I’ll never forget my early days at Appcues when product-led growth (PLG) was just starting to gain momentum. It was 2019, and we could feel the shift happening in the industry, but there was still so much to learn. We knew that to stay ahead, we had to do more than simply observe the trend—we had to understand it deeply. That’s when the idea for the Product-Led Growth Collective was born.
What started as a simple initiative to gather insights has become a cornerstone of how we turn market insights into action at Appcues.
In my experience, the best way to truly understand a market is to talk to the people who live and breathe it every day. So, that’s exactly what we did. We launched the Product-Led Growth Collective, a publication where we interviewed industry leaders in PLG—directors, VPs, and operators—about the challenges they face and the strategies that work for them. These weren’t just casual chats; they were deep, insightful discussions that gave us valuable perspectives into our target audience.
For 45 minutes to an hour, I’d sit down with someone in a leadership role at a mid-market SaaS company, asking them everything from what problems they were solving to the specific tools they used to do so. These conversations were gold. Not only did they help us create content that resonated with others in the product-led growth world, but they also provided us with invaluable market insights. Each interview revealed new trends, challenges, and opportunities that we could bring back to the team.
These interviews weren’t just useful for content creation—they allowed us to identify patterns. What challenges were people repeatedly mentioning? What solutions were they experimenting with? How were they approaching cross-functional collaboration? By regularly gathering this information, we were able to build a solid foundation of insights that would inform our broader marketing and product strategies.
If you’re looking to turn market insights into action, start by becoming a “journalist” in your space. Talk to people, ask thoughtful questions, and listen deeply. Not only will you learn more about your market, but you’ll also create value for your audience.
Once we had these qualitative insights, the next step was to quantify them. After all, it’s one thing to hear about a trend from a handful of people—it’s another to confirm it with data. That’s where our Product-Led Experience Report came in.
We took the hypotheses we’d formed from our interviews and created a survey. We asked questions like, “What challenges are you facing with product-led growth?” and “How are your teams working together across functions?” We sent the survey to everyone we could think of—customers, non-customers, partners—anyone who fit the profile of someone in the PLG world.
The responses flooded in, and we started to see patterns emerge. For example, we noticed that cross-functional collaboration was a significant challenge for many organizations. This insight led us to focus more on content that addressed how teams can work better together—a topic that resonated strongly with our audience. The data we collected also informed our internal roadmap, helping us prioritize features and improvements that would solve real problems for our users.
This process of turning qualitative insights into quantitative data was a game-changer for us. It helped us validate the challenges we were hearing about and allowed us to create even more targeted content and products. If you’re wondering how would you turn market insights into action, this is one approach that has worked wonders for us—use both qualitative and quantitative methods to paint a fuller picture of your market.
As we gathered more insights, we realized something important: not all companies are at the same stage of product-led growth. While some were fully embracing PLG, others were just dipping their toes in the water. To better understand where different companies stood, we created the Product-Led Growth Maturity Assessment.
This assessment was designed to help companies see how they measured up against their peers. We asked a series of questions about their PLG efforts, and based on their answers, we provided them with a personalized report. Not only did this help us provide value to our audience, but it also gave us even deeper insights into our target customers. We could see what specific challenges companies at different stages of PLG were facing, and we used this information to inform our marketing and product strategies.
The best part? This wasn’t just a one-time exercise. We continue to use the data from the maturity assessment to refine our approach, ensuring that we’re always in tune with the needs of our market. If you’re looking for an actionable way to gain ongoing insights, consider creating an assessment tool that allows you to gather information while delivering value to your audience.
Turning market insights into action isn’t just about gathering data—it’s about using that data to create value for your customers and your business. Whether it’s through interviews, surveys, or assessments, the goal is to continually learn and evolve based on the needs of your market. Here are a few practical steps to help you get started:
By combining these approaches, you can not only turn market insights into action but also create lasting value for your business. Whether you’re looking for product-led growth examples or insights into cross-functional collaboration, the key is to keep learning and adapting.
