What is Bottom-Up Adoption?
Bottom-up adoption is a go-to-market approach where products spread within organizations starting with individual users or small teams, rather than through top-down enterprise sales. Developers or practitioners discover the tool, start using it, and eventually their usage grows to the point where the company formalizes the relationship.
Why Bottom-Up Adoption Matters
For developer tools and technical products, bottom-up adoption is often more natural than traditional enterprise sales. Developers want to evaluate tools themselves, not be told what to use by management. Products that spread this way often have lower CAC and higher retention.
How to Implement
- 1 Create a compelling free tier or trial
- 2 Design for individual user value, not just team value
- 3 Build sharing and collaboration features
- 4 Track product-qualified leads (PQLs)
- 5 Create expansion triggers based on usage
Common Mistakes
X Free tier that's too limited to demonstrate value
X Ignoring the transition from individual to team
X No strategy for converting usage to revenue
X Underestimating time to expand within accounts
Related Terms
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