Product-Led Growth skills
Product-Led Growth Skills-md for Claude, Codex & AI Agents
Product-led growth skills are SKILL.md files that turn Claude, Codex and other AI agents into careful PLG strategists. They audit your product-led motion, decide whether PLG fits, design freemium plans, trials and reverse trials, build in-product onboarding, drive feature adoption, define product-qualified leads, set up product-led sales, design upgrade prompts and invite flows, govern in-app messages, grow through templates and integrations, build product education and report PLG metrics by cohort. All 13 are below: copy one, download it, or take the set.
13 skills, 19,767 words, version 1.0.0, written October 2026.
Product-Led Growth Audit
Audit a product-led motion end to end: fit for self-serve, the free model, activation and time to value, in-product onboarding, feature adoption, expansion and invites, upgrade paths, product-qualified leads, sales assist, in-app messaging, education and product analytics, with a stage-by-stage funnel sized by revenue at stake and a 90-day plan.
Product-Led Growth Strategy
Decide whether and how to be product-led: a fit assessment on time to value, who chooses, entry price, setup, spread and compliance, motion choices from pure self-serve to product-led sales and free entry points, a validated value moment, the path from free user to expanding account, an operating model across teams and shared metrics.
Free Model Design: Freemium, Free Trials and Reverse Trials
Design free offers that drive revenue: freemium, time-limited trials, reverse trials, usage-based free tiers, open-source cores and free tools, usage, seat, feature, time, history, branding and support gates placed where value grows, limit analysis with data, trial length by time to value, the limit experience and fair migrations.
In-Product Onboarding
Design in-product onboarding from first login to value: the minimum steps to the value moment, role-based routing, first screens, empty states with one action, templates and sample data, short checklists, contextual tooltips and walkthroughs, celebrations with next steps, sessions two and three, and activation and retention by segment.
Feature Adoption
Drive adoption of features that change retention and expansion: impact analysis against matched non-users, adoption funnels from exposed to expanded, barrier diagnosis, fixes to setup and permissions, contextual triggers based on user behaviour, education, careful nudges and measurement with holdouts.
Product-Qualified Leads
Define, score and route product-qualified leads and accounts: analysis of past conversions, usage, breadth, intent, limit, premium feature, fit and engagement signals, clear PQL definitions, simple scores, a routing matrix to sales, success or automated plays, CRM sync and conversion metrics that refine the model.
Product-Led Sales
Design product-led sales motions where humans help accounts the product has already won: engagement thresholds, roles, usage summaries in the CRM, usage-led outreach, team, security, rollout, annual and enterprise plays, enterprise assets, rules of engagement, compensation that does not fight self-serve and metrics for sales-assisted versus self-serve accounts.
In-App Upgrade Prompts and Paywalls
Design in-app upgrade experiences: upgrade moments at limits, premium features, team growth, trial and reverse trial endings and milestones, soft, hard, metered and preview paywalls, task-based copy, in-app checkout that returns users to their work, admin request flows, frequency rules and conversion measurement.
Team Expansion and Invites
Grow accounts from one user to whole teams: collaboration moments that create invites, one-click invite flows, personalised invite emails that land invitees in shared work, prompts after the value moment, domain discovery and join requests, admin controls, free viewers and guests, cross-team spread and team formation metrics.
In-App Messaging
Plan in-app messaging that guides rather than interrupts: announcements, contextual tips, action nudges, surveys, upgrade prompts, service notices and help, behavioural targeting and triggers, priority and frequency rules, short copy, coordination with email, one owner and calendar, retirement of stale messages and outcome metrics.
Templates, Integrations and Marketplace Growth
Build product-led acquisition surfaces: public template galleries, integration pages, partner marketplace listings, user-generated public pages, branding on free outputs, community templates and embeds, demand research, page structures with unique substance, one-click use flows, quality safeguards against thin pages and metrics by surface.
Product Education and Academy
Build product education that raises activation, adoption and retention: help centres organised around jobs, task-based articles, contextual in-product help, short tutorial videos, academy courses and learning paths, certifications, webinars and office hours, community Q&A, maintenance after releases and impact on tickets and behaviour.
PLG Metrics and Reporting
Measure product-led growth from sign-up to net revenue retention: a metric tree, shared definitions for activation, time to value, habit, team formation, free-to-paid conversion, revenue per sign-up, expansion and PQL conversion, cohort and segment views, self-serve versus sales-assisted reporting, careful benchmarks, dashboards and decision-led reviews.
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On this page
What product-led growth skills do for an AI agent
Ask a general AI model how to do product-led growth and you usually get a checklist: add a free plan, write a product tour, put upgrade buttons everywhere. Many companies follow that list and end up with plenty of sign-ups, few activated users and almost no revenue from self-serve.
These skills work from the product journey. They define a value moment and check it against retention, design free offers so the right users hit limits, shorten the path to first value, place upgrade prompts where users need more, help teams form inside accounts and point sales only at accounts that are ready. Every stage is measured by cohort, so the team can see where growth is leaking.
Product-led growth, onboarding and sales assist
The set covers strategy and model, activation and adoption, monetisation and sales, and expansion and engagement. Sign-up forms sit in the CRO skills, onboarding emails in CRM and Lifecycle, experiment design and tracking plans in Growth Marketing and pricing strategy in Product Marketing.
Where to start: audit the motion
Start with the plg-audit skill. It checks fit, maps the product journey from sign-up to expansion, sizes each leak by revenue at stake and hands each finding to a specialist skill.
If you are deciding whether to go product-led, use plg-strategy first. If free users never pay, go to free-model-design and in-app-upgrade-prompts. If new users never reach value, start with in-product-onboarding.
Teams adding sales to a self-serve product should define product-qualified leads before hiring reps, so the first conversations happen with accounts that are already getting value.
Which skill fixes which problem, and the principles
Use this table to go straight to the right skill when you already know the symptom.
| Symptom or task | Likely cause | Skill to use |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-ups grow, revenue does not | No end-to-end PLG review | plg-audit |
| Unsure whether to go product-led | No fit assessment or motion choice | plg-strategy |
| Free users never upgrade | Free plan too generous or wrong type | free-model-design |
| New users never reach value | Blank first screens, long tours | in-product-onboarding |
| Valuable features go unused | Hidden features, hard setup | feature-adoption |
| Sales calls every sign-up | No product-qualified leads | product-qualified-leads |
| Large companies use free without buying | No product-led sales motion | product-led-sales |
| Users hit limits and leave | Poor upgrade moments | in-app-upgrade-prompts |
| Accounts stay single-user | Invites buried, no collaboration moments | team-expansion-invites |
| Too many pop-ups in the product | No in-app messaging rules | in-app-messaging |
| Templates hidden inside the app | No public growth surfaces | templates-integrations-growth |
| Support answers the same questions | Weak help centre and education | product-education |
| Only sign-ups and revenue reported | No PLG metric tree | plg-metrics |
The principles behind these skills
| Principle | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Value before payment | Users upgrade after they have experienced what the product does for them |
| One validated value moment | Activation means nothing unless it predicts retention |
| Free must serve growth | A free plan that covers everyone caps revenue |
| Prompt at the moment of need | Upgrade asks convert when users are trying to do more |
| Usage plus fit for sales | Sales time goes to accounts that are ready and worth it |
| Collaboration drives invites | Teams retain better and bring in new users |
| Cohorts over totals | Totals hide where the journey is breaking |
Example prompts for each skill
Each skill triggers on everyday wording. These prompts are good starting points:
- Audit: “Sign-ups doubled but revenue barely moved. Audit our PLG.”
- Strategy: “Should we add a free plan or stay sales-led?”
- Free model: “Freemium, free trial or reverse trial for our product?”
- Onboarding: “Redesign our first-run experience.”
- Adoption: “Few customers use integrations. Fix adoption.”
- PQLs: “Which free accounts should sales contact?”
- Product-led sales: “Build a sales assist motion for teams over 10 users.”
- Upgrades: “Design paywalls for our plan limits.”
- Invites: “Most accounts have one user. Grow teams.”
- In-app messaging: “Users see too many pop-ups. Set rules.”
- Templates: “Launch a public template gallery.”
- Education: “Rebuild our help centre around jobs.”
- Metrics: “Build a PLG dashboard with cohorts.”
What the agent needs from you
PLG work depends on product data. The most useful inputs are:
- Product analytics: events from sign-up to activation, feature use and team formation.
- Billing data: free-to-paid conversion, plans, expansion and churn.
- CRM data: how sales engages self-serve accounts and what converts.
- Free model details: limits, gates, trial length and who hits them.
- Screens and flows: what new users see, with recordings if possible.
- Support data: repeated questions and confusion points.
If something is missing, the skill works with what you have and says what would change with better data.
What an agent cannot do, and myths to ignore
An agent can analyse funnels, design flows, write copy and plan experiments, but it cannot change your product, run tests without access or decide trade-offs such as how generous a free plan should be. Those decisions stay with product and leadership; the skills supply evidence and options.
| Myth | What the evidence says |
|---|---|
| A free plan makes you product-led | PLG needs fast value, the right free model, upgrades, invites and metrics |
| More sign-ups means more growth | Activation and paid conversion decide revenue |
| Product tours fix onboarding | Templates, empty states and contextual help usually work better |
| PLG means no sales team | Most growing PLG companies add sales assist for larger accounts |
| Prompt everyone to upgrade early | Upgrade asks convert best at moments of need |
Frequently asked questions
What is product-led growth?
A go-to-market approach where the product drives acquisition, activation, conversion and expansion, often before users talk to sales.
Freemium or free trial?
Freemium suits large markets with low cost to serve and natural spread; trials suit products with quick, obvious value; reverse trials combine both.
What is a value moment?
The first action or result that shows a user has experienced value, validated by comparing retention of users who reach it and those who do not.
What is a product-qualified lead?
A user or account whose product usage and company fit show they are likely to buy or expand.
Do PLG companies need sales teams?
Often yes, for larger accounts that need security reviews, procurement or rollouts, in a product-led sales motion.
How do I increase free-to-paid conversion?
Shorten time to value, set limits where value grows and prompt upgrades at moments of need with easy checkout.
Which PLG metrics matter most?
Activation rate, time to value, week-4 retention, team formation, free-to-paid conversion, revenue per sign-up and net revenue retention, by cohort.
How do these skills relate to the other marketing skills?
CRO covers sign-up forms, CRM covers onboarding emails, Growth covers experiments and tracking plans and Product Marketing covers pricing; this set covers the product-led motion.
Sources and more marketing skills
- Wes Bush, Product-Led Growth (2019)
- Kyle Poyar, Growth Unhinged
- Lenny's Newsletter
- Amplitude product analytics guides
- Appcues onboarding resources
Checked on 12 October 2026. Pair this set with the Growth Marketing skills and the Conversion Rate Optimization skills. See every subcategory on the Marketing Skills-md page.
