How to structure PLG features in your pricing tiers...

Using Airtable as an example

There are 3 feature types to understand:

🔵 Acquisition Features (User Growth)

🟣 Activation Features (Usage Growth)

🟢 Monetization Features (Revenue Growth)

Here is how to think about and use each type:

🔵 Acquisition Features

→ Eliminate friction to activation

These features increase the number of opportunities for a new user to get value from the product.

For Airtable, this is unlimited bases.

This gives new users many attempts to experiment with different use cases without barriers.

→ Enable multiplayer mode

The idea here is give users the power to invite peers into the product.

For Airtable, it's unlimited read-only users.

💡 Acquisition features almost always go into the free tier.

🟣 Activation Features

→ Deliver first value (Aha Moment)

The key here is to provide everything a user needs to create the habit of coming back into the product.

For this, there needs to be some complete element of value.

For Airtable, this means creating an end-to-end use case with a base, an extension, a sync, and then pulling it all together in the interface designer.

💡 Activation features end up in almost all pricing tiers - depending on the level of activation you are trying to drive.

🟢 Monetization Features

→ Capitalize on the activation

→ Setup 2nd-level "Aha moments"

These features go hand-in-hand with activation features.

It's all about knowing when enough value has been created with strong enough habits to make the purchase a no-brainer.

For Airtable, this is once a user or team has at least 1 end-to-end value use case with the activation features.

💡 To uncover these features, leverage your usage data and experimentation to hone in on defining your minimum activation metrics.