Field Notes · 10 Aug 2026

When a PLG team should not hire an analytics contractor yet

If you lack a decision owner or eight weeks of clean events, buy a smaller room first — or wait.

We turn down Growth Analytics Audits. Usually for one of three reasons:

  • Nobody in the company can accept a metric definition without a committee of eight
  • The event stream is so broken that every chart is fiction — start with a health check
  • Leadership wants a contractor to bless a pre-chosen roadmap, not to examine evidence

A short Retention Readout or Instrumentation Health Check can unblock the next quarter without pretending a full audit will invent strategy. Product-led growth rewards curiosity; it punishes theatre. If you are unsure which consultation fits, say so on the contact form — a frank decline is still a useful reply.