# Product-led growth

URL: /workflows/plays/product-led · Id: `play:product-led`

> Product-led growth gives away a metered slice of a digital Product, a free tool or templates, and prompts the upgrade on a usage event.

Product-led growth gives away a metered slice of a digital [Product](/business/nouns/product), a free tool or ready templates. The upgrade prompt fires on a usage event, once the [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) has felt the value.

## Ratings
| Dimension | Rating | Reads |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Scalability | 5 of 5 | very high: higher grows further with spend or automation |
| Cost | 2 of 5 | low: lower costs less per Customer |
| Latency | 3 of 5 | medium: lower answers sooner |

## Budget
| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tier | $0 |
| Minimum effective budget | $0 a month |

## How it runs
The free slice is bounded by [Limits](/business/nouns/limit) and costs only serving cost. The prompt appears when usage crosses the line that predicted payment among past Customers.

## Processes
Runs as [Onboarding](/workflows/processes/onboarding), accountable to the [Marketing Team](/agents/marketing).

## Fits
| Fits | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Family | demand |
| Shelf | Compound: builds an engine that keeps growing (Grow) |
| Moves | [Activation rate](/agents/product#activation-rate) |
| Motions | [b2c](/business/motions/b2c), [b2d](/business/motions/b2d), [b2b](/business/motions/b2b), [b2a](/business/motions/b2a) |
| Venues | [Google Search](/workflows/plays#google-search), [GitHub](/workflows/plays#github), [Chrome Web Store](/workflows/plays#chrome-web-store) |
| States | [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live), [Repeatable](/business/lifecycle/states/repeatable), [Scale](/business/lifecycle/states/scale) |

## Loop
| Step | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hypothesis | Prompting the upgrade on a usage event turns more free accounts into paying Customers than a time-based prompt. |
| Measure | [Activation rate](/agents/product#activation-rate) over 30d, at least 100 observations |
| Learn | The learn step reads the Readout, records Evidence and a Decision, and drafts the next Variant. |

## Example
A [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) selling a document-to-spreadsheet converter gives 20 pages a month free. Users who convert a second document within a week upgrade at five times the base rate, so the prompt fires on that event.