Best Process Mapping Tools and Software for 2024

Visio alternative

Leading Enterprise Architecture software company Ardoq has consistently challenged a well-established industry by offering an innovative and progressive platform for enterprise architecture that appeals to the decision-makers in the organization in addition to the enterprise architects. Now, they are taking new steps to strengthen their position, and when the opportunity arose to strike a deal with ShiftX, Ardoq quickly showed interest.

We have followed ShiftX for a long time and are incredibly impressed with what they have achieved—both in terms of a solid, exciting, and sought-after product, as well as some truly satisfied customers. Our customers have long requested additional process capabilities, and we see great potential for synergies where ShiftX’s technology will undoubtedly strengthen our platform significantly,

For us, this means new user groups from the business side, opportunities for upselling, and a more holistic approach that our customers can benefit from. Additionally, we are welcoming new colleagues in the form of a highly competent team from ShiftX, who are already integrated into the organization.

ShiftX provides a simple and intuitive platform for process modeling, enabling businesses to quickly achieve a shared understanding across departments and levels within the organization. The result is reduced time to understand each other and a solid foundation for working agilely on developing and improving processes. The team of five from ShiftX is already in place in Ardoq's new offices at Grensen, and according to CEO and co-founder, Nikolai Strandskogen, exciting times are ahead.

Ardoq has had a brilliant growth journey in recent years and achieved an international expansion that few other Norwegian SaaS companies can boast of. They value good user experiences as highly as we do, have high ambitions for using AI in product development, and a unique culture that we are excited to be a part of. We see significant synergies, and by integrating our platforms, we will create entirely new value for our customers. We have great faith in our joint project, so these are truly exciting times for all of us.

Like Ardoq, ShiftX is on a mission to enable better decision-making processes across the organization. The solution aims to contribute to a transparent understanding of how things are interconnected within the business, and unlike other traditional tools, ShiftX is dynamic and data-driven. Teams can work live on the platform and collaboratively develop processes to create a shared understanding. Process mapping is also crucial for various audits and certifications, making ShiftX a business-critical software, especially for larger enterprises.

We started ShiftX because in previous roles, we saw how a shared understanding could change the dynamics of a team or project, lead to better decisions, and make people more positive about changes. Like Ardoq, we have also challenged our industry on how to work with process modeling, focusing less on standardizations and traditional modeling languages, and more on user-friendliness and quick business value,

ShiftX has a wide range of use-cases, including documenting and improving processes where connections are clarified, conducting risk assessments, handling deviations, planning product launches, and developing services. According to Ardoq’s Bakstad, the product team at Ardoq and the ShiftX team are already hard at work figuring out how best to integrate the platforms in the quest for valuable synergies for their customers.

Now, we will spend the next few months developing a joint roadmap on how best to merge the products and bring them to market. ShiftX’s solution can be a clear entry point to our platform for the business side. Ardoq has always been focused on making data and insights accessible to decision-makers, and with ShiftX on board, we are pushing the boundaries even further for what data we can map and connect. This will clearly set us apart from our competitors, and it is an excellent position to be in

ShiftX joins Ardoq

 in every organization that can significantly improve the way you understand and carry out tasks within your company. By visually outlining your workflows, you can see not only how things are currently done, but also identify opportunities for making your processes more efficient and effective.

And with a process mapping tool like ShiftX, this becomes not just a task but an interactive experience that can involve your entire team and even your stakeholders. Let's walk you through the steps to create a process map that can transform your workflow.

The first step in process mapping is to establish clear goals. What do you want to achieve with your process map? You may want to comply with new regulations, identify potential risks, or improve collaboration between different departments.

Knowing your objectives from the start helps you use process mapping tools more effectively, ensuring each part of your process map has a clear purpose.

In any process, there are individuals or teams who take action. These are your 'actors'. When mapping your process, it's crucial to identify these roles accurately.

This is not just about listing all roles but understanding their impact and contributions to the workflow. It helps in recognizing areas where roles may overlap or where additional resources might be beneficial.

This stage is crucial for developing an effective process map. It allows you to see the bigger picture of how each role interact, leading to a more efficient and well-structured process.

Now, it's time to break down the process into steps. This part is more than just listing what needs to be done, it's about understanding the sequence and how each step leads to the next.

Think of it as drawing a map that someone else can follow without getting lost.

Your goal is to make a process map that's easy to use and helps make the workflow smoother and more efficient. When you're done, you should have a clear guide that explains the whole process in a straightforward way.

The next step in making your process map is to assign roles to each step. This means making it clear which role is responsible for what in each part of the process.

It's about organizing who does what, so there's no confusion later on. Adding roles to each step has big benefits:

 Everyone knows who's in charge of each task. This stops tasks from being missed or done twice.

 When people know their specific roles, they're more likely to take ownership and do their best.

 It's easier to see if a step is missing someone or if one role is doing too much.

Integrating roles into each step of your process map is crucial for creating a well-structured and transparent process. This helps keep everything running smoothly and makes sure everyone knows their part.

After mapping your process, share it with your co-workers. 

 will be a good test of its clarity. They may spot issues or suggest additional steps that you hadn't considered. Be open to their feedback, a fresh set of eyes can be invaluable.

Remember, the goal of sharing the process map with your team is not just to inform them but to engage them. Their input is invaluable, providing a perspectives that can significantly enhance the quality of your process map. Encourage open dialogue and be ready to make adjustments based on their feedback.

For each actor in your process, describe their role and actions in detail. This helps avoid misunderstandings later on. Everyone involved should be able to look at the process map and know exactly what's expected of them and others.

Some steps in your process will be riskier than others. Highlight these areas and assign someone to monitor and manage them. Make a note of any potential solutions or action plans, along with any deadlines.

ShiftX allows you to add comments to each step. Decide how you want to use this feature. Will you keep comments to capture the history of changes, or will you delete them to keep the map clean? Set rules so everyone knows how to use comments effectively.

A process map isn't just a diagram; it can be a repository of knowledge. Link to relevant documents, policies, or regulations directly in your map. Use dynamic links for documents that get updated regularly, so your process map always reflects the most current information.

Some parts of your process may be complex enough to be an own sub-processes. Separate these from your main map to avoid clutter. Make sure these sub-processes have an owner who is responsible for keeping them updated.

Incorporate realistic timeframes into your process map. This helps set expectations for how long each step should take and allows for more accurate planning and scheduling.

Clearly describe how actors in each step interact with each other. Who hands off information to whom? How do different departments communicate within the step? Understanding and defining these interaction points is crucial for a smooth process.

Periodically review your process map to ensure it remains clear and relevant. Look for missing steps, bottlenecks, or any new risks that may have arisen. Regular reviews help keep your process map a living document that evolves with your organization.

By following these steps and using ShiftX, you'll create not just a process map, but a dynamic 

 that will help streamline your workflows, clarify roles and responsibilities, and improve overall efficiency in your organization.

Introduction to Process Mapping

Including stakeholders with a role or interest in the process is required to succeed.

Key knowledge and accuracy with no assumptions

In organizations, much of the knowledge and know-how is distributed across the minds of its members. From CEO and managers to trainees, each individual holds unique insight and expertise. They all have hands-on experience and knowledge from their perspective that may not be obvious to the rest of the organization.

It is key to recognize that our colleagues are not just task-performers, but are in possession of knowledge that can be used to improve the organization. Every person, regardless of their position, holds a piece of the puzzle that completes the larger picture of the organization's knowledge.

 capture the current state and identify areas for improvement

. By capturing the key knowledge from the people involved in a process, you can ensure that the accuracy of the process map is high.

If a process map is inaccurate or outdated, the potential effect of utilizing the map greatly decreases or vanishes altogether. When a map is inaccurate it fails to engage and the risk of using it skyrockets.

Feeling of ownership and increased engagement

Involving people in process mapping has many great benefits. It promotes teamwork. It brings a sense of meaning to the participants. People are more likely to share their ideas. You develop a can-do attitude and greatly improve willingness for change. And it creates ownership of the process and the organization itself.

Engagement also leads to better job satisfaction. When members of an organization experience that their contributions are valued and lead to improvements, it creates a positive feedback loop that further drives engagement. Engaged employees are more productive, more innovative, and more likely to stay with the company long-term, reducing turnover costs and contributing to a better work environment.

Change is a part of any growing organization. A decision made in the boardroom does not automatically guarantee successful implementation in the organization. The people that will implement the change are the people who should know, understand and be motivated for it.

By including them when mapping processes and visualizing pain points, they get a better idea of why change needs to happen and the chance of success greatly improves. You also get the benefit of better ownership and overall understanding and willingness for change.

Research conducted in 2017 found that in 

 few or none of the process maps are ever used by employees.

Many people wonder if mapping out the details of a process is even necessary. This could be fueled by prior experiences where process maps were made but never fully utilized.

Process mapping has to be about more than just documenting for documentation's sake. That quickly becomes unsustainable and demoralizing. The potential is huge if implemented and done correctly.

Once a process map is outdated it quickly loses its value. If the job of updating the process map is slow or cumbersome people quickly find other ways to solve their pain and do their job. This results in many different ways of doing things and unorganized scattered knowledge. Companies should ensure they have a simple way to map and keep processes up to date. When your tools and methods are outdated it is no surprise your process maps are outdated.

Most people avoid process mapping due to the complexity of the tools, notation or the excessive time needed. A notation like 

BPMN uses specialized symbols and terminology

 that in itself requires time and training to understand. This added complexity leads to confusion, misunderstandings and can result in team members avoiding process mapping if they can.

 get in the way of anything getting done at all. Simply because the barrier of entry is too high.

Lastly, another common reason why process maps are underutilized is that most people don’t even know they exist. Probably due to the issues mentioned before, but could also be due to them being managed by a select few gatekeepers or a culture of secrecy and silos instead of a culture of transparency and knowledge sharing.

How to get started with process based knowledge-sharing

Select a process that you are well familiar with and where you have key responsibility. Examples would be a reimbursement process, onboarding process or any other process that has an impact on many people. Start mapping the process based on your knowledge and insight.

When at any point you find steps or areas you are unsure or unfamiliar with, invite the people who have key knowledge to take part in the mapping. Let them contribute with their insight and experience, instead of you guessing or assuming. There might be details or improvement opportunity that you would not learn or understand otherwise.

Setting up a workshop where you map together with your co-workers is another valuable way to go. This often turns into an exciting learning opportunity for everyone involved as the sharing of knowledge usually leads to the uncovering of both small and big improvement ideas.

Use the process whenever possible. In meetings, presentations, emails, workshops or in your daily work. This makes it visible to your co-workers.


To make it even more accessible, make the process available in solutions your co-workers already use

(MS teams, Sharepoint, Slack, Notion, etc) for greater reach and transparency.

Encourage stakeholders to add comments to the process if they have suggestions for improvement, or issues if there are bottlenecks that need to be fixed.


. To involve everyone that takes part in any process. 

3 reasons why collaboration is essential for success in process management

My ongoing and humbling experience tells me that the more I know about a topic, the deeper and wider it seems. So I usually feel more like an expert before I know much about something than I do when I actually know something. Therefore, getting to the point where I can state that I am an expert seems close to impossible.

Passion on the other hand is simpler and more real to talk about in my mind. I am among other things passionate about organization, collaboration and autonomy. In addition I have always had a deep need to understand how things work. People, systems and organizations. This is what eventually led me to co-found ShiftX five years ago. How did it all start?

I was one of the experts. There were two of us, eight of them, a whiteboard and post-it notes. I felt like a fraud. Like we were cheating. Again and again we had these workshops. 6-8 VPs or managers from a wide range of major Norwegian corporations. We were there to help them improve their customer journey which in return would improve their revenue. What did we do? We helped them talk. We helped them visualize problems. Could they have done it without us? Most definitely. I guess a change of scenery always helps. And the fact that they were paying these young experts to help them would make it a little bit harder to cancel the four-hour session from their calendars.

It is amazing what can happen when we take the time to talk. See each other in the eyes. Feel each other's pain. Share one another's excitement. I still fail all the time. In my marriage, in my work, with my kids. I make assumptions. I know! Don’t make assumptions! But it’s so freaking hard not to.

This happens in the workplace as well. At scale. Add some competition, pride and gossip to the mix and we find ourselves in a giant toxic mess. We hide behind busyness, expectations and endless streams of important emails. And hey, don’t ask that question! Someone might think you are stupid or incompetent! This might sound like an exaggeration to some, but normal or even an understatement to others.

If I wasn’t a firsthand witness I wouldn't have used those words. The tension in the room could be so tangible I felt that one tiny misstep would result in total breakdown. That's why I love it when years of misunderstanding and grudge vanish in an instant as one manager finally experiences and feels the pain of another. Seeing each other in the eyes, knowing that we are on the same team and actually listening to what the other has to say is so unbelievably powerful.

Those kinds of stories are what drives us at ShiftX. Yes to AI. Yes to automation. Yes, yes, yes… But don’t forget the people! Having the right balance between autonomy, collaboration and oversight has always been what makes me either thrive and over deliver, or choke and start looking for another job. Trivial small adjustments can have an enormous impact on so many levels. From the bottom line to the lives of the families of your co-workers.

I know this is about culture, and that changing culture is hard. We are not going to state that we are “The Solution” to the problem either. Not yet anyway. What we will say is that we think differently. We think that focusing on the people, believing that most people have a deep desire to do a great job and that building tools that embrace democratization, collaboration and autonomy is key to unlocking new levels of performance, creativity and continuous improvement in any organization.

Let’s go back to the workshops. To the heart of improving customer journeys. We started to see a pattern. It was so predictable that we now consider it the rule rather than the exception. Let me try to explain what we saw.

When going on a journey you bring a map. And if you found this article you might be familiar with “Customer Journey Maps” or “Business Process Maps”. Here is the issue. Given a map of a city, a regular human being knows exactly what it is and is able to make sense of it quickly. That is not usually the case with 

I can hear all the objections to my statement. Organizations are complex! They change all the time! There are so many variations, levels, technical details, compliance requirements and more. Yes! That is true. But if your goal is to help someone understand how to get from SOHO to Central Park you don’t give them a map of the sewage system or the electrical grid. You give them a high-level overview of Manhattan, probably with the Subway as an overlay.

Why is it then that managers, VPs and leaders across businesses all over the world are given maps that they don’t understand? Or even worse, they are required to produce maps they don’t understand. And end up hiring consultants to produce 

. And therefore creating maps that have a 100% guarantee of being somewhere between inaccurate and complete nonsense.

I think we can do better, and that we should do better.

I’m amazed at all the hard-working, diligent people we meet. The sacrifice managers have to make as they try to deliver on their KPIs while serving and meeting the needs of their employees. That’s also why I think that they deserve great tools that help them do their job, that are easy to use and that promotes involvement and delegation.

We are still a small company with a lot to prove and a long way to go, but we have enough traction and excited customers for us to know we are onto something. We strongly believe most 

 in the EA (Enterprise Architecture) and BPM (Business Process Management) space greatly miss the mark on user experience. The consequence is way bigger than the lack of functionality, it’s a fundamental flaw. We live to fix it. 

Kill the grudge, free the people and revolutionize BPM

However, none of these cater to business process management and have significant drawbacks.

Process mapping tools are designed for specialists, leading to a steep learning curve.

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is often hard for people to understand

Function more as advanced whiteboards rather than data-centric process mapping solutions.

There is no easy way to organize and understand how the processes are connected

It’s hard to collaborate between people and departments

If you have tried some of these tools and felt some of the mentioned shortcomings, we urge you to see how 

ShiftX has a radically different approach to Process Mapping

A process mapping tool is a software that can significantly improve the way you understand and carry out tasks within your company. By visually outlining your workflows, you can see not only how things are currently done, but also identify opportunities for making your processes more efficient and effective. 

Get a quick introduction to process mapping

Complexity in understanding process maps is a significant barrier. Tools relying on BPMN, with its myriad symbols, can be daunting. Using PowerPoint instead of process mapping tools can make you focus more on aligning graphics.

ShiftX addresses these issues effectively. It is an intuitive, fast, and user-friendly tool, eliminating the need for complex notations. Its drag-and-drop functionality and straightforward path creation make process mapping accessible to all.

Enhancing collaboration in process mapping

knowledge about how a business operates is spread throughout the organization

. To improve business, gather knowledge and best practices from all employees for process mapping.

With ShiftX, it's easy to involve people and assign ownership to parts of a process. In context, they can add details, content, links, or discuss improvement potential with comments.

You can answer questions about where the system is used and what happens before the process." and "Who is responsible for that process?" because everything in ShiftX is data.

If you have ever used Miro, Microsoft Visio, or PowerPoint for process mapping you know it’s like working on a canvas. You cannot view reports on which systems are part of certain processes. You also cannot see the connections between different business processes or the total time a specific path takes in the flow.

With ShiftX you can do all of this and more. We help you and your colleagues see the bigger picture. We explore new perspectives and work on improving your operation.

If you want a more in-depth comparison, check out how we 

Leading the Way in Process Mapping for 2024

Tailored for both Business Process Management and Process Mapping, ShiftX offers a uniq approach. It creates intuitive, consistent process maps without the need for external consultants. Embrace the expertise within your organization and start with ShiftX – it’s user-friendly and free to get started. 

Both ShiftX and Microsoft Visio can be used for process mapping and in business process management. But there are major differences between them.

ShiftX has an intentional and well thought out way of doing process mapping that is simple to follow. With ShiftX, you get a  clear and consistent way to visualize processes.

In contrast, Visio is a free-form tool that leaves styling and structure of process mapping entirely in your hands. The starting point is an empty canvas with a library of symbols, often from the

. The lack of structure and uniformity can easily lead to varied styles, lower readability and higher potential for miscommunication.

Built for everyone, not only business process experts

ShiftX is designed from the bottom up for ease of use, allowing anyone to access it, not just the process mapping experts. Visio on the other hand have a steep learning curve, and is slower to use.

In a modern team or organization everyone should be up to date on what is going on and how things work in the organization. ShiftX encourages transparency and collaboration across departments.

Both ShiftX and Microsoft Visio have features that make potential options when looking for a process mapping tool.

ShiftX is a smart and intelligent tool. It utilizes data to help you understand your processes from different perspectives.

are data points added to steps that identify the roles and systems involved.

Duration is added to each step allowing ShiftX to calculate the average time for a process or the time to complete a specific path or outcome.

ShiftX is both modern and user-friendly with an interface that meets the expectation from users in 2023.

Business processes and flows should be owned and continuously improved by the people within your business. Not external consultants. The ShiftX notation and user experience enables this. In contrast most existing process mapping tools in use today are outdated, complex and hinders understanding and collaboration outside the circle of experts using them.

ShiftX encourages collaboration. It's built so teams and departments can work together. Involving the people that are responsible for the various parts of a process greatly improves the chance of success.

Assign them responsibility of the individual flows

ShiftX plays well with other tools. You can integrate your process maps in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Confluence,Notion and any other 

In Visio it’s impossible to map and facilitate a  workshop simultaneously. With ShiftX you can. We are now spending less than half the time in mapping workshops than before

 

Thomas Trier, Chief Digitalization and IT Officer at Virke

ShiftX offers a free plan for simple use-cases. If you are an individual or a small team this can be sufficient. Check out our pricing page to find the plan that best fits your needs. Or just start with our free plan and upgrade when needed.

Visio comes with a free trial that is limited to 30 days and requires a paid plan to continue use.

When you need a generic free-form diagramming tool Visio might be the best choice for you.

Visio is made for several different use cases. Diagrams, forms, schemas, etc. This results in a more generic tool. If what you are looking for is the best process mapping tool, Visio can quickly feel overwhelming and extensive.

You can’t compare ShiftX and Visio on every level as there can be good reasons to use them both as several ShiftX customers do. Use ShiftX for discovery and involvement and keep Visio for the experts and their tailored needs.

Visio core is included in Microsoft Office 365 and well integrated with the rest of the 365 suite.

If you are looking for a tool that promotes collaboration, provides actionable data insights and is simple to use, then ShiftX should be the best pick for a process mapping tool in 2023.

If you have any questions or need help deciding between Visio and ShiftX, reach out to us.

For a B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) like ourselves, one of the main questions you often reflect on is: "

Do we want to focus on Product-Led or Sales-Led Growth?

If you're more like: "Product-Led what?" Let us explain:

: is a growth model where product usage drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. You focus on your users and the time it takes for them to experience value using your product. 

: is a growth model that uses a sales rep or your sales team and their processes to drive conversions and business growth. You focus on the value you create for the users of your product and the buyer and their needs.

this in-depth explanation by the Product-Led Growth Collective

) also mention Marketing-Led Growth as an own strategy, but we're not going to go deep into that one in this text, as it's not one we've ever considered.

But do we have to choose one or the other? Yes, and no. As we'll see, both growth strategies carry elements of the other. But it's helpful to reflect on which of the two directions suits you the best, as they both entail different organizational, sales, marketing, and product actions once you've decided. 

We'll dive deeper into each strategy and how we've worked with each of them over the last couple of years. 

What is a Sales-Led Growth (SLG) strategy?

If your SaaS follows an SLG strategy, a significant part of your organization will typically consist of people working with sales. You might call them Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), Account Managers, and Business Developers. 

They'll typically work with lead generation, outreach, filling up your sales funnel, and work closely with your marketing or demand generation department (if you have one). 

it does not automatically mean you're following an SLG strategy

. As we'll get back to later, most of the companies following a PLG strategy 

 have sales teams, as most conversions, whether you're doing SLG or PLG, are sales-assisted and require human beings to do outreach and make sure your potential customers get what they want and need. 

Another thing that often separates SLG from PLG is that the Average Deal Size (also known as Average Contract Value, ACV) is larger with SLG, as you're talking directly to the person(s) with a budget, the buyer. 

When we were more on the SLG side of things, mid-2021, 

one of our sales processes could look something like this

SDRs would get lists from marketing, qualifying leads, and inviting them to meetings with our Account Executives and Managers. If you were lucky (and qualified), you'd sometimes get a demo account to test our product for a couple of days if you'd had a meeting or two with us.

But most of the time, our SLG conversions came after 1-3 sales meetings and product demos with our hottest leads. After signing a contract with us, they'd start using our product. 

With a PLG strategy, it's often the other way around. 

What is a Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategy?

Let's get a popular myth out of the way immediately: PLG strategies 

 rely heavily on having a working sales department of human beings making sales. As Sam Richard, VP of the Growth Team at Openview, an expansion stage venture capital firm, says in the webinar below, 

over 60% of the conversions of so-called self-service businesses are sales-assisted

, meaning one or more human being(s) have been involved in the sales process:

Then what separates an SLG from a PLG strategy? 

It's how early you get to use and interact with the product you want to buy. 

 PLG strategy often entails offering your product through some sort of freemium or free trial license. 

You let your leads sign up for your product as one of their first actions on your website. Then you trust your product to do the convincing. If it gives your leads value, they're seeing the business case for spending some money buying full access, either buying more features (if you offer limited functionality in your freemium/free trial licenses) or buying more time (if your freemium/free trial licenses only last for 7-14 days for example). 

If you also make larger enterprise sales (like we do), a PLG strategy can also help you 

which leads to get in touch with. Then you'll typically have some product metrics ("invited three colleagues to their workspace" or "returned to the product >4 times within a week") you've decided are good thresholds for which users to approach to ask for a more expanded agreement. 

Openview has a great blog post on Product Qualified Leads (PQLs)

Some weeks ago, we started mapping out what our PQL process could look like in ShiftX. 

There is no right or wrong answer to which of these strategies 

 company should follow. Some factors to consider that have played their part when we've decided and discussed are:

: Do you have a group of employees with sales and outreach experience that are used to owning the full sales funnel, from lead to closed contract? Fitting them into a PLG way of doing things is always an option, but the downside of the change management needed might overshadow the upside of potentially succeeding with PLG versus just sticking with the SLG way of doing things.

: How quickly do you think a new user (that doesn't know your product) could experience value using your product without talking to anyone at your company? If your product is intuitive and not too complex, letting users "self-serve" should be doable. This again will take you closer to a PLG approach by letting your leads experience your product on their own, right when they want to. Need help building self-served onboarding? Check out tools like 

 if you don't want to build something custom yourselves, as we've done.

Why and how we're changing to more of a PLG strategy

Getting to a point where your PLG strategy is in full blossom, where your (mainly) self-served customers are driving your main income, can be a long road. Knowing when and if to go PLG is a very important business decision. Like global venture capital investor Gil Dibner writes, 

for some, it makes sense to go PLG immediately

As we are both rigged, organizationally, for doing PLG and have a pretty intuitive, user-friendly, non-complex tool to get you started as a user on your own (at least we like to believe we do), we feel ready to make a shift towards a PLG strategy. 

I'll continue telling you some more about what inspired us and what we've done in the last couple of months.

As PLG has started taking off in recent years and months, more and more resources are out there, sharing experiences and knowledge. Here are some that we've used:

"Product-Led Growth: What It Is And Why It’s The Future of SaaS", by Breyta

The Product-Led Growth Collective Community

What most of these resources often barely mention, though, that might turn out to be one of your main challenges (as it has for us), is 

With PLG, you'll not be making outreach sales at the same scale (or maybe 

). So, how will you get the new users (and paying customers) to come pouring in with your new PLG strategy? 

Some of us product heads live(d) in the illusion that if you just make an 

 product, people will find their way in themselves. Word-of-mouth, Viral Campaigns. These nice things will happen. By themselves. 

Well, I hate to be the one telling you that this belief is a beautiful but also dangerous illusion. Distribution, spread, and awareness all demand hard, strategic, long-lasting work.  But there are a couple of things that could help you get things going quite quickly, though.

The one thing which has been the thing (so far) helping our distribution the most (by far) with the least amount of effort is 

. There are tons of blog posts about how to launch successfully (

I found this one, by Danish designer Michael Flarup, pretty helpful

). What (we think) turned out to be one of our most important preparations was letting one of Producthunts top "hunters",

, post our product, or "hunt us", as it's called. 

Overall, Producthunt gave us around 300 new signups, a lot of kind words, constructive feedback from SaaS-heads around the world, 

, and spread to other platforms and forums. 

We've also learned about the LTD (Lifetime Deal) forums like 

Blog

ShiftX joins Ardoq

Introduction to Process Mapping

3 reasons why collaboration is essential for success in process management

Kill the grudge, free the people and revolutionize BPM

Best Process Mapping Tools and Software for 2024

Visio alternative

How we're changing from Sales-Led Growth (SLG) to Product-Led Growth (PLG)

Add content blocks to your steps in ShiftX

How we build ShiftX using the Shape Up framework

Adding duration to your process mapping

How to use ShiftX in Sharepoint

Access control on every flow

Process mapping tool – which one do you choose?

ShiftX as a Microsoft Visio alternative

How to: See different versions of your process

How to: Use Issues in ShiftX

How to: Get started with process modeling in ShiftX

Loop back to earlier stages in your flows

Communicate with your colleagues – inside ShiftX

Use ShiftX in Microsoft Teams

Agile organizations - The new normal: Soft skills vs. hard skills

Agile organizations - The new normal: Communication in «the new normal»

Agile organizations - The new normal: Small, autonomous, agile teams

Agile organizations - The new normal: Agility

A new way to do business process modeling

Why BPMN is outdated and ShiftX made a BPMN alternative

Three reasons why BPM implementations fail

You can now end paths in ShiftX