Indeed, PLG and community-led growth are tightly coupled: Crowdsourcing product input, code and usability positions your PLG strategy well and naturally improves your product. But it also naturally creates a community of like-minded people with a vested interest in that product’s success—people who then may become part of your marketing, adoption and GTM engine. Authentic community is the key If your goal is to break into an enterprise, not through a big purchase order but through individual champions, then you’re targeting the end users of your product. That means it can be just as important to connect to a star developer, or a VP of engineering, as to a CTO. You’re appealing to individual champions who will spread the word about your product. These power users understand the particular challenges their organizations face. They have an action-oriented mindset. And they’re typically willing to give you feedback on your product. They can be the core of a community built around your product or brand, which can ultimately deepen your connection to existing users, and reach out to new users. Some of the most powerful potential champions are people who self-identify deeply with their work. Designers, for example, bring a design mentality to everything they do. Engineers are always problem- solvers. They don’t turn those parts of their brains off when they leave work. Communities that engage users in providing product feedback, or even contributing bits of code, can be particularly powerful. Once people are engaged in making something, they have a vested interest in seeing it succeed. Imagine if the brewery down the street from you asked for customer feedback on its new logo design. If the brewery used your favorite design, you might share it on your social media, or mention it to friends. The same is true for beta testers of a sotfware product—if they’ve exerted a real inlfuence on a product, they’ll feel more ownership of it. 17