Driving massive growth: framework used by Notion and Duolingo

During the Silicon Valley Module of our MBA for Design Leaders, we met with Rachel Hepworth, former CMO at Notion and Marketing Leader at Slack to learn the latest growth frameworks and how to turn your users into your marketing team. We are excited to share with you our learnings. Let's dive in. 👇

Marketing and Growth are getting harder. AI is accelerating everything, driving product commoditisation faster than ever and making SaaS websites and apps virtually indistinguishable. Saturated, costly acquisition channels add to the noise, making it difficult for buyers to make sense of all the new products coming out.

The rise of social networks like Substack, Tik Tok and Gumroad is allowing individuals to become megaphones making everyone a marketer and a seller. With trust in companies declining, more and more power is transitioning to the individual. Peer recommendations and social proof are becoming more important than traditional marketing messages.

Forrester reports that 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions.

You can no longer spend years hiring a big team, building awareness in seasonal campaigns and navigating slowly through complex buying cycles. Instead, you can give power to your users, empowering them to generate brand growth.

How can you build a memorable product in this new reality?


Make your users your marketing team

AI is accelerating a business model shift. There has been an evolution from Sales-Led Growth (top-down) to Product-Led Growth (bottom-up), and then to Community-Led Growth (user-led). Let's talk through these.

Sales-Led Growth: High-touch, expensive, slow

Sales-led growth is effective for complex, high-value products or services where human interaction is essential to address specific customer requirements and objections.

🟡 Distribution through a limited number of controlled channels (ads, gartner, journalists)
🟡 Long sales cycles, can't sign up without a sales representative
🟡 Buyers ≠ Users
🟡 High cost, high friction
🟡 Examples: Microsoft, Workday, SAP

Product-Led Growth (PLG): User-driven, efficient, scalable

Product-led growth companies are characterised by their more consumer-centric buying experience. It burst onto the scene in the early 2000s with Dropbox and was coined in 2016 by OpenView.

🟡 Product drives customer acquisition and expansion
🟡 Easy to sign up, you can try before you buy
🟡 Buyers = Users
🟡 Examples: Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, Shopify

Community-Led Growth (CLG): Community-powered, organic, exponential

Building on Product-Led Growth, we've seen the rise of Community-Led Growth (CLG), which stems from an increasing demand for trust, authenticity, and engagement. Every brand has a community as there are people who hold a passion for what a brand does. Placing these people at the front and centre empowers them to share that passion with more people around them, which leads to Community-Led Growth. With CLG, users become your GTM team, magnifying your visibility, recognition, and authority and helping drive engagement, retention, and growth sustainably.

🟡 Community is the extension of Product-Led Growth
🟡 Users become your marketers, educators, evangelists
🟡 Trust is built through peer recommendations not through marketing materials
🟡 Examples: Airbnb, Notion, Reddit, Figma, Hubspot


Should we all become user-led?

The answer is no. Nothing works for everyone, you should consider your company’s individual dynamics. Explore key elements of Product-Led and Community-Led Growth strategies to understand where you belong.

Three key elements for Product-Led Growth

Product-led growth requires motivation, ability and permission.

Three key elements for Community-Led Growth

Community-led growth thrives on motivation, autonomy and recognition.

Examples of Community-Led Marketing

Put it into action: The User-Led Loop Framework

So how do you implement this in each stage of your funnel? What’s great is that these elements are reinforcing. More than a funnel, they create a loop that compounds.

1. Build Awareness

🟡 Encourage organic word-of-mouth by exceeding user expectations
🟡 Create "shareable" experiences
🟡 Leverage social proof over corporate messaging

2. Empower Acquisition

🟡 Make the sign up process simple
🟡 Give an opportunity to try before you buy

3. Fuel Activation

🟡 Ensure easy onboarding
🟡 Provide templates and tutorials

4. Suggest an Upgrade

🟡 Give an opportunity to buy for the team or upgrade the plan for more features
🟡 Turn user champions into product advocates

5. Drive Expansion

🟡 Share peer-driven success stories
🟡 Bring in the ambassadors and community leaders

Benchmarks to help you measure the success

Tips for the road

The world is changing - it’s no longer top-down, tightly controlled, with long cycles. The market is moving fast and prioritising informal, peer channels to guide purchasing decisions. To compete, you must enable your users to drive discovery, usage, success. Here are a few tips for the road:

Ready to scale your business ? Learn more about our Design Leaders programme.

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