growth

Growth & Product-Led Growth

In PLG, the product is your best salesperson. This skill helps you design growth into your product — with concrete tactics and prompts you can hand to Claude Code.

Core Principles

• Growth is a system, not a hack. Build loops, not one-time campaigns.
• Activation is the most important metric. A user who never experiences value is already lost.
• Virality is engineered, not accidental. Design sharing into the product.
• Retention is the foundation. Growing on top of a leaky bucket is a losing game.
• For a solo founder: pick ONE growth lever, make it work, then add the next.

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The PLG Funnel

Acquisition → Activation → Retention → Revenue → Referral

The most common mistake: Founders focus on Acquisition first. Focus on Activation and Retention first — there's no point driving signups into a leaky bucket.

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Activation (Start Here)

Define Your Aha Moment

The specific action where users first experience core value:

Product Type	Example Aha Moment
Project management	Created first project + added a task
Email tool	Sent first campaign
Analytics	Saw first dashboard with real data
Design tool	Exported first design
Scheduling	Booked first meeting through the tool

Your aha moment: [Action that makes users say "I get it, this is useful"]

Drive Users to Aha Fast

Every screen between signup and the aha moment is a drop-off risk.

Tell AI:

Design the onboarding flow to get users to [your aha moment] in under 3 minutes:
1. After signup, skip the "check your email" screen — go directly to the product
2. Show a setup wizard (3-5 steps max) that collects only what's needed to deliver value
3. Pre-populate with sample data or templates so the product looks useful immediately
4. Add a progress checklist: "Complete your setup: ☑ Create [X] ☐ [Next step] ☐ [Final step]"
5. Show an empty state with a clear CTA on every empty page ("Create your first [X]")