How (and Why) to Build an Authentic Community Around Your Product Exciting changes are afoot in the enterprise-tech market. Power is shitfing from the handful of traditional ‘top-down’ buyers to millions of end users. With the consumerization of IT, we now expect the sotfware we use at work to be just as easy and even delightful to use as the consumer tech we use in our off-hours. Simultaneously, customer acquisition through traditional digital-marketing channels has gotten more and more expensive. Taken together, these two factors have shitfed many enterprise-tech players towards a product- led growth (PLG) strategy. Essentially, the strategy involves creating a product that’s designed to go viral, individual by individual—turning your customers into your marketing team. Product-led growth starts with designing an extraordinary product— which is easier said than done. Making sure your product actually delivers a world-class experience, and meets or exceeds user expectations, requires something else: building an authentic community around the problem(s) your product seeks to solve. Done right, this type of “community-led growth” can turn your users into ardent brand ambassadors. 16