OpenView’s Kyle Poyar on sidecar products and product-led growth

Protect the Hustle | A SaaS Podcast

This week's guest is Kyle Poyar, Operating Partner at OpenView. Kyle sat down with Patrick Campbell at SaaStock 2022 to discuss the ins and outs of product-led growth and how businesses can capitalize on this strategy to propel their success.

Throughout the conversation, Kyle and Patrick delve into the importance of focusing on product usage as a key driver for customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. They discuss how companies like Zenefits have harnessed the power of sidecar products to provide additional value to their customers while strengthening their overall product offering. Kyle also shares valuable insights on why it's crucial to pay attention to user feedback and continuously iterate on product design to stay competitive in the market.

High Level Overview:

• Product-led growth is a powerful strategy where product usage drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion.
• To harness product-led growth, businesses must focus on creating effective and user-friendly products that exceed user expectations.
• Sidecar products, free offerings that complement the core product, can help attract customers early in their journey and increase the chances of conversion.
• Companies like Zenefits have successfully implemented sidecar products to broaden their suite of offerings and generate more value for their customers.
• Listening to customers and iterating on product design is crucial for continuous improvement and maintaining a competitive edge in the market.

A Crash Course on Product-Led Growth:

Product Led Growth (PLG) is a valuable approach to growth that focuses on getting customers to use the product, rather than relying on traditional sales and marketing. This guide will introduce you to the key components of PLG according to Kyle Poyar and how to leverage them for success:

• Quantitative Insights: The first step in PLG is to gain a better understanding of your customers' journey. Invest in a product analytics platform to gain quantitative insights into how users interact with your product. This will help you identify features that are being used, as well as unsuccessful user journeys.
• Session Replays and Recordings: In addition to quantitative insights, you should also look at session replays and recordings of user journeys. This will help you gain empathy with your users and identify areas where you could improve their experience. Tools such as Hotjar and FullStory can be used to get these insights.
• Micro Surveys: Micro surveys are a great way to get feedback from users on their experience with your product. Services such as Sprig allow you to collect user feedback on usability and product experience. This will help you better understand how users are engaging with your product and identify areas for improvement.
• User Testing: User testing is another great way to get feedback from users. It involves sending out prototypes and collecting feedback, through videos and questionnaires. This is helpful when targeting audiences that you have not reached yet, as you can get feedback on whether your product is compelling to them.
• Sales Assist Motion: You should also consider using a sales assist motion, even when you are trying to move towards PLG. This involves getting an email from the customer, running a rich through a service such as Clearbit and then using that data to inform how much resource investment you should put on the account. It is important to differentiate between customers that need a sales assist motion and those that can self-serve.

Product Led Growth is a powerful tool for software businesses. By leveraging the tools discussed in this guide, you will be able to get a better understanding of your customers' journey and identify areas for improvement. With the right approach, you can unlock success with PLG.

Further Learnings

Follow Kyle on LinkedIn and check out OpenView for more on Product-Led Growth.