Product-Led Growth: What They Don’t Tell You About Building the Technology

How We Learned to Prioritise Users and Integration for Effective Product-Led Growth Stack

By early 2022, we were deep into embracing Product-Led Growth (PLG) as our strategic pillar. The vision was crystal clear: our product would drive growth, the user experience would sit at the heart of everything, and every move we made would feed into compounding growth loops. Easy enough to say, but as we soon realized, you can’t make PLG work with ideas alone — you need the right tools.

Not just any tools, though. We needed technology that could show us what users were doing, help us figure out what was working (and what wasn’t), and give us ways to engage with them effectively. And here’s the kicker: we had to build this system in a way that could work for two very different banks at two very different stages in their maturity — GoTyme Bank in the Philippines and TymeBank in South Africa.

A Tale of Two Banks

This was where things got properly interesting. GoTyme Bank and TymeBank?

Completely different beasts.

On one side, you had TymeBank, scaling fast in a tough South African market. On the other, there was GoTyme, just starting out in the Philippines, figuring out its foundations while navigating the challenges of entering a new market.

It was a bit like making a Durban curry for a family gathering — one pot already bubbling away, needing small adjustments to get the spices and balance just right, while the other was still in the prep phase, with onions frying, masalas being added, and everything just starting to come together. Same end goal, sure, but two very different ways and processes to get there.

Our challenge wasn’t just building a stack that could work — it had to be flexible enough to serve both banks, at the same time, at completely different stages of their journeys and deployed to both production environments practically a month a part.

Challenge accepted.

Where We Started: Building the Framework

When we started, it wasn’t just about finding tools — it was about creating a system, an integrated system. We needed everything to connect, so data could flow smoothly, insights could appear naturally, and user engagement could happen at the right time. And we knew it wouldn’t happen overnight. We had to prioritise the essentials first and build from there.

Here’s the framework we used to guide our decisions:

1. Start with integration. Tools had to talk to each other. If they didn’t, we’d end up with data silos all over again.
2. Flexibility of ingestion. The stack had to handle data from vastly different systems — South African setups aren’t always compatible with Philippine ones.
3. Make it real-time. If you’re not responding to user actions immediately, you’re already behind.
4. Keep it user-focused. Every tool had to serve the user experience. If it didn’t help us understand or engage users better, it wasn’t worth it.

Data: The Fuel for PLG (and Why Latency Kills the Fun)

Here’s the thing about PLG: data is everything. But not just any data — it needs to be actionable and available in real time. Acting on old data is like trying to join a conversation that’s already moved on. By the time you respond, the moment is gone, and the window of opportunity has been missed.

We needed a system that could handle all the complexities of data flowing in from different sources — mobile apps, websites, backend systems — and surface insights instantly.

Latency? Out of the question.

So, we started building what we internally now call the Growth Stack: a collection of tools designed to help us understand user behavior, act on insights in the moment, and continuously improve.

To make this work, we had to answer three big questions:

1. How do we get a complete view of the user journey?
2. How do we make sure our tools work together instead of creating data silos?
3. How do we act on insights in real time?

And then there was the ultimate challenge:

How do we do all of this across two banks with completely different setups?

Without answers to these, our PLG efforts would’ve been like inviting everyone to a braai, only to realize you’ve got no firelighters, no charcoal, and no wood.

Just a lot of enthusiasm, hungry guests, and no way to actually get things going — while you’re desperately trying to make it work with newspaper.

The Core Components of Our Growth Stack

1. The Foundation: Customer Data Platform (CDP)

The CDP was where it all began. This tool was the engine that pulled data from every corner — whether it was the mobile app, website, or backend systems — and gave us a single, unified view of each user. Without it, the rest of the stack would’ve fallen apart.

Key Benefits:

• Unified data: We could finally see the whole user journey, instead of disconnected fragments.
• Real-time insights: No more waiting hours or days to understand what users were doing.

Why It Mattered: If PLG is about understanding and improving the user experience, the CDP is what makes that understanding possible.

2. Turning Data into Action: Customer Engagement Platform (CEP)

Once we had data flowing through the CDP, the next challenge was acting on it. The CEP let us take those insights and use them to engage with users in meaningful, personalized ways.

Key Benefits:

• Behavior-based messages: For example, if someone stopped halfway through onboarding, we could send them a nudge to help them finish.
• Multi-channel reach: Whether it was a push notification, an in-app message, or an email, we could reach users wherever they were.

Why It Mattered: PLG is all about removing friction and helping users find value quickly. The CEP helped us do that.

3. Tracking Mobile Success: Mobile Attribution Platform

Our mobile app was at the heart of the user experience, so understanding the entire mobile user journey was critical. The mobile attribution platform gave us visibility from the first ad click to in-app engagement.

Key Benefits:

• Measure campaign effectiveness: We could see which acquisition channels brought in the most valuable users.
• Analyze in-app behavior: We knew what users were doing after they installed the app.

Why It Mattered: It wasn’t just about tracking installs — it was about focusing on the right users and improving their experience.

4. Diving Deeper: Product Analytics

As the stack evolved, we brought in a product analytics tool to give us deeper insights into user behavior. This was a game-changer for spotting pain points and improving flows.

Key Benefits:

• Track specific events: We could see exactly what actions users were taking (or skipping).
• Analyze funnels: This helped us figure out where users were dropping off and how to fix it.

Why It Mattered: PLG is about continuous improvement, and product analytics gave us the data to make that happen.

5. Driving Loyalty and Referrals: Promotion and Loyalty Engine

To round out the stack, we added a tool for managing referrals, promotions, and loyalty programs. This was the cherry on top, helping us turn happy users into advocates.

Key Benefits:

• Dynamic referral programs: Users could invite friends, and both would be rewarded.
• Build loyalty systems: We could incentivize ongoing engagement with personalized rewards.

Why It Mattered: This helped us supercharge our growth loops by turning engaged users into advocates.

Lessons Learned

Looking back, here are a few key takeaways from our journey:

1. Start simple. Focus on the basics first — tools that give you the biggest lift.
2. Integration is non-negotiable. If your tools don’t work together, you’ll spend more time fixing data pipelines than driving growth.
3. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Building a growth stack is a continuous process, just like optimizing the product itself.
4. Expect a data engineering workout. Getting the stack to work across two banks with different systems was no small feat — it required serious alignment, instrumentation, and effort. Don’t underestimate the effort and alignment required.

The first iteration of the Growth Stack ending 2023

Building our growth stack wasn’t just about choosing tools — it was about creating a system that could bring our Product-Led Growth vision to life. Each component plays a role in helping us understand users, engage meaningfully, and continuously improve the product.

The journey is far from over, but one thing’s clear: with the right tools and mindset, growth isn’t something you chase — it’s something you enable.

In the next instalment, I’ll talk a bit more about alignment between the product-led growth function and the broader product and business functions.

Spoiler: it’s damn hard!