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Best resources for learning product-led growth

A curated list of actually useful books, courses, articles, and people to follow if you want to learn product-led growth.

·byMari Luukkainen·LinkedIn·X
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If you search for “product-led growth resources”, you get a lot of noise. Generic lists. Shallow articles. Courses that repeat the same three case studies.

You do not need more noise. You need a short list of actually good resources you can use to learn PLG and apply it to your product.

When I say product-led growth (PLG) here, I mean a go to market model where new revenue and expansion are mostly predicted by what users do in the product, not by how many sales calls or campaigns you run.

This post is a curated list of resources that are worth your time, plus some notes on how to use them. It is not exhaustive. It is the set I would start from if I had to learn PLG again.

If you are evaluating Skene, you can keep this post open next to the main site and think about how you would plug these ideas into your own product signals and onboarding.

Key takeaways

  • You do not need a huge library of PLG content; you need a short, opinionated list you will actually use.
  • Mix one or two deep primers with a few ongoing sources (newsletters, teardowns) so you keep seeing real examples.
  • Treat every resource as fuel for specific experiments in your own product, not as theory to memorize.
  • Share a small, curated list with your team so you build a common PLG language.

TL;DR – how to use this list

  • Start with one core primer on PLG fundamentals and read it with your current product in mind.
  • Pick one course or structured resource if you have time and budget; otherwise, lean on free training and high-quality blogs.
  • Choose one or two people/newsletters to follow so you see real PLG examples over time.
  • For each resource, write down one experiment you will run in the next month based on what you learned.

Who this is for

This is mainly for:

  • Founders and operators who want to get serious about PLG without disappearing into a content rabbit hole.
  • Product and growth people who prefer practical resources over hype.
  • Teams who want a shared PLG reading list so they can talk about the same concepts.

If you already have a good grasp of PLG, this can still be useful as a starter pack for new teammates.

How to use this list

Do not try to consume everything at once. Instead:

  • Pick one or two core resources to build your foundation.
  • Choose one or two supporting resources that match your learning style, such as newsletters or teardowns.
  • Use the articles and examples to fuel specific experiments in your own product, not just to collect theory.

Core primers on product-led growth

These give you the basic language and frameworks for PLG.

ProductLed content by Wes Bush and team

Wes Bush and the ProductLed team have produced a lot of the canonical content on PLG. The blog covers topics like activation, onboarding, pricing, and product qualified leads, with concrete examples from SaaS products.

How to use it:

  • Read a few of the fundamentals articles.
  • Pick one pattern, such as “design onboarding around a single aha moment”, and try it in your own product.

OpenView Partners on PLG

OpenView popularized PLG from an investor perspective, but their content is useful for operators too. They cover PLG metrics, go to market models, and case studies of well known SaaS companies.

How to use it:

  • Read one or two case studies and note how those teams link product behavior to revenue.
  • Translate their metrics into your own context. For example, what is your equivalent of an activated account or product qualified lead.

Courses and structured learning

If you prefer a more guided path.

Reforge: Product-Led Growth

Reforge is not cheap and it is not for everyone. For experienced product and growth people, their Product-Led Growth program is one of the deeper explorations of PLG strategy, growth loops, and monetization.

How to use it:

  • If you or your company are already investing in Reforge, treat the PLG course as a way to build a shared language across product, growth, and leadership.
  • Take the case studies and frameworks back to your own dashboards and funnels on a weekly basis.

ProductLed PLG Fundamentals

If you are earlier in your PLG journey or do not have budget for Reforge, the free PLG fundamentals training from ProductLed is a good way to get started.

How to use it:

  • Work through the material with a specific product in mind.
  • Pause after each module and write down one experiment you could run based on what you learned.

People and newsletters worth following

You can learn a lot by following operators who share real experiments and numbers.

Elena Verna

Elena has led growth at places like Amplitude and SurveyMonkey and writes about PLG, monetization, and growth models with a very practical lens.

How to use it:

  • Read her breakdowns of activation, pricing, and growth loops.
  • Pick one idea and sketch how it would look in your product and go to market.

Kyle Poyar and OpenView

Kyle writes regularly about PLG, SaaS benchmarks, and pricing. You get both strategy and data, which is rare.

How to use it:

  • Subscribe and skim each issue for one chart or idea that is relevant to your stage.
  • Use the benchmarks and examples to sanity check your own numbers.

Teardowns, examples, and deep dives

Sometimes the best way to learn PLG is to watch someone else dissect real products.

Pendo and other PLG teardown content

Pendo publishes articles, guides, and examples focused on PLG onboarding, in product guidance, and product analytics.

How to use it:

  • Find a teardown or guide that is close to your product category.
  • Use it as a checklist to review your own onboarding and in product experiences.

ProductLed case studies and live teardowns

ProductLed often shares case studies and teardown style content for specific SaaS products.

How to use it:

  • Watch or read one teardown and take notes on three specific patterns you see.
  • Decide which of those patterns you can test in your own product within the next month.

Tying resources back to your own experiments

Reading about PLG does not move your metrics on its own. The value comes from turning what you learn into concrete experiments.

A simple way to do that:

  1. Pick one resource from each category:
    • One core primer.
    • One course or structured resource, if you have time.
    • One person or newsletter to follow.
    • One teardown or example.
  2. For each resource, write down:
    • One idea you want to try.
    • Where in your funnel it applies, such as signup, activation, expansion.
    • A very simple metric you can use to see if anything changed.
  3. Schedule time every one or two weeks to:
    • Review what you read or watched.
    • Decide which idea to turn into an experiment.
    • Look at the results and write one short learning note.

If you layer these resources on top of a simple learning loop like this, you are not just collecting PLG content. You are building real product-led judgment by practicing on your own product.

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Further reading
Explore more essays and playbooks on product-led growth.
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