen (annotated)
Bush's Bowling Alley framework asks you to color every onboarding step red, yellow, or green — but you cannot color a lane you cannot see. This task is the visibility foundation:…
List every onboarding step with owner / event / drop-off
The screenshot walk gave you the pictures; this task turns them into a machine-readable inventory that the rest of the Bowling Alley module runs on. The discipline that matters in…
Pull funnel data per step (last 90 days)
This is where the onboarding analysis stops being anecdote. The step inventory told you what the steps are; pulling 90 days of funnel data per step from the M8 event taxonomy…
Plot retention curves by signup cohort
Per-step funnel data tells you where users drop during onboarding; retention curves tell you whether the users who do get through actually stick. Plotting retention by signup…
Bush's strike step. Hypothesize 3 candidate aha events (event x magnitude x time x role), pull retention curves for each, run logistic regression (activation candidate -> 90-day paid), pick the winning event, define the PQL threshold, and lock the strike doc (CPO + Head of Growth signed).
Hypothesize 3 candidate aha events (event x magnitude x time x role)
The retention curves and funnel data give you correlated behaviors; this task turns them into three falsifiable strike hypotheses that the logistic regression…
Pull retention curves for each candidate aha event
Before you reach for regression, run the eyeball test: split each cohort into users who hit a candidate aha event and users who didn't, and plot D7 / D30 / M3 retention for both…
Run logistic regression: activation candidate -> 90-day paid
This is the task that replaces gut feel with statistics. The retention curves suggested a winner; logistic regression proves it by modeling 90-day-paid (1/0) as the outcome and…
The Bowling Alley straight-line audit. Color-code every onboarding step red / yellow / green, cut red steps with rationale per removal, move yellow steps post-activation, ship the new straight-line onboarding. Largest TTV reduction in the playbook.
Color-code every onboarding step red / yellow / green
With the strike locked, you finally have an objective yardstick for every onboarding step: does it move the user toward the strike, or not? Bush's straight-line audit colors each…
Cut red steps; document rationale for each removed step
The audit colored the lane; this task does the demolition. Cutting every red step from the onboarding flow is the highest-leverage single move in the Bowling Alley module: per…
Move yellow steps post-activation
Red steps get cut; yellow steps get resequenced. Yellow steps are the ones that genuinely matter — integrations, settings deep-dives, advanced-feature setup — but that slow…
Bush's bumpers: empty-state checklist (3-5 actions), product tour for first session (<=4 tooltips), progress bar / activation checklist sticky, and 60-second explainer video (Loom or Wistia). Bumpers prevent gutterballs while the user walks the straight line.
Design empty-state checklist (3-5 actions)
The straight-line removed friction; bumpers add gentle guidance so users don't drift off the lane. The empty-state checklist is the single most important bumper because every new…
Build product tour for first session (<=4 tooltips)
The empty-state checklist tells users what to do; the first-session product tour shows them where to do it. A tight tour of ≤4 tooltips, each pointing at exactly one straight-line…
Add progress bar / activation checklist sticky
In Wes Bush's Bowling Alley framework, the persistent bumper is the mechanism that keeps a user advancing toward the strike (the validated aha event) across multiple sessions. A…
Write the 8-email lifecycle cadence (welcome -> onboard -> activation -> upgrade), ship via Customer.io / HubSpot, and ship in-app inactivity nudges (day 2, day 7). Conversational bumpers run in parallel with product bumpers and reach users who have already left the product.
Write 8-email lifecycle cadence (welcome -> onboard -> activation -> upgrade)
Product bumpers stop working the moment a user leaves the app — the lifecycle email cadence is the out-of-product bumper that pulls a dormant signup back toward the strike. Wes…
Ship lifecycle emails in marketing automation (Customer.io / HubSpot)
A lifecycle cadence only becomes a real bumper once it fires automatically off product signals. This task takes the 8-email cadence authored in the prior step and ships it in the…
Ship in-app nudges for inactivity (day 2 / day 7)
In the Bowling Alley, a user who signs up and bounces before the strike is the single largest leak in the activation funnel — and they don't read most lifecycle emails. In-app…
Write the A/B test plan for 3 onboarding variants, run for 4 weeks, declare a winner. Closes UCD step 3 by validating the new straight-line outperforms the old.
Write A/B test plan for 3 onboarding variants
The Bowling Alley rebuild only counts if it measurably lifts activation against the old flow — and "looks better" is not evidence. This task writes the statistically rigorous A/B…
Run A/B test 4 weeks; declare winner
Execute the three-variant onboarding test from the plan, run it the full 4 weeks, then run a disciplined readout that declares one winner on statistical evidence. The 4-week…
Paywall placement, in-product upgrade triggers, expansion mechanics, self-serve billing platform, and the trust surface (SOC 2 / DPA / trust center). Includes the Stripe vs Paddle vs Chargebee 12-input decision framework, tax handling (Stripe Tax / Paddle MoR / Avalara), dunning + recovery flows, self-serve customer portal (upgrade / downgrade / cancel), price-grandfathering customer comms, expansion events (seat add / overage / tier-up), and self-serve DPA click-through. Heaviest gate concentration: billing-vendor track, tax sub-track, trust+DPA stack are all gated. Source: https://www.churnmate.com/blog/stripe-vs-paddle-vs-chargebee-choosing-the-right-foundation-for-your-saas.
Fill the paywall placement rubric (convert friction vs value gating per Bush — paywall = 'deeper-value unlock', not 'value-gate'), pick paywall trigger points (feature x usage threshold x user role), write paywall copy with Pain-Claim-Gain triplet per trigger, and ship paywall components (modal + inline upsell + lock-icon).
Fill paywall placement rubric (convert friction vs value gating)
Wrong paywall placement is the #1 PLG monetization failure mode — gate too early and you block users before they feel value (killing conversion and word-of-mouth); gate too late…
Pick paywall trigger points (by feature x usage threshold x user role)
With the placement rubric scored, this task converts the shortlisted locations into concrete, shippable trigger points — each defined as a precise tuple of feature x usage…
Write paywall copy with Pain-Claim-Gain triplet per trigger
A correctly placed paywall still fails if the copy reads as a toll booth. The conversion difference between "Upgrade required" and "Unlock the outcome you came for" is large, and…
Ship paywall components (modal + inline upsell + lock-icon)
A paywall is not one UI — it's three components with three different friction profiles, each reserved for a specific trigger type. Shipping only a full-screen modal everywhere is…
Define 5 in-product upgrade trigger events (e.g., quota approached, premium feature attempted) and ship in-product upgrade prompts at trigger events. Distinct from paywalls — these are nudges at the moment of value realization.
Define 5 in-product upgrade trigger events
Paywalls fire when a user hits a wall (value blocking). Upgrade trigger events are the opposite and complementary lever: they fire at moments of value realization (value…
Ship in-product upgrade prompts at trigger events
The highest-converting upgrade moment in a PLG funnel is the instant the user realizes value — not a calendar-based email blast, not a generic "upgrade now" banner. This task…
Score Stripe / Paddle / Chargebee on the 12-input framework, pick a vendor, integrate (subscriptions / invoicing / webhooks), wire tax (Stripe Tax / Paddle MoR / Avalara), configure dunning + recovery flows (target +8% recovered revenue), ship self-serve portal (upgrade / downgrade / cancel), and send price-grandfathering customer comms. Heaviest single feature gate in the playbook — full track suppressed when customer already has a billing vendor.
Score Stripe / Paddle / Chargebee on 12-input framework
The self-serve billing platform is the load-bearing infrastructure of PLG monetization — pick wrong and you spend the next year fighting tax compliance, dunning leakage, or…
Pick billing vendor; document tax / dunning / proration trade-offs
With the 12-input scores in hand, the decision narrows to three trade-off axes that disproportionately shape your PLG economics: tax handling, dunning sophistication, and the…
Integrate billing vendor (subscriptions / invoicing / webhooks)
This is the engineering build that turns the vendor decision into a working self-serve revenue pipe. In a PLG motion, the billing integration is load-bearing: when a free user…
Define expansion events (seat add / usage overage / tier-up), ship expansion prompts (admin notify on overage, auto-upgrade), and ship sharing / invite mechanics (Calendly / Loom-style recipient virality where every artifact is an unpaid ad).
Define expansion events (seat add / usage overage / tier-up)
In a PLG transformation, net revenue retention (NRR) is the compounding engine — best-in-class PLG companies run 120-130%+ NRR, which means expansion alone can outpace gross…
Ship expansion prompts (admin notify on overage; auto-upgrade)
Defining the expansion events (M6.S4) is inert until you act on them in-product. This task ships the two highest-leverage self-serve expansion levers Bush calls out: the admin…
Ship sharing / invite mechanics (Calendly / Loom-style recipient virality)
Recipient virality is the cheapest growth loop in PLG — it is how Calendly and Loom drove a viral coefficient above 1.0 with effectively zero paid CAC. The mechanic: every…
Design trust-center IA (security / SOC2 / privacy / DPA / subprocessors), write trust-center content (8 pages), ship SOC 2 / security page with downloadable summary, build self-serve DPA click-through (Salesforce / SafeBase / Wolfia), and execute STOP-Productize (paywall + billing + trust ship as a repeatable kit). Without this surface enterprise PQLs convert <=1%.
Design trust-center IA (security / SOC2 / privacy / DPA / subprocessors)
In a PLG motion, enterprise deals close without a salesperson in the room for the early stages — which means your trust center is the procurement team's primary interface with…
Write trust-center content (8 pages)
With the IA locked (M6.S5 design step), this task fills it: 8 trust-center pages, 600-1000 words each, in plain English with enterprise-procurement signposting. The writing…
Ship SOC 2 / security page with downloadable summary
The SOC 2 Type II report is the single most-requested artifact in enterprise PLG procurement — it is the gate that, once cleared, lets the rest of the security review proceed…
Stand up the Triple-A monthly sprint, the PQL -> AE round-robin SLA (4-hour response), and the SDR/AE hybrid comp plan (60/40 base/var, 50% meetings + 35% pipeline + 15% PQL conv) so every function pulls the same rope. Builds the Tiger Team RACI, runs three sprints to declare cadence steady-state, configures PQL routing (Pocus / Correlated / homegrown), maps PQL fields into Salesforce / HubSpot, and stands up monthly OKR review + quarterly business review. Source: https://cxl.com/blog/saas-growth/.
Cadence section. Pick Tiger Team roster (5-7 cross-functional), write charter + RACI, set rituals (weekly stand-up + monthly sprint + quarterly review). Three tasks - exempt from the 8-task floor per the live-build rules.
Pick Tiger Team roster (5-7 cross-functional)
The Tiger Team is the standing cross-functional unit that owns the PLG transformation at steady state — it runs the Triple-A monthly sprint, the PQL handoff, and the pricing-page…
Write Tiger Team charter + RACI
A Tiger Team without a written charter and RACI drifts into a meeting that nobody can cancel and nobody is accountable to. This T2D3 IP artifact pins what the team owns, what it…
Set rituals (weekly stand-up + monthly sprint + quarterly review)
Rituals are the operating mechanism that turns the Tiger Team from a roster into a system. Bush's PLG cadence layers three nested rhythms — a weekly stand-up for execution…
Cadence section. Build Triple-A template (Analyze worksheet + Ask brainstorm + Act 1-pager), build monthly inputs/outputs dashboard (signups / activation / ARPU / churn / ARR), run sprints 1, 2, 3 to declare steady-state. Five tasks - exempt from the 8-task floor per the live-build rules.
Build Triple-A template (Analyze worksheet + Ask brainstorm + Act 1-pager)
The Triple-A sprint (Analyze → Ask → Act) is the engine of the PLG steady state, but Bush gives the principle without a canonical template — so teams default to ad-hoc…
Build monthly inputs/outputs dashboard (signups, activation, ARPU, churn, ARR)
The Triple-A monthly sprint (Analyze → Ask → Act) only works if the Analyze step starts from a shared, trustworthy data surface. This dashboard is that surface. Without it, the…
Run first Triple-A sprint (analyze -> ask -> act -> ship)
The Triple-A sprint is Bush's operating engine for sustained PLG improvement: a repeatable monthly loop that finds the leakiest part of the funnel, designs an experiment to fix…
Write PQL routing rules (Sales-Ready / Sales-Assist / Uncertain / Deprioritize), the 4-hour-response SLA template with disposition feedback, map PQL fields into Salesforce / HubSpot, and build PQL routing automation (Pocus / Correlated / homegrown). Industry SLA is 4 hours — past 24h conversion drops 70%+.
Write PQL routing rules (Sales-Ready / Sales-Assist / Uncertain / Deprioritize)
In a PLG motion, the product generates far more qualified signal than sales can chase manually. Without explicit routing rules, AEs either drown in low-intent accounts or — worse…
Write PQL -> AE round-robin SLA template (4-hr response, disposition feedback)
A PQL is a perishable asset. The account hit a value-realization moment now, and intent decays fast — per Factors.ai and Pocus, conversion drops 70%+ when first response slips…
Map PQL fields into Salesforce / HubSpot (lead source, score, signal)
The routing rules and SLA only matter if the AE can see the signal inside the CRM they already live in. Per Hightouch's PQL guide, the most common failure mode is a beautifully…
Design the hybrid comp plan (60/40 base/var; 50% meetings + 35% pipeline + 15% PQL conv), model 12-month earnings + ramp + pressure-test outliers, roll out with 1:1 sessions + FAQ, and stand up monthly OKR review + quarterly business review cadence.
Design SDR/AE hybrid comp plan (60/40 base/var; 50% meetings + 35% pipeline + 15% PQL conv)
Comp is the steering wheel of the sales org. If you build a beautiful PQL engine but pay AEs only on closed pipeline, they will quietly deprioritize product signals in favor of…
Model 12-month earnings + ramp; pressure-test outliers
A comp plan on a slide is a hypothesis; a comp plan modeled across 12 months of real ramp and real attainment distribution is a defensible decision. This task converts the 60/40 /…
Roll out comp plan with 1:1 sessions + FAQ doc
A new comp plan is a change to every rep's livelihood, and how you communicate it determines whether the team trusts it or revolts. Per Everstage's rollout discipline, comp-plan…
Ships the canonical 35-event PLG taxonomy across Account/Activation/Engagement/Monetization/Virality categories, the analytics stack (Segment + Mixpanel or Amplitude + Snowflake/BigQuery + Hightouch/Census reverse-ETL), the PQL scoring model (fit + usage + intent with weights, threshold, decay), OKR + funnel + cohort + monetization dashboards, and the A/B testing platform (Statsig / Optimizely / GrowthBook). Concurrent with M3-M7. Source: https://amplitude.com/explore/data/event-taxonomy.
Design the canonical 35-event PLG taxonomy across 5 categories (Account / Activation / Engagement / Monetization / Virality), spec event properties (user_id, account_id, plan, role, utm_*, device), publish the tracking plan + naming-convention guide, and implement events in client + server (Segment SDK or direct).
Design 35-event PLG taxonomy across 5 categories
In a PLG transformation, instrumentation is the load-bearing layer every other module reads from — not a downstream chore. The MOAT decision, the Bowling Alley strike, the PQL…
Spec event properties (user_id, account_id, plan, role, utm_*, device)
A 35-event taxonomy is only as useful as the shared property schema carried on every event. Properties are what let an event participate in cohort, funnel, and retention analysis…
Publish tracking plan doc + naming-convention guide
The tracking plan is the single source of truth that keeps a PLG transformation's instrumentation from rotting the moment a new engineer ships an event their own way. Per Avo's…
Implement events in client + server (Segment SDK or direct)
This is where the 35-event taxonomy stops being a spec and starts producing the data the whole PLG transformation runs on. The implementation decision that matters most: which…
Set up Segment workspace + sources/destinations, set up Mixpanel or Amplitude + permissions, stand up warehouse (Snowflake / BigQuery) + Segment sync, and reverse-ETL warehouse -> CRM (Hightouch / Census). Greenfield-only gate — fully suppressed when customer already has an event taxonomy.
Set up Segment workspace + sources / destinations
Segment is the canonical hub for PLG instrumentation because it decouples capturing an event from where the event goes. With Segment in place, the Tiger Team can swap Mixpanel for…
Set up Mixpanel or Amplitude project + permissions
The product-analytics tool is where the Triple-A monthly sprint (M7) pulls its retention curves and cohort analysis, and where the M5 strike analysis lives. Both Mixpanel and…
Stand up warehouse (Snowflake / BigQuery) + Segment sync
The warehouse is the single source of truth that the entire back half of the PLG transformation depends on. Per Hightouch's PQL guidance, product-analytics tools…
Spec the PQL scoring model (fit + usage + intent — weights, threshold, decay), train the initial model on 6-mo historical wins, and ship the PQL score field to the CRM via reverse-ETL.
Spec PQL scoring model (fit + usage + intent; weights + threshold + decay)
The PQL scoring model spec is the proprietary T2D3 artifact that turns the raw event taxonomy into a sales-actionable signal. Per Pocus and Factors.ai, a credible PQL score is…
Train initial scoring model on 6-mo historical wins
A PQL model with hand-picked weights is a hypothesis; training it on 6 months of historical wins vs losses is what makes it quantitative rather than gut-feel. Per Hightouch's PQL…
Ship PQL score field to CRM via reverse-ETL
Shipping the PQL score field to CRM is the moment the instrumentation stack starts driving revenue. Until the score lands on the Lead/Account record an AE actually looks at, all…
Build the OKR dashboard (KR1.1-1.5, KR2.1-2.3), funnel dashboard (visitor -> signup -> activation -> paid), cohort retention dashboard (D1/D7/D30/M3), and monetization dashboard (paywall hits, upgrade trigger conversion, expansion ARR). The OKR dashboard is the load-bearing artifact for the Triple-A monthly sprint.
Build OKR dashboard (KR1.1-1.5, KR2.1-2.3)
The OKR dashboard is the load-bearing artifact for the M7 monthly OKR review — it is the single screen leadership opens to answer "is the PLG transformation working?" Per…
Build funnel dashboard (visitor -> signup -> activation -> paid)
The funnel dashboard is the single most-consulted surface in the PLG instrumentation stack because it answers the question every Triple-A monthly sprint (M7.S2) opens with: where…
Build cohort retention dashboard (D1/D7/D30/M3)
Retention is the load-bearing PLG metric — it is the diagnostic that tells you whether the strike (M5.S2) is reliably reachable and whether the bumpers (M5.S4) are holding. A…
Pick A/B platform (Statsig / Optimizely / GrowthBook), integrate with the event taxonomy, and write the A/B test runbook (hypothesis -> MDE -> power -> ship -> readout). Required for the monthly pricing-page A/B test cadence (M4) and the onboarding A/B (M5).
Pick A/B platform (Statsig / Optimizely / GrowthBook)
The A/B platform is the load-bearing infrastructure for the playbook's two recurring experiment cadences: the monthly pricing-page A/B test (M4.S5) and the onboarding variant test…
Integrate A/B platform with event taxonomy
Picking the A/B platform (M8.S5) is inert until it is wired into the 35-event taxonomy (M8.S1). The integration is what lets an experiment automatically attribute downstream…
Write A/B test runbook (hypothesis -> MDE -> power -> ship -> readout)
The runbook is T2D3 proprietary IP and the artifact that turns experimentation from a series of one-off opinions into a repeatable discipline. Bush's PLG framework prescribes an…
Write Market-Strategy axis output (1 page)
This is where the M-axis inputs become a decision, not a pile of research. The 1-pager synthesizes the posture classification, the TAM validation, and the competitor scan into a…
Write Audience axis output
The Audience axis (the A in Bush's MOAT decision tree) decides whether your go-to-market motion is top-down (a CIO/CFO economic buyer signs the contract) or bottom-up (a frontline…
Measure current time-to-value (signup -> first value event)
Time-to-value (TTV) — the elapsed time from signup to the customer's first value event — is the single strongest predictor of PLG viability and the direct input to Bush's T-axis…
Classify TTV archetype: Mission Impossible / Rookie / Veteran / Spoiled
Bush's four-tier time-to-value framework turns the raw TTV number you just measured into a strategic verdict on whether PLG can work at all. The archetype is the T of the MOAT…
Write Time-to-Value axis output
This 1-pager is the fourth and final feeder into the weighted MOAT decision tree, and it converts the TTV archetype into a single defensible motion recommendation on Bush's…
Capture signed MOAT decision doc (CEO + CPO + Head of Growth)
The signed MOAT decision doc is the artifact that makes the transformation irreversible-by-default. Without three named signatures, any downstream module owner can quietly…
STOP framework checkpoint: Standardize step recorded
The checkpoint is a lightweight record, not new analysis. Its purpose is to assert, on the record, that the standardize bar was cleared and to name exactly what is now frozen.
Draft Pain-Claim-Gain narrative for board / company-wide comms
The Pain-Claim-Gain (PCG) narrative is the load-bearing story format that carries the PLG transformation across every audience that has to believe in it — the board, the…
Go/no-go gate: if MOAT says sales-led, route to MEDDPICC and STOP playbook
This is the playbook's canonical fork point — the gate that decides whether the PLG transformation proceeds at all. It matters because, per Bush, shipping PLG as a secondary…
Pick value metric; document rationale
This is the moment the value metric becomes load-bearing. It is the second-most-important decision in the playbook after MOAT, and it cascades: M4 packaging builds the usage meter…
Anti-per-seat check (network effect required)
Per-seat pricing is the most overused and most dangerous default in B2B SaaS. It looks clean on a pricing page, but without genuine network effects it creates the…
Write pricing thesis doc (8-10 pages)
The pricing thesis doc is the single load-bearing artifact that the M6 billing-vendor decision references for its requirements, and the one document the exec team signs off on…
Draft grandfathering plan + customer-comms script for existing accounts
When a sales-led company moves to PLG, the new tier shape almost always reprices the existing book of business — and that is where transformation churn quietly explodes. Per Elena…
Lock OKR baselines for O1 / O2 KRs
This is the moment the playbook becomes measurable. Every downstream module (M3-M7) is justified by its contribution to one of these key results, and the Triple-A monthly sprint…
Tag and code interview snippets in research repo
Twelve 45-minute transcripts are unusable as raw text — the value only emerges once you tag and code them against a consistent schema in a research repo (Dovetail / Notion /…
Synthesize 5 canonical job stories ("when / I want / so I can")
Raw interview notes don't drive a PLG funnel — patterns do. This task compresses the 12 JTBD interviews into exactly 5 canonical job stories, each a recurring Jobs-to-be-Done…
STOP: Templatize value-statement + persona kit for org-wide use
This is the STOP-Templatize gate that closes the Understand-Value module. Wes Bush's standardize-to-templatize transition says: once the value statement, persona, and PCG triplets…
STOP: Optimize cycle scheduled (monthly pricing-page A/B test cadence)
In the STOP framework (Standardize → Templatize → Optimize → Productize), the Optimize step is where the now-shipped pricing page stops being a one-time launch and becomes a…
Pick winning aha event; define PQL threshold
The regression named the strike; now you operationalize it into a Product-Qualified Lead threshold — the precise line at which a free/trial user has demonstrated enough realized…
Lock strike + PQL doc (CPO + Head of Growth signed)
The strike and PQL threshold are now empirically derived — but an analysis that lives in a Notion doc nobody signed gets re-litigated the first time a sprint gets hard. Locking…
Ship the new straight-line onboarding
This is the task where the analysis becomes a live experience. Shipping the new straight-line onboarding puts the cut-list (red steps removed) and the resequenced yellow steps in…
Embed 60-second explainer video (Loom or Wistia)
The empty state is the most-visited bumper in the Bowling Alley — every new user lands there at the moment of highest uncertainty and lowest patience. A 60-second explainer video…
Wire tax (Stripe Tax / Paddle MoR / Avalara)
A PLG self-serve funnel sells across borders by default — the first ten paying customers might span the US, UK, Germany, and Australia, each with its own tax rules. Wiring tax…
Configure dunning + recovery flows (target +8% recovered revenue)
In a PLG motion you acquire paying customers in volume and at low touch — which means involuntary churn (failed payments from expired cards, insufficient funds, bank declines)…
Ship self-serve customer portal (upgrade / downgrade / cancel)
The self-serve customer portal is the load-bearing artifact of the entire monetization layer. Without it, every upgrade, downgrade, or cancellation becomes a sales or support…
Send price-grandfathering customer comms (per M2 plan)
Re-packaging and re-pricing for PLG (the M2 work) will land new tiers and new prices — but your existing customers signed up under the old model. Grandfathering is the explicit…
Build self-serve DPA click-through (Salesforce / SafeBase / Wolfia)
The Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is the most common silent killer of self-serve enterprise velocity. Every enterprise buyer must execute one, and when each DPA goes through…
STOP: Productize - paywall + billing + trust ship as repeatable kit
This is the Productize step of T2D3's STOP framework (Standardize → Templatize → Optimize → Productize) and the closing gate of the M6 Monetization Layer. Everything M6 built —…
Run second Triple-A sprint
The second Triple-A sprint is where the cadence proves it can run on rails. Effort drops meaningfully versus sprint 1 because the template and dashboard are now reusable — the…
Run third Triple-A sprint (declare cadence steady-state)
The third Triple-A sprint is the graduation milestone. The typical 3-sprint internalization curve holds: by the end of sprint 3, a healthy team owns the loop end-to-end — Analyze,…
Build PQL routing automation (Pocus / Correlated / homegrown)
This is where the routing rules, SLA, and CRM field schema become a running machine. The automation watches the PQL score, applies the 4-tier disposition logic, routes Sales-Ready…
Stand up monthly OKR review + quarterly business review cadence
The PLG transformation only holds if the 8 KRs locked in M2 are inspected on a fixed rhythm — otherwise the org slides back to vanity metrics and the Tiger Team's monthly sprint…
Reverse-ETL warehouse -> CRM (Hightouch / Census)
Reverse-ETL is the load-bearing bridge between the product-side PQL scoring that lives in the warehouse and the AE-facing world that lives in Salesforce/HubSpot. Without it, the…
Build monetization dashboard (paywall hits, upgrade trigger conversion, expansion ARR)
The monetization dashboard is where the Monetization Layer (M6) becomes measurable. Every paywall placement (M6.S1), in-product upgrade trigger (M6.S2), and expansion mechanic…
