PLG ≠ Self-Serve ≠ Growth

Simplifying complex concepts

Many think:

PLG = Self-Serve = Growth

In reality:

PLG ≠ Self-Serve ≠ Growth

Let me explain. 😉

After talking to 50+ B2B startup founders and product leaders in the last six months, I noticed that the terms Growth, Self-Serve, and PLG are used interchangeably. However, those are very much different! It’s actually PLG → Self-Serve → Growth

And here is why.👇

What is PLG (Product Led Growth)?

PLG is one of the motions to drive Growth. In its pure form, PLG enables the PRODUCT to acquire, activate, engage, retain, monetize, and expand customers (= pulling all those Growth levers). For example, the product can drive acquisition by virality and content loops, activation by self-serve onboarding, monetization by self-serve monetization, and embedded usage-based expansion mechanisms.

What is Self-Serve?

In the Growth context, Self-Serve is an experience in which your ICP goes through the entire customer journey. This means all lifecycle stages (awareness to retention), without needing a human touch (sales, success, support, etc.). Achieving the ultimate Self-Serve experince requires layering PLG with Marketing. For example, Marketing is acquiring customers through performance marketing, PLG is Activating customers, Marketing is Engaging customers through Lifecycle campaigns, and PLG is Monetizing and expanding customers.

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What is Growth?

Growth is about building the distribution for your Product to increase its market share within your product’s TAM (Total Addressable Market). Pulling the Growth levers (acquire, activate, engage, retain, monetize, and expand customers) by using both PLG, Marketing, and Human Touch (Sales, Marketing, and support). It's the whole thing.

To sum it up!

1. Growth topics are only complex if you try to sound fancy. 😉
2. The above applies to SaaS, No-SaaS, B2B, and B2C.
3. The ‘Head of Growth’ responsibility domain is much greater than acquisition channels, contrary to many job posts…