Minute Monday #9: Even 100% top down enterprise products must become product-led in time

Some products are not product-led in any dimension.

These products can’t be adopted by end users directly.

They require mass adoption at the business unit or company level.

Think about the likes of Workday, or Netsuite.

They’re hugely successful. But here’s the thing.

Have you ever heard anyone say they love using those products?

They’ve been built to cater to buyers' needs, not users.

Whether these products are used across a whole company (as is the case with HRIS) or just a department (e.g. Finance), it’s not the economic buyer who suffers.

It’s the poor users who have to deal with the experiential inadequacies of the systems, regardless of how functional they are.

These products, for the most part, will be blocked from PLG in the way most people think of it.

But they’ll need to change in at least one key dimension.

They’ll need to become product-led in their approach to retention through exceptional user experience, or they’ll eventually be disrupted by others that enter the market and provide the same value but packaged in a way that users love to use.

Product-led growth is multi-dimensional.

• Acquisition

• Retention

• Monetisation

Every company will need to become product-led in the dimension of retention.

Period.

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