Is PLG the Right Go-to-Market Strategy for You?

Product-Led Growth (PLG) is fast becoming the go-to strategy for high-growth SaaS companies, but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. At its core, PLG puts the product at the centre of your go-to-market motion, allowing customers to discover value on their own terms. Rather than relying heavily on sales and marketing to educate and convert, the product leads the charge in delivering real outcomes, faster.

However, PLG is not simply a pricing strategy or a choice to offer a free trial of your product. It’s a company-wide shift in how value is delivered and experienced. For some companies, PLG can drive great efficiencies and scale, for others, particularly those with complex onboarding requirements or lower-frequency usage, it might complement rather than replace traditional sales-led approaches. I first experienced a hybrid model during my time at Sauce Labs, the business had started as a community-led approached which morphed into a PLG approach. This helped them not only grow the business rapidly but learn from customers but also implement feedback into product development.

So, how do you decide if PLG should be your core strategy, or part of a hybrid GTM model?

Start with these key questions:

1. Can users experience true value of your product independently?
2. Is your product suited to daily or habitual use?
3. Are there natural upgrade moments where paying for more features becomes the obvious choice?
4. Do you have the product and operational infrastructure to support scale without a heavy human touch?

If you can confidently answer 'yes' to most of these, PLG could be an ideal growth lever. But even if your product isn't fully self-serve, you can still embed some of the key PLG principles, by improving onboarding, aligning product and GTM teams, or identifying product-qualified leads to support sales conversations.

Ultimately, PLG is not an all-or-nothing decision. It's a strategic choice about how to deliver value, remove friction, and scale growth more sustainably, and with companies like Canva, Slack and Zoom using it, it’s a proven strategy for growth.