11 interlocking docs, grounded in the Plotline product context. The through-line: the people with the questions can't get the answers — Plotline makes it ask · in plain English · in minutes.
The shared brief every other doc reads from.
→ get a funnel, cohort, or chart in seconds. No SQL.| Segment | Trigger | Pain | Alternative today |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM / growth owner | needs to know why a metric moved | blocked on the data queue for days | file a ticket · guess · wait |
| Lifecycle / PMM | measuring a campaign or activation | no shared definition of 'activated' | argue over whose number is right |
| Head of Product | wants more decisions per week | bought Vista; nobody opens it | shelfware + a data-hire ask |
Select a persona to inspect JTBD, pain, and the message that lands.
Statement, category, value themes, and the tagline tester.
POV → value prop → three pillars. Select a pillar to inspect proof; switch persona variants with the tabs.
Artifact of the Competitive Desk: comparison matrix + battlecards. The real incumbent is the data-queue. Select an alternative to inspect when-we-win / when-they-win + guidance.
| Dimension | Plotline | Vista | Pulse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core use case | Ask in plain English → answer | Enterprise analytics suite | Dashboards (the 'what') |
| Time to value | Minutes | Weeks (implementation) | Days |
| Who can use it | Anyone on the team | Analysts / data team | Dashboard builders |
| Pricing model | Usage (MTU) · seats free | Seat + platform fee | Per seat |
| Best fit | No / overloaded data team | Mature data org | Dashboard-first team |
Value metric = monthly tracked users (MTU), not seats — because the value scales with usage analyzed, and per-seat would tax the cross-team adoption we want.
| Today (the queue) | With Plotline | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to an answer | ~2 days | 4 minutes |
| Who can ask | the analyst | anyone |
| Cost to scale | a data hire | MTU usage |
Anchor the pricing page to the queue you remove, not 'an analytics seat.' Seats are always unlimited — that's the strategy made visible.
Launching 'Ask' as Tier-1 — it's the differentiator and the reason a non-technical buyer chooses us. Pitch: 'Ask your product data anything, in plain English, in minutes.'
| Phase | Move |
|---|---|
| T-3 wk | Enablement + demo built; beta accuracy guardrail watched |
| Launch week | Launch blog + founder POV + Product Hunt + homepage 'Ask' live + lifecycle email |
| T+30 | Read activation delta · harvest first customer outcome → case study |
| Metric | Target | Decision rule |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts running ≥1 Ask | >50% wk1 | <30% → fix onboarding / TTV |
| Demo → trial CVR | beat baseline | tune the demo question |
| Activation w/ Ask vs without | +10pt | no lift → reposition the feature |
| Trial → paid | beat baseline | identify the paywall trigger (MTU) |
The product is the marketing — every shared chart is an ad. AHA = first real answer in under 5 minutes, no SQL.
Artifact of the Events Desk: where Plotline's ICP (PMs/growth at 20–200-person B2B SaaS) gathers, ranked by relevance (ICP fit · pipeline track record · audience · timing · cost). Exports to events.csv.
.agents/research/evidence.md. Cost/timing below are marked verify until then.| # | Event | Audience fit | Relevance | Motion | Cost band | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product-Led Summit | Growth/PM leaders at PLG SaaS — bullseye ICP | 92 | Speak + booth | $$ (verify) | Annual · verify |
| 2 | Mind the Product (MTP Con) | Product managers, senior — high fit | 88 | Speak + side-event | $$ (verify) | Annual · verify |
| 3 | INDUSTRY: The Product Conference | PMs across B2B SaaS — high fit | 84 | Booth + dinner | $$ (verify) | Annual · verify |
| 4 | SaaStr Annual | SaaS founders/GTM execs — economic buyers, big reach | 79 | Sponsor (brand) + side-event | $$$ (verify) | Annual · verify |
| 5 | Pavilion GTM2x | GTM leaders — buyer-heavy, smaller | 71 | Speak + dinner | $$ (verify) | Annual · verify |
| 6 | Amplitude Amplify | Analytics practitioners — competitor turf (offensive) | 64 | Side-event / hallway | $ (verify) | Annual · verify |
Why the top picks rank highest: Product-Led Summit and MTP put us in front of the exact PM/growth buyer who feels the data-queue pain, with a speaking slot to demo "ask in plain English." SaaStr ranks on reach + economic buyers despite higher cost; Amplify is low-relevance but high-offensive value (their audience is mid-migration).
Verify before committing budget: all cost bands + dates are placeholders until the live Events Desk run; confirm CFP/sponsorship deadlines against the launch window first.
Artifact of the Market Desk: SWOT + Porter's Five Forces + why-now for the self-serve product-analytics category, from the strategic-analysis frameworks.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Plain-English Ask · 4-min time-to-answer · doesn't become shelfware | Not warehouse-native; thinner deep-modeling; low brand vs incumbents |
| Opportunities | Threats |
|---|---|
| Non-technical buyers underserved · the AI-analytics wave · a clean PLG self-serve motion | Incumbents bolt on AI query · analytics commoditized to free tiers · DIY (SQL+BI) is entrenched |
| Force | Read |
|---|---|
| Rivalry | High — Amplitude, Mixpanel, PostHog, Heap |
| Buyer power | Medium — many cheap options, but switching cost rises with instrumentation |
| Substitutes | High — SQL + BI, spreadsheets, 'ask the analyst' |
| New entrants | High — LLM-analytics startups entering constantly |
| Supplier power | Low — commodity infra |
Verify on live run: force ratings + the 'incumbents add AI query' threat are directional until sourced.
Artifact of the Channels Desk: where Plotline's ICP (PMs/growth at 20–200-person B2B SaaS) gathers, ranked by reach × fit × effort. Exports channels.csv.
| # | Channel | Type | ICP fit | Effort | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lenny's Newsletter / Podcast | Newsletter + pod | PMs/growth — bullseye, huge reach | Med ($$) | Sponsor + guest post |
| 2 | r/ProductManagement | PMs — high fit, large | Low | Organic value + AMA | |
| 3 | Mind the Product | Community + events | PMs — high fit | Med | Speak + community |
| 4 | Reforge | Community + courses | Growth/PM leaders — high fit | Med | Collab / guest |
| 5 | Product Hunt | Launch | Builders — med fit, big spike | Low | Launch 'Ask' |
| 6 | Hacker News | Forum | Technical founders — med fit | Low | Show HN |
Why these rank: Lenny + r/ProductManagement put us in front of the exact PM who feels the data-queue pain; Reforge/MTP reach the growth-leader buyer; PH/HN are spike plays for launch week.
Artifact of the KOL Desk: the people who shape the product-analytics / PM narrative, ranked by relevance × reach. Exports kol-list.csv.
| # | Name | Type | Reach | Relevance | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lenny Rachitsky | Newsletter / podcast | Very large | PM/growth audience — bullseye | Guest + seed |
| 2 | April Dunford | Positioning author / speaker | Large | Shapes how we position | Brief / endorse |
| 3 | Elena Verna | Growth advisor / writer | Large | Growth-PM buyer | Collab / guest |
| 4 | Reforge (Brian Balfour) | Community / education | Large | Growth-leader audience | Partner content |
| 5 | G2 · analyst grids | Analyst | Medium | Category placement | Monitor + submit |
Verify on live run: leanings + recent activity per person; confirm each is actively posting on this space before outreach.
Artifact of the GTM/Launch Desk: how comparable products launched + which tactics fit Plotline, ranked by evidence-of-ROI × fit × effort. Exports launch-tactics.csv.
| # | Tactic | Fit | Evidence (comparable) | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product Hunt launch | High — PLG, builder audience | June / PostHog launched on PH | Low |
| 2 | Founder POV blog + Show HN | High — technical credibility | PostHog grew on HN + content | Low |
| 3 | Interactive 'ask a question' demo | High — the product is the marketing | Amplitude/Heap lead with demo | Med |
| 4 | Lenny's + r/ProductManagement | High — exact ICP | (see Channels desk) | Med |
| 5 | Paid search 'Vista alternative' | Med — capture intent | competitor-alternative SEM | Med (phase 2) |
Why this order: PLG products win launch week on Product Hunt + community + a self-serve demo, not paid. Paid 'alternative' search is a phase-2 capture play once the funnel converts.
The change → stakes → villain → promised land → proof → flag.
Flagship campaign. Big idea: contrast the multi-day ticket queue with a four-minute answer.
Senior-PMM scorecard (bars animate when this view opens) + required revisions.
Generated by the artifact factory. Links resolve when this file sits in the launch folder next to generated-docs/.
Type the question — 'where do trial users drop off before inviting a teammate?' — and get a funnel back. No query language, no report to hunt for.
Auto-instrumentation captures events without an engineering ticket; self-serve means no analyst in the loop for the common question.
Shared metric definitions — 'active', 'activated', 'MTU' — used across product and marketing, so numbers reconcile across teams.
No/overloaded data team · Vista is already shelfware there · the user is non-technical · the speed of one answer matters.
A mature data org wanting warehouse-native modeling + governance at enterprise scale. Disqualify, don't oversell.
Don't fight on feature depth (their home field). Reframe to adoption + time-to-value: 'how many seats actually log in weekly?'
Pulse shows what happened, then you file a ticket to ask why. Plotline answers the follow-up yourself.
Buyer only wants dashboards and already has someone to build and maintain them.
'Pulse tells you what. Plotline tells you why — without the next ticket.'
Speed + self-serve: the common 'why' question in minutes, not a multi-day ticket.
Deep, novel modeling that genuinely needs SQL and the warehouse.
'Keep the analyst for the hard modeling. Plotline clears the queue of the 80% they shouldn't be doing.'