LAUNCH PLG — A PLG MOTION YOU CAN READ CLEARLY ENOUGH TO IMPROVE

Jake McMahon
Jake McMahon — ProductQuant
8+ years B2B SaaS · Behavioural Psychology + Big Data (Masters)

See which free users are activating and which are churning silently from Day 1.

A 3-week sprint that designs your self-serve activation funnel, instruments it for your engineering team, and delivers a live dashboard before the first cohort flows through — so you have something real to optimise, not just something to count.

Your PLG motion launches with instrumentation your team uses · 3-week delivery

WHAT YOU HAVE AT THE END

Activation funnel designed Your self-serve value moment defined and mapped for this product — not borrowed from a template
Engineering spec delivered Full event taxonomy — your team implements without a working session to interpret it
Dashboard live before Day 1 Free-to-paid funnel visible the moment the first user flows through
Activation baseline set Month 2 has something real to compare against — not an estimate
90-day plan in hand Each review gate has an agenda — no blank dashboards at the monthly check-in

Fixed price · 3-week sprint

We build dashboards that show why customers stay or leave.

You get a live system that tracks user behavior from their first click, so you can see problems and fix them before customers churn.

PRODUCT MANAGER

“Why did our free users stop using the new feature?”

Your dashboard shows which step they got stuck on and never completed. You can now tweak the feature or add a tutorial to help them succeed.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

“A user says our tool is too confusing. What happened?”

You look up their journey and see they skipped the onboarding guide. You can send them a direct link to the right help video immediately.

MARKETING LEAD

“Which ad campaign brought in the most engaged users?”

The dashboard connects sign-up source to actual product usage. You stop spending money on ads that bring in users who don't stick around.

WEEKLY REPORTING

“How many free users are on track to become paying customers?”

Instead of guessing, you have a real list of users who completed key tasks. You can focus your upgrade campaigns on the people most ready to buy.

DELIVERY
21 days

Kickoff to live dashboard and activation baseline. Your engineering team implements events — the spec tells them exactly what to build.

DAY 30 OUTCOME
Real signal

Your team opens the dashboard and sees which cohorts are activating, which are churning silently, and what the free-to-paid funnel looks like — with numbers that mean something.

FIXED PRICE
Fixed price

Scoped to your product and your existing setup. One price, everything included. Funnel design, engineering spec, dashboard, baseline, and 90-day plan.

Teams Jake has worked with

Gainify
Guardio
monday.com
Payoneer
thirdweb
Canary Mail

WHAT SHIPS WITHOUT THIS

The PLG motion is live. The instrumentation measures the wrong thing.

“We launched the free tier six weeks ago. We can see logins and session duration. We cannot tell you whether anyone has reached the moment where the product actually solves their problem — because we never defined what that event looks like for self-serve.”

Head of Product — B2B SaaS, Series A

Free signups are flowing. Nobody knows which ones are real.

“We get signups every day. Some of them upgrade. Most of them don’t. We have no idea what the activating ones do differently because the dashboard doesn’t separate them. Every metric is averaged across the whole cohort.”

Founder — Pre-Series A SaaS

The 90-day PLG review is coming. The only number you have is total signups.

“Investors asked us for the activation rate last quarter. We gave them signup-to-login ratio because that’s the closest thing we had. They pushed back. We’re building the measurement now, three months in.”

CEO — Seed stage SaaS

WHY THE INSTRUMENTATION HAS TO BE DESIGNED FOR PLG SPECIFICALLY

Copying your sales-led event taxonomy into a PLG motion measures engagement. It does not measure self-serve activation.

In a sales-assisted motion, the account executive fills the gap between signup and value. They answer questions, run demos, and walk the user through the moment the product clicks. The instrumentation captures what happened — logins, feature use, session time — and that is enough because a human is already guiding the journey.

In PLG, the product has to do what the account executive did. If the instrumentation is not designed to see whether it does — if no event fires when a user reaches the value moment on their own — you cannot see the thing that matters. You see activity. Activity is not activation.

This sprint builds the instrumentation around one question: can a user reach the value moment without human help, and if they do, what does it look like in the data? That question is answered before the first cohort flows through. Day 30 produces a clear picture because the measurement was built to produce one — not assembled afterwards from whatever events happened to fire.

WHAT YOU GET

16 deliverables that make your PLG motion measurable before you scale it.

Deliverable 01
Self-Serve Activation Funnel Design Workshop

Your team maps the exact steps a new user must complete to reach genuine value — with a clear view of where users currently drop out and what's causing them to leave before they experience what your product does.

Deliverable 02
Value Moment Definition Against Retention Data

The specific in-product action that most reliably predicts whether a user will still be paying months from now is identified from your retention data — giving your entire product team a single, evidence-backed target to optimise toward.

Deliverable 03
Free-to-Paid Conversion Pattern Research

The behaviours, timing patterns, and in-product signals that separate users who convert to paid from those who churn on the free tier are documented — so you can design interventions that actually move the number.

Deliverable 04
Competitor PLG Motion Analysis

How your closest competitors structure their free experience, activation flow, and upgrade triggers is mapped and analysed — so you can identify gaps in their approach that your product can exploit.

Deliverable 05
Habit Loop Identification

The specific usage patterns that turn casual users into deeply retained customers are identified — giving product and growth a clear picture of the behaviours worth engineering toward.

Deliverable 06
Self-Serve Activation Funnel Map

A visual and written map of every step in your activation journey, annotated with current conversion rates, drop-off points, and the highest-leverage intervention opportunities.

Deliverable 07
Instrumentation Spec for Engineering Team

A precise specification document that tells your engineers exactly what events to track and how to structure them — eliminating ambiguity and ensuring your analytics captures the data your PLG motion depends on.

Deliverable 08
Free-to-Paid Conversion Funnel Dashboard

A live dashboard that shows the full picture from new signup to paid conversion, updated continuously, so your team always knows where the funnel is healthy and where it needs attention.

Deliverable 09
Activation Rate Baseline from First Data

Your current activation rate is established from real data and documented as the baseline — so every future optimisation effort has a credible starting point to measure improvement against.

Deliverable 10
90-Day Measurement Plan with Review Gates

A structured plan that defines what you'll measure, when you'll review results, and what decisions each review is meant to trigger — keeping the team aligned and accountable across the first three months.

Deliverable 11
Weekly Reporting Template

A recurring reporting format that surfaces the metrics your team needs to make product and growth decisions each week, without requiring an analyst to build a custom report every time.

Deliverable 12
Engineering Implementation Document

Your engineering team gets a written specification covering every instrumentation requirement, data structure, and implementation decision — so nothing is lost in translation between product strategy and code.

Deliverable 13
Dashboard Configuration Guide

Step-by-step documentation for maintaining and extending the analytics dashboards as your product evolves, so the measurement infrastructure doesn't become stale or require external help to update.

Deliverable 14
Team Walkthrough Session (Recorded)

A live session where all outputs are walked through with your team, questions are answered, and the full measurement plan is explained in context.

Deliverable 15
Metric Interpretation Guide

A written guide that explains what each metric means, how it's calculated, and what changes in the number typically indicate — so your team can read the data correctly without needing to ask an analyst every time.

Deliverable 16
PLG vs Sales Motion Contribution Framework + 30-Day Monitoring + Two Optimisation Sessions + Investor Presentation Support

A framework that clarifies which revenue is driven by self-serve versus direct sales. A month of active monitoring after launch. Two working sessions to review what the data is showing and make targeted adjustments. If you're raising capital, your PLG metrics and activation story are structured into a format that communicates traction clearly to investors.

Everything above at a price matched to your scope. No hourly billing. No scope creep. Everything stays with your team.

THE TIMELINE

Three weeks from kickoff to a live dashboard and a baseline your team can act on.

01
Week 1 — Journey mapping and instrumentation design

A working session to define the self-serve journey: what does a user have to do to reach the value moment without human help? Existing instrumentation reviewed against what the PLG funnel actually requires — what fires when it should, what is missing, what is measuring the wrong thing. The activation funnel defined before any event work begins so the engineering spec is built for the right questions from the start.

02
Week 2 — Spec delivered, dashboard built, baseline measured

The full event taxonomy documented and handed to engineering. The free-to-paid conversion dashboard built and connected to the event schema. Implementation validated before the dashboard goes live. The activation baseline measured from the first data flowing through the instrumented funnel — not from retroactive estimates. The dashboard is live and the baseline is set before the end of week two.

03
Week 3 — 90-day plan, reporting template, and handoff

The 90-day measurement plan built and delivered — what to review at Day 30, 60, and 90, and what each result tells you about where to invest next. Weekly reporting template finalised so the Monday PLG review does not require assembling the report from scratch. Everything handed off in a 90-minute session with your product and growth team. Day 30 review date set with a specific agenda before the session ends.

FIT CHECK

Teams adding self-serve for the first time get the most from this sprint.

Right fit
  • B2B SaaS launching or recently launched a free tier or self-serve trial — and instrumentation has not been designed for it yet
  • Sales-led team adding a PLG motion for the first time — no existing self-serve measurement baseline
  • Free tier already live but team has no visibility into which signups are activating vs churning silently
  • Product team building PLG features without a measurement system to validate them against
  • Founder who needs to present PLG performance to investors with more than signup counts
Not the right fit
  • Products that require a sales setup call or professional services before a user can reach the value moment — the PLG motion itself is not yet viable
  • Teams 12+ months into PLG with an established funnel measurement system — what you need is an optimisation sprint, not an instrumentation build
  • Companies with no plan to add self-serve — the instrumentation is built for a funnel that does not exist yet
  • Teams still deciding whether PLG is the right motion — this sprint assumes the decision is made

Not sure if a self-serve motion is viable for your product? A Foundation engagement covers that question alongside competitive and go-to-market positioning. Or book a 20-minute call — if this sprint is not the right starting point, the call will clarify what is.

Jake McMahon

Jake McMahon — ProductQuant

Jake McMahon
8+ years B2B SaaS · Behavioural Psychology + Big Data (Masters)

I run this sprint myself — the funnel design, the instrumentation spec, the dashboard build, and the first cohort analysis. The most persistent mistake in PLG launches is treating the self-serve activation funnel as a simplified version of the sales-assisted onboarding. They require fundamentally different measurement. In a sales-assisted motion, the account executive is the instrumentation — they observe, they adjust, they fill the gaps. In PLG, that job goes to the data. If the events are not designed to see whether a user can reach the value moment on their own, you are not measuring the PLG motion. You are measuring activity in it.

Everything delivered in this sprint is formatted for the person who uses it. The funnel map is for your PM to use in planning. The event spec is for your engineer to implement without a follow-up call. The dashboard is for whoever runs the Monday review. No translation required between what I deliver and what your team acts on.

I won’t do this:
  • Copy the sales-led event taxonomy into the PLG instrumentation without redesigning it for self-serve
  • Define the activation event without a working session that confirms it matches what users actually do
  • Build a dashboard that shows aggregate conversion numbers without cohort-level visibility
  • Deliver an instrumentation spec that requires your engineering team to revisit it in month two
What if our product is not fully self-serve ready?
The sprint will surface that in week one and document what needs to change before the PLG motion can be measured correctly. Some products need product changes before the self-serve activation funnel is viable — the sprint identifies those gaps and prioritises them. You leave with a clear picture of what it takes to make the motion work, not a dashboard built on a funnel that is not functioning yet.

Teams Jake has worked with

Gainify
Guardio
monday.com
Payoneer
thirdweb
Canary Mail

PRICING

One price. Everything your team needs to launch with measurement in place.

$2,997–$4,997
one-time · fixed price · scoped to your product
3-week sprint
  • Self-serve activation funnel designed from scratch
  • Full instrumentation spec for engineering (event taxonomy, properties, trigger conditions)
  • Free-to-paid conversion funnel dashboard, live before Day 1
  • Activation rate baseline from first real cohort data
  • 90-day measurement plan with review agendas at Day 30, 60, and 90
  • Weekly reporting template — ready for any team member to run
  • 90-minute handoff session with your product and growth team
  • Everything stays with your team permanently — no ongoing dependency

Exact price confirmed after a brief kickoff call — depends on your existing instrumentation and product complexity.

Book a Call to Start →

Guarantee: Your team opens the dashboard on Day 1 and sees which free users are activating and which are churning silently — or the sprint cost is refunded in full. If week one reveals a blocker that makes the sprint impossible to complete as scoped, that is surfaced immediately and you pay nothing.

Questions.

Anything else, book a call or send an email.

Book a call →
We don’t have any analytics instrumentation yet. Does that matter? +
No. The sprint is designed to build the instrumentation from scratch — that is the point of it. Week one maps the funnel and designs the event taxonomy. Week two produces the spec your engineering team implements and the dashboard built to receive the data. You do not need existing event data for the sprint to work. You need a product that users can sign up for and a value moment it is designed to deliver.
How is PLG instrumentation different from standard product analytics? +
Standard product analytics measures what users do. PLG instrumentation measures whether users can reach the value moment on their own — without a sales rep guiding them through it. The event taxonomy is built around the self-serve journey: where users stop without human help, what behaviour precedes free-to-paid conversion, and what a formed usage habit looks like when the growth is self-generated. The measurement questions are different, so the instrumentation has to be designed differently. Applying a generic event taxonomy to a PLG motion gives you activity data — not the signal you need to run the motion.
Our free tier is already live. Is it too late for this sprint? +
No. The sprint works for live PLG motions. Week one includes a review of what the current instrumentation captures and what it misses. Gaps are documented, the activation funnel is instrumented correctly, and a clean measurement window begins after implementation. You end up with a clear picture of what the data can now tell you about activation and conversion — rather than continuing to read engagement metrics as proxies for PLG health.
Do you implement the events or just write the spec? +
I design the instrumentation, document the full event taxonomy, and build the dashboard. Your engineering team implements the events — they receive a spec they can work from directly without a working session to interpret it. The dashboard is connected to the events once implementation is confirmed. After the sprint, your team runs the PLG measurement independently. There is no ongoing dependency on ProductQuant.
We also run a sales-led motion. Will the instrumentation conflict? +
The sprint instruments the PLG and sales-led funnels separately so the metrics do not mix. Self-serve activation events are tagged to distinguish them from sales-assisted journeys. The dashboard separates PLG contribution from sales-assisted conversion so both motions are measurable independently. You can see what the PLG channel is contributing without it being averaged into the sales motion numbers.
What if week one reveals the PLG motion is not ready to instrument? +
If the working session in week one reveals that the product cannot currently guide a user to the value moment without human help, that finding is documented with specifics — what is missing, what needs to change, in what order. The sprint does not continue to build instrumentation for a motion that is not viable. You receive a prioritised list of product changes needed before the PLG funnel can be measured correctly. That outcome is within the guarantee: if the sprint cannot deliver what was scoped, you pay nothing.

Launch the PLG motion with the measurement already built in.

Three weeks from now the self-serve activation funnel is instrumented, the dashboard is live, and the first cohort data is flowing. Day 30 produces real signal — not a conversation about what to measure next time.