Enterprise PLG segment playbook

Segment constraints

Team size

Companies selling into mid-market and enterprise where deals span multiple teams, security, and procurement stakeholders.

Sales motion

Self-serve wedge for one or a few teams, followed by enterprise sales once governance, compliance, and org-wide rollout are on the table.

Buyer type

Team leads or champions prove value in a wedge; procurement, security, and executives become involved only after team-level success is demonstrated.

PLG objective for this segment

Use a self-serve PLG wedge to prove value with a small team in real work, then let product usage signals and governance needs drive the transition into enterprise sales cycles and governed contracts.

Activation model

In this segment, the activation definition is a small set of outcomes that reliably predict long-term retention or upgrade. Treat it as a precise metric (activation rate and time-to-value), not a vague sense that users “get it”.

Wedge workflow completed by a small team.
Repeat usage across multiple users.
Expansion triggers: invites, projects, usage thresholds.

Activation example

Activation definition: An account is activated when a small team completes the wedge workflow and returns for repeat usage across multiple users.

Time-to-value target: Under 1 week for a pilot team to prove value

First success event: wedge_workflow_completed

Expansion trigger event: team_growth_detected or governance_feature_needed

Product signals to instrument

Instrument explicit events with clear properties. Each signal should map to a specific, in-product behavior that you can use in funnels, cohorts, and routing rules without extra interpretation.

Example event schema

wedge_workflow_completed
Pilot team completes the wedge workflow outcome.
Properties: workflow, workspace_id
active_users_7d
Account has multiple active users in 7 days (team adoption).
Properties: workspace_id, active_user_count
governance_feature_needed
Account attempts a governance feature (SSO, audit logs, roles).
Properties: feature

Routing logic

Automation stays automated when…

Small pilot teams complete wedge_workflow_completed but active_users_7d remains low and confined to one team.
Accounts have not yet emitted governance_feature_needed events (for example SSO or audit logs).
Usage is limited to evaluation or sandbox projects with no sign of production-critical dependencies.

Humans step in when…

Multiple teams or departments begin using the product across separate workspaces or projects, reflected in rising active_users_7d.
Accounts emit governance_feature_needed events (SSO, audit logs, RBAC) or raise security/procurement questions.
Pilot teams consistently fire wedge_workflow_completed and active_users_7d events and request broader rollout, budget, or enterprise features.

Expansion mechanics

Pilot teams that succeed with the wedge become internal advocates, pulling in adjacent teams and lines of business.
Governance, security, and compliance needs (SSO, audit logs, roles, DLP) become the reason to move from team to enterprise plans.
Centralized contracts consolidate pockets of team-level usage into larger, multi-year agreements with clearer unit economics.

Failure modes specific to this segment

Trying to run all enterprise demand through a generic self-serve signup with no defined wedge, activation metric, or sales handoff.
Failing to distinguish between “wedge activation” and “enterprise-ready”, so accounts are either over-routed to sales or left in self-serve limbo.
Investing heavily in outbound or top-of-funnel campaigns while the wedge experience is weak and pilot teams cannot reach activation.