Overheard in product-led: Freemium, Microsoft, a summit, 10x, and PLG

We’re back with part 24 of Overheard in Product—a series where we round up all of the tantalizing conversations from product folks that you may have missed on the web last week. 

This week, we’re listening in on folks talking about product-led growth. We overheard a caveat about freemium, a toast raise to Microsoft, a summit worth attending (no pants required), something 10x that’s actually feasible, and clarification on this whole product-led growth thing. 

Let’s get to it. 

A bit of free advice

Jason Lemkin, SaaS founder and investor, had a clarification about freemium products. 

‍Food for thought: Do you agree? 

Nothing micro about it

Al Gillen, open source analyst at IDC, gave a shout out to Microsoft after it posted its most profitable quarter ever. 

Want more info? This Inc article explores why Microsoft is winning—even as number 2:

“Microsoft underwent a dramatic change from the days when it primarily sold boxes of Windows and Office software to consumers and businesses. It has transitioned much of its business to take advantage of the demand for cloud-based computing, and in doing so, just posted its best quarter ever, and has become the world's most valuable company.” 

You can churn a thing or two

With all this product-led growth talk, we’d be remiss to not mention The Product-Led Summit that’s happening this week. Melanie Crissey, Product Marketer at FullStory, has a great session. 

Full disclosure: we were so excited about the summit that we became a co-sponsor. And there’s still time to sign up. 

It makes the dream work

John Cutler, product development nut at Amplitude, jumped on the 10x thread that you might have muted a few weeks back—but with a more holistic question. 

The thread is incredibly interesting as folks discuss team management and theories around high performance. 

Bonus: Wait, what actually is product-led growth?

If you’re still stumped about what product-led growth actually is, check out our newest resource, The Product-Led Growth Collective. 

We wrote an in-depth article about product-led growth, including examples of product-led companies, how to become product-led, and metrics you’ll need.