PLG is a go-to-market strategy where the product itself is the primary driver of acquisition, activation, and expansion — rather than marketing campaigns or a sales team. Free trials, freemium tiers, and self-serve onboarding are the primary PLG mechanics. Users experience value before talking to anyone in sales.
Successful PLG products generate leads from usage data: a team hitting 80% of their free quota is a warm sales signal without a single cold call. Slack, Notion, Figma, and Calendly are textbook examples. The trade-off: PLG requires the product to deliver value immediately, without hand-holding — which raises the bar for onboarding and activation.