{"id":108623,"date":"2024-05-23T12:08:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T19:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/?post_type=insights&p=108623"},"modified":"2025-05-21T11:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T18:19:06","slug":"product-strategy","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/insights\/product-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Use Cases For Verb Scoring To Support A Successful Product Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note: This is part two in a two-part series on verb scoring. If you haven\u2019t already, I recommend you read the first installment, An Introduction to Verb Scoring<\/a>, before reading this one. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing up a product with a proper mix of free and paid features is no small feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free features are great for acquisition, but give away too much free value and you risk carrying a bunch of free users who never convert to paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paid features are an important part of monetization, but some products have value that\u2019s hard to realize without users at least trying the full feature suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve often felt that there\u2019s a lot of nuance to feature-gating that goes unspoken. This is in part because we don\u2019t have a great taxonomy to discuss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where verb scoring comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verb scoring is the first step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you read last week\u2019s article, you\u2019re already familiar with verb scoring<\/a>, a method we developed to evaluate <\/strong>actions that users can take in your product and then score<\/strong> them based on the limitations and entitlements required to perform the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a refresher on the six verb scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"levels<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before undertaking a verb-scoring exercise, you\u2019ll have to build your verb-scoring vocabulary. Then, you can move on to scoring your and your competitors’ verbs. Once you have a verb scoring matrix, the artifact that comes from your exercise, you can use it to address your product strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considerations for feature-gating as a product strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But, with a verb scoring matrix in hand, there is still an important unanswered question on how to use feature-gating as a way to encourage user conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to gate features has never been a simple equation, and there are several factors to consider when deciding what to offer users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Feature Complexity: <\/strong>While some features will only matter to users with a niche use case, others are built to acquire novices. As such, product people can use information like a feature’s target audience to make thoughtful choices about what verbs to give away for \u201cfree\u201d and which to guard more tightly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Maturity: <\/strong>The maturity of your product and your brand\u2019s reputation plays a role as well. Newcomers in an established product space might be looking to increase brand awareness, while a legacy brand with near-market saturation might care more about improving retention and reducing churn. It\u2019s easy to imagine how a company\u2019s status as either a newcomer or a market leader might impact their feature-gating strategy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Up-time and integration complexity: <\/strong>The complexity of your product\u2019s setup can also impact your strategy. Significant up-time or complicated technical integrations might factor into whether you give away any or all of your product\u2019s features in a grace period during the setup window.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Novel technology: <\/strong>Many industries are shy of truly differentiated competitors. But for companies that have truly novel tech, restricting access to paying customers is a much easier decision than for companies with clearer competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Feature complexity, maturity, up-time, and novelty are just a few examples of what we might consider when standing up a paywall strategy. The list goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It can be overwhelming to consider the seemingly endless number of factors that may contribute to a strategy. While it is crucial to keep these considerations in mind, it can also help to review specific scenarios of how verb scoring turns a company\u2019s priorities into a product strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How can I use verb scoring to craft a meaningful product strategy? It starts by understanding your goals.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s take a look at nine use cases for verb scoring guided by common digital team goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. If you\u2019re looking to increase your share of voice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re struggling to get in front of relevant audiences, you might want to consider if there are Anonymous verbs you can offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Especially for web-based products, search engine results pages (SERPs) are a frequent gateway for those looking for a feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Take, for example, online PDF conversion. One Google search yields big players like Adobe Acrobat, but it also shows leaner companies like SmallPDF and e-signature tools like PandaDoc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"online<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"compressing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Example: <\/strong>PandaDoc uses an anonymous conversion tool to get their document signature products in front of those with PDF use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • From a Google search, PDFConvert promises Free Online PDF Conversion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • On the website, users can take the action for free as many times as they like.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Each time they complete the action, they see an offer to try PandaDoc for free.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      By giving away a bit of value to users in their target audience (PDF users), PandaDoc is able to compete with big players in the PDF space and increase its visibility among people who have demonstrated a need for PDFs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n