Valubyl

Valubyl is a PLG consultancy that has helped 25+ B2B SaaS companies build product-led onboarding that helps new users quickly understand the product and reach value on their own.

Founder

Instantly.ai

PLG Advisor

Stockpress

Gymdesk

echowin

PI.EXCHANGE

Morgen

TrueClicks

Advisor

Databox

https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-evolution-of-product-onboarding-databox

DataTrails

Founder @ Valubyl | Product-Led Growth Advisor

Husband, father, and founder, currently building Valubyl.

Valubyl is a PLG consultancy that has helped 25+ B2B SaaS companies build product-led onboarding that helps new users quickly understand the product and reach value on their own.

Sound like something you need help with?

Feel free to send me a DM, email at yaakov@valubyl.com, or book an intro call with the link above.

Yaakov Carno

Everyone's adding AI prompt bars to their product. Almost no one knows how to design them right. So I mapped 40+ AI prompt journeys - from homepage to onboarding - across products like Canva, Notion, Vercel, Wix, and Airtable.

The result?
A full Prompt Bar Journey Library.

A teardown of how top teams are designing prompt-to-value flows that actually activated users - not just impress them.

Inside, you’ll see:
✅ Prompt examples that drive activation - not just “wow”
✅ How top products capture context without any setup friction
✅ The exact moment to execute a prompt (before or after signup)
✅ What happens after the first output (and why most teams lose users there)

If you’re building an AI feature or onboarding flow, this library will save you weeks of trial and error.
It’s for builders who care about activation, not aesthetics.

For teams who want to turn “Try our AI!” into actual adoption.

I built this for growth leads, founders, and PMs shaping how humans talk to AI.

Want the Prompt Bar Journey Library?

1️⃣ Make sure we’re connected
2️⃣ Comment "PROMPTBAR" below - and I’ll send it your way

Helped 30+ B2B SaaS companies upgrade their PLG self-serve onboarding. Building Valubyl and sharing the behind-the-scenes of our PLG revamps.

New Valubyl website is live! 🤩 

For the last 3 years, we've been building a simple and powerful vision:

Turn self-serve onboarding into your strongest PLG growth lever.

30+ clients later… we finally have a site that actually reflects what we do. 

Capturing onboarding and activation work in a website is hard. But this is version 1 and the first step toward showcasing the depth of what we deliver every day.

👉 Activation revamp sprints
👉 PLG execution and advisory
👉 Real results, real case studies

If you're focusing on getting more paying customers from your freemium or free trial, let's chat.

PLG onboarding & activation revamps for B2B SaaS companies

Has SaaS lost it's mind? We've entered the new UX era 🤯 

AI prompt bars are everywhere. And it’s fascinating to see how differently products are using them.

Some feel magical.
Some feel confusing.
And some are quietly redefining onboarding and user activation entirely.

Over the last month, I mapped out 40+ prompt-bar journeys from tools like Canva, Vercel, Lovable, Airtable, and Bolt to see how the best teams are solving this.

The results were wild!!!

A mix of brilliant patterns, clever UX details, and a few surprising misses. 

From “Ask me anything” chaos... 
to onboarding that teaches by doing.

This carousel shares the highlights, and the full deep-dive article (in the comments) breaks down exactly what’s changing in activation.

Thank you Kyle Poyar for another epic collaboration, just keeps getting better! 🔥 

If you’re building an AI product, you're going to want to save this one!

The New UX Era 🔥

“Why would you hire me when you could just do it yourself?”
That’s the question I asked Nathan from Freckle.io on a recent call.
(Yeah, probably not my smartest sales question 😅)

We were chatting about their PLG onboarding project I was working on, and I genuinely wanted to know.

Why choose to work with an agency like mine, Valubyl, when you could just handle it internally…
or even use AI to figure it out?

He paused for a moment and replied:

“There are certain business/product problems where it makes a ton of sense to bring someone in who’s seen that movie many times before, and onboarding and activation is one those.

If you think about a typical product manager or designer,
if they've been in their career for 10 years,
they've probably only worked on onboarding and activation flow maximum 3 times,
most of them maybe once or none”

And he’s right.

You can learn onboarding once. You can design onboarding a few times.

But when you’ve rebuilt 30+ onboarding experiences across SaaS products,
you start to see patterns that others miss.

That’s the superpower of a hyper-niche agency today.

In a world where AI can do “a bit of everything,” what actually stands out is being really good at one thing, not being average at everything. 

Nathan’s answer reminded me why I started Valubyl in the first place.

To go deep.

Not to do everything, but to do one thing. 
PLG activation and onboarding.
Better than anyone else.

New podcast drop with Alex Oppenheimer is live 🎙️ We went deep on what really drives PLG - and why most teams get it wrong.

Here’s what we covered:

> What PLG actually means: your product should do the job of Sales/CS - guide, qualify, and tell the story inside the experience.

> Why focus wins: one lever, done exceptionally well, compounds everything else - activation, retention, and CAC.

> AI ≠ magic: Prompt bars and “wow” moments drive curiosity, but long-term adoption still comes from solving a real problem with guided context.

> Why bring in specialists: Even great teams only tackle onboarding a few times. Repetition across dozens of SaaS products shortens the learning curve - and avoids the usual pitfalls.

And a whole lot more in our 30-min chat…

When I started Valubyl, the goal was simple: solve one painful, repeatable problem - self-serve onboarding and activation. 

At first, we were advisors - helping SaaS teams spot what wasn’t working and what to fix.
Now, three years later, we’ve evolved into an execution-first agency - not just telling teams what to do, but actually doing it for them.

Our core offer: In 2-4 weeks, we ship a redesigned onboarding experience your team can launch and see the results - no fluff, just outcomes.

If you’re trying to turn more signups into revenue, see what great activation actually looks like, and get a better understanding of what it takes to win with PLG - this episode’s for you.

Comment ALEX and I’ll DM you the link...

... just joking :) check the first comment.

One of the biggest ongoing challenges I’ve had as a founder is:
Our website still doesn’t do justice to what we actually do.

Every time I jump on a call with a new prospect, the same thing happens.
They say, “Oh wow - I didn’t realize how deep this goes.”

And that’s when I realize again: the visuals on our site just don’t capture it.

The moment they see inside a before-and-after Figma design from one of our onboarding revamps, or a real activation playbook - they instantly get it.

They see how much value actually comes out of these sprints. 

Not just pretty UX, but full product experiences redesigned around world-class activation.

It’s way more than “onboarding redesigns.”
It’s building the entire self-serve experience for first-time users.

And yet… that rarely comes across from the outside looking in.

I’ve been studying how other teams like Anthony and Rob from FletchPMM show their work - the before/after visuals, clear deliverables, and the way they walk you through what you actually get. It’s so well done.

So that’s my current project:
> Adding more visuals, walkthroughs, and real examples that show what our work actually looks like.

If you’re a founder or consultant, you probably know the feeling - that imbalance between how much depth you deliver and how simply it’s represented online.

I’m finally fixing that this month. 

Thank you Victoria Bakos for all the help! Super excited to share the new website soon!!

One of the clearest signs you’re working with a great team is the way they respond to bad results. 

Anyone can celebrate good results. But the best teams treat every experiment as part of the process, even when it doesn’t go the way you hoped. Learning is everything.

A small moment from working with the Freckle.io team really highlighted this for me.

A few months ago, we shipped a fully revamped onboarding flow. Before launch, they asked me what completion rate I’d expect. 

I said something like:
“Hard to benchmark, but I’d be disappointed with anything under 80%.”

Fast-forward a few months... the data comes in: 30%. 

I won’t lie, it hit me hard 😅 

I care a lot about what we deliver, and I care a lot about our clients.

But I also know this is how growth works. Sometimes you’re right and sometimes you learn the hard way.

Still… something didn’t feel right. 30% just didn’t match what we had built.

Then a couple weeks ago, Andy sent me a message:

"Turns out the old tracking wasn’t counting users who made it all the way through to the table view properly. Once we fixed that, completion jumped to 82.5%."

That obviously made my week. 
But honestly, the part that stayed with me wasn’t the better result, it was how the team reacted when we thought it was 30%.

There was zero blame. Just growth mindset and a keen energy to fix whatever was broken. 

That’s rare and a true testament to the culture Nathan and the team are building.

This is the kind of team you want to build with. This is the kind of team that is going to win BIG! 

It's already clear - Freckle’s growing over 240% month-over-month in signups, and they're just getting started! 🙌

If you’ve ever test-driven a car and suddenly couldn’t imagine giving it back…
you already understand why reverse trials work so well.

When Maja and I were writing our latest piece, we realized the real magic of reverse trials isn’t in the monetization model - it’s in the psychology behind it.

We went into the 4 biggest triggers that make it so powerful 👇

1️⃣ The Endowment Effect
> Once users “own” a premium feature, even temporarily, they value it far more.

↳That’s why free samples work in retail - and why SaaS users feel attached to features they’ve already used.

2️⃣ FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
> When users see the premium side of your product in action, they don’t want to lose it.

↳ FOMO exists in B2B too lol.

3️⃣ Loss Aversion
> We hate losing more than we love gaining.

↳ Kyle Poyar shared his experience when he tried to downgrade from the premium plan:

"I went to cancel my Canva for Teams account today -- but Canva's cancellation flow was so good that I changed my mind. 
And, no, it wasn't because they made me jump through hoops.

1) They reminded me that I have an amazing deal. I still pay $12.95/month, but prices have increased to $29.99/month. I'll lose my deal if I cancel.
2) They created loss aversion by reminding me of the premium features I've put to use.
3) They made some clever UX choices that subtly influenced my decision."

↳ That’s not manipulation - that’s smart UX reinforcing real value.

4️⃣ Full Product Experience
> Reverse trials let users see everything your product can do before asking them to pay.

↳Would you buy a car without driving it first?

Reverse trials make users feel like the product is already theirs - and that’s the most powerful growth engine there is.

Read the full breakdown/guide below 👇

Took a step back to rethink content here on LinkedIn. Looks like it's paying off 🤯 If you're building in the SaaS and PLG space, we've got some killer content coming up:

More of the good stuff that folks are asking about:

- Behind-the-scenes of how we build world-class PLG self-serve onboarding and activation journeys for our client's at Valubyl 👏 

- Epic free assets like the Prompt Bar Journey Library (about to hit 100K hits 🔥) - see my post from last Wednesday. We're going to be releasing more libraries, breakdowns, and tons of assets from how we're building our PLG canvas V2.

- 3rd collab with Kyle Poyar for Growth Unhinged, wrapping up what's about to be the best guide out there for building AI prompt bar experiences 🤓 

... and lot's more.

See you around 👀

RD Station

I lead the product team responsible for RD Station's Marketing Suite, encompassing Attraction and Conversion, Contact Management, Automation and Multichannel solutions.

In this role, I define and execute the product vision and strategic roadmap, ensuring alignment with RD Station’s broader business goals. By driving end-to-end product development and leading three Lead Product Managers, I focus on delivering customer value, optimizing product-market fit, and achieving impactful business results.

Head of Product - Marketing Solutions

In 2024, I assumed leadership of the product management strategy for RD Station’s Contact Management, Automation, and Email tribes, integrating marketing technology (martech), data infrastructure, and compliance with service levels. 
My focus is on driving product innovation, simplifying processes, and aligning efforts with strategic OKRs to optimize user satisfaction and business impact.

Group Product Manager - Contact Management, Automation & Email

I began my career at RD Station leading the Contact Management tribe, responsible for managing and segmenting lead data and events.

Group Product Manager - Contact Management

product.se

Key Responsibilities:
- Marketing Strategy Development: Creating and executing comprehensive marketing strategies to drive lead generation, nurture engagement, and convert leads into mentees by leveraging targeted content and personalized outreach.
- Educational Content Creation: Developing and delivering educational materials covering product management fundamentals, leadership skills, and practical applications to connect learning and career advancement.
- Mentoring Sessions: Conducting individual and group mentoring sessions focused on developing technical and soft skills and building actionable career strategies for product management professionals.

Highlights and main outcomes:
- Mentored Over 50 Product Managers through individual and group sessions, supporting their development and career growth in product management and leadership.
- Achieved an Average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 9.4 in mentoring groups, reflecting high satisfaction and the impact of a structured, results-oriented approach.
- Built a Community of 3,000+ Engaged Members on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and other professional networks, fostering knowledge-sharing and ongoing development.
- Created and Distributed 600+ Hours of Educational Content across social media channels, including Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and podcasts, enhancing accessibility to product management best practices.

Co-Founder and Content Creator

Product Guru's

Main activities
- Responsible for preparing teaching materials, conducting and presenting online workshops on Product Discovery
- Promoting and promoting the event on social media

Highlights and Main Results
- Organizing 7 classes, which trained over 200 students in total
- NPS of 8.9

Expert

ANYMARKET

Como liderança da tribo de Experiência do Cliente, fui responsável pela comunicação da estratégia e construção da visão de produto junto aos times responsáveis pelas primeiras entregas de valor para o cliente ANYMARKET.

Liderei 3 squads de Produto, que atuam com as jornadas Core, Catalogação e Logística. Naquele momento, nosso objetivo foi criar um processo de onboarding mais amistoso e simplificado, acelerando a entrega de valor e diminuindo os custos operacionais, e dar mais autonomia e produtividade ao seller que buscava transacionar pedidos em diferentes marketplaces e plataformas de cotação de frete.

Também liderei o time de UX/UI Design. Junto a estes profissionais, estruturamos alguns processos críticos, como o Design System e os padrões de comunicação com times externos.

Group Product Manager

Cubos Academy

Key Responsibilities
- Led and delivered the "Product World" training program, a comprehensive product management course designed for professionals transitioning into product roles or new to the field.
- Facilitated classes covering critical topics, including Product Lifecycle Management, Product Discovery, Product Growth, Agile Development, and Career Skills for Product Managers.

Highlights and Key Results
- Conducted a 150-hour training cohort, equipping participants with essential product management frameworks and practical skills for effective product leadership.
- Earned a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 9.2

Product Management Instructor

Provu

Atuei na squad de Customer Experience, com a missão de construir a Visão e a Proposta de Valor inicial de novos produtos para soluções de BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later).

Facilitando as práticas de Gestão de Produtos para novas soluções, minhas principais responsabilidades foram:
- Construir a Visão de Produto, através de pesquisas de mercado, mapeamento de oportunidades e análises de mercado;
- Documentar o aprendizado, compartilhando com as áreas interessadas e early partners;
- Conduzir reuniões com early partners, que ajudam a Provu na construção de um modelo de parceria inédito;
- Auxiliar o time de Produto, na estruturação de artefatos e cerimônias que fortaleçam nossa cultura e capacidade de gestão de soluções digitais.

Senior Product Manager

Boa Vista

Atuei na construção de soluções que potencializam a utilização de dados financeiros compartilhados através do Open Banking.

Foram minhas responsabilidades:
- Apoiar as lideranças de Produto na estruturação da estratégia de negócio, através do estudo de mercado, oportunidades comerciais e aspectos legais e regulatórios vinculados ao Sistema Financeiro Aberto;
- Coordenação do projeto de adequação das áreas de apoio às exigências para operação regulamentada ao Open Banking;
- Parceria com a área de Marketing, envolvendo-a no processo de criação do Produto com o objetivo de ajustar o posicionamento do Produto desde o momento de concepção até o lançamento;
- Parceria com o time de Design, na construção de dinâmicas de cocriação com áreas de negócio, realização do processo de Discovery e validação de protótipos;
- Parceria com o time de Dados, na análise da evolução dos modelos e estruturação das diferentes possibilidades de negócio;
- Parceria com o time de Desenvolvimento, no direcionamento da estratégia e seus desdobramentos em entregas de valor, acompanhando entregáveis e eventuais riscos ao processo;
- Construção da documentação de Produto, registrando informações operacionais (regras de negócio, premissas de versões, entre outros) e estratégicas (missão e visão do produto, análise de mercado, mapeamento de concorrentes).

Sienge 

Como coordenadora de Product Design, minha missão foi aproximar a captura de valor da Empresa ao processo de Discovery.

O principal entregável desta missão foi a "tradução" da estratégia em diretrizes que nortearam a priorização de hipóteses e o Discovery.

Minhas principais ferramentas foram a análise de dados - métricas de atração e conversão, engajamento e retenção - e informações qualitativas, como insights de clientes e áreas de negócio.

Adicionalmente, considerei os cenários econômico e de gestão onde o Sienge estava inserido, para que tenhamos ainda mais insumos na missão de entregar o melhor produto.

As principais dinâmicas foram realizadas com o apoio dos PMs e participação das áreas Comercial, Suporte, Marketing, Vendas e Plataforma.

Product Design Coordinator

Minha missão foi desdobrar a estratégia em ações táticas e operacionais ligadas aos produtos da tribo de Aquisição, Construção e Estoque.

Assumi a responsabilidade de liderar e orientar os PMs na definição das evoluções de produto e entrega ao mercado. 

Nesta jornada, acompanhei todo o ciclo de vida do produto, desde a coleta de insights, análise de métricas, tendências de mercado, desenvolvimento e "go to market".

Para otimizar as entregas do time, atuei na aproximação das squads com as áreas de de vendas, marketing e engajamento, direcionando ações de comunicação, retroalimentação e fortalecimento da relação entre cliente e produto.

Neste processo de "tradução" da estratégia, busco trabalhar fundamentada em dados - métricas de venda e uso de produtos, win & loss, churn & lost - e na análise dos cenários econômicos e sociais que possam impactar no comportamento do mercado B2B.

Como líder de squad, sempre busquei atualizar e praticar meus conhecimentos de Gestão de Produtos, a fim de ajudar no crescimento dos PMs da tribo.

Lead Product Manager

Como Product Manager, minha missão foi construir soluções voltadas aos produtos de Engenharia de Custos do Sienge, que entregassem cada vez mais valor a nossos clientes, estimulando e facilitando o engajamento nas etapas iniciais da jornada de produto.

Através do mapeamento dos comportamentos de aquisição de produtos e, com base no conhecimento de negócio, identifiquei oportunidades de melhoria nos produtos, que permitissem a melhoria no engajamento do usuário, aumento da recorrência e fortalecimento da estratégia de plataforma do Sienge.

O resultado desta ação foi o crescimento de cerca de 30% no uso médio mensal das soluções core desenvolvidas pelo time, através da integração com soluções especialistas em pontos específicos da jornada.

Neste desenvolvimento, o time dedicou atenção especial à adoção de novas tecnologias, melhorando o desempenho das soluções entregues e atendendo requisitos de OKRs da Empresa.

Dediquei especial atenção à gestão de backlog, buscando priorizar os temas mais relevantes e dando retorno aos stakeholders e clientes sobre abordagens que não seriam direcionadas no roadmap.

Trabalhei em estreita colaboração com uma equipe multifuncional. No processo de produto, contei com a parceria de um product designer a fim de criar uma rotina de continous discovery. E, após a entrega, foi minha responsabilidade comunicar aos times de Marketing, Vendas e Capacitação as entregas realizadas e os principais valores gerados aos clientes.

Reportando diretamente ao Head de Produto, busquei organizar e priorizar nosso roadmap de alto nível, focado em completar o planejamento trimestral e definir os OKRs da equipe. Fazia parte da minha rotina acompanhar e discutir as iniciativas da equipe em relação aos objetivos da empresa. Além disso, tínhamos compromissos para olhar em frente e descobrir novas oportunidades de produtos.

Product Manager

Minha função como CSM estava focada em grandes empresas de construção e imobiliárias que usam Sienge como base de suas operações.

Assim, as minhas ações foram pautadas pela evolução do relacionamento destes clientes com toda a estrutura ligada ao Sienge. Isso vai além do uso operacional da Plataforma: envolve o entendimento da estratégia de crescimento das Organizações e o suporte na elaboração de abordagens para integração do Sienge a outras funcionalidades.

Trabalhei em estreita colaboração com estas empresas, com foco no aprimoramento e evolução de processos que precisavam de atenção.

Desta forma, o meu dia a dia baseava-se na comunicação intensa com o Cliente, utilizando ferramentas tradicionais de Gestão de Projetos, como Relatório de Situações e Gestão de Riscos, e também em parceria com a equipe de Produto. Nesta área, a adoção de metodologias ágeis é fundamental: entender os sprints, levantar requisitos e entender o processo de desenvolvimento e produto.

Customer Success Manager

Pedro Granado Real Estate

Cost Engineer Manager

Tegra Real Estate

Contract & Cost Engineer Coordinator

Group Product Manager at RD Station | Co-founder of product.SE | Ambassador for Women Techmakers | I empower tech companies to achieve superior outcomes through mature, self-reliant product teams

I specialize in driving product innovation for B2B markets, leading outcome-focused product strategies that leverage operational excellence, user experience and retention. With over 6 years of experience in end-to-end product lifecycle management across SaaS environments, I bring a strong foundation in data-driven decision-making and market analysis to support impactful go-to-market strategies.

Throughout my career, I’ve partnered with cross-functional teams—including engineering, UX/UI, and data science—to deliver high-value products that align with both business objectives and customer needs. My approach combines agile methodologies with a customer-centric design to ensure scalable solutions that meet evolving market demands.

As a product leader, I prioritize communication and stakeholder engagement, working closely with senior executives to align product roadmaps with strategic goals and support the development of autonomous teams. I excel in navigating complex, modular product structures, and I am passionate about fostering a product culture that embraces innovation, adaptability, and continuous improvement.

Let’s connect to explore how we can drive growth and innovation together.

taplio

The Battle

Yaakov Carno

Giseli Anversa

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The Battle

Yaakov Carno

Giseli Anversa

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Yaakov Carno's LinkedIn Performance

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