Product Assisted Growth is Product Management

Travis Kaufman, VP of Product Growth at Gainsight, gives us a primer on product assisted growth, including how to create a product offering that accelerates growth and how this approach compares to traditional go-to market strategies.

Product teams have more responsibility than ever before for the success of their product, according to Travis Kaufman, VP of Product Growth at Gainsight.

Travis, who focuses on customer acquisition and conversion at the SaaS company, knows a thing or two about product-led strategies. He began his career as a software engineer at E-Trade Financial. He then expertly applied his engineering background to product management roles, becoming the first product manager for various small organizations in the Bay Area. It’s at those companies, he says, that he gained an acute understanding of the true value proposition of product: Understanding what customers need and delivering relevant, valuable products to them.

He went on the hunt for a company with a product-led strategy, and that search led him to Aptrinstic, which was acquired by Gainsight and now called Gainsight PX. Gainsight PX subscribes to a product assisted growth go-to market strategy, meaning they offer a product that users can try before they buy.

Travis shares his team’s strategy for implementing this approach, creating a-ha moments that convert trial users into paying customers, and how to generate “product qualified leads” for the Gainsight sales team. Plus, he explores the different product assisted offering models available to product teams and key considerations when evaluating if this strategy is the right fit for your company or offering.

In this episode, you’ll learn a lot about different product assisted growth models, go-to market strategies, and how to create a product offering that motivates users to buy and accelerates organizational growth.

Here are the highlights:

• A deep dive into what exactly product assisted growth is (5:33)
• Evaluating the various offering models at a product team’s disposal (9:50)
• Giving your users an a-ha moment that motivates them to buy (12:04)
• Advice on determining what exactly to offer users (15:43)
• Travis’ top marketing tips for building brand awareness and attracting prospects for these offerings (18:55)