SaaS Course

Lesson 1 • Stakeholders in a SaaS Organization

Maps roles across product, engineering, sales, and customer success teams. Clarifies cross-functional dependencies students will encounter in applied chapters.

Lesson 2 • Defining SaaS and Cloud Models

Covers SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS distinctions and the shared-responsibility model. Establishes vocabulary used throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • Core SaaS Business Model Mechanics

Explains subscription-based revenue logic, recurring billing cycles, and unit economics. Connects business model structure to product and pricing decisions.

Lesson 1 • Churn and Retention Analysis

Distinguishes logo churn from revenue churn and introduces net revenue retention. Demonstrates how retention metrics predict long-term company health.

Lesson 2 • Revenue Metrics and ARR Tracking

Defines ARR, MRR, and their components including expansion and contraction. Provides the measurement foundation for all financial analysis in the course.

Lesson 3 • Customer Acquisition and Payback Metrics

Covers CAC, LTV, and payback period calculations with real-world benchmarks. Links acquisition efficiency to sustainable growth strategy.

Lesson 4 • Benchmarking and Investor Expectations

Compares company metrics against industry benchmarks and investor thresholds. Equips students to present metrics credibly to stakeholders.

Lesson 1 • Product-Led Growth Fundamentals

Introduces PLG as a product strategy where the product drives acquisition and expansion. Bridges product strategy to the growth and pricing chapters ahead.

Lesson 2 • Prioritization Frameworks

Applies RICE, MoSCoW, and impact-effort scoring to rank competing feature requests. Enables objective, defensible prioritization decisions.

Lesson 3 • Product Vision and Positioning

Establishes how to craft a product vision tied to customer problems and market opportunity. Anchors all roadmap decisions to a clear strategic direction.

Lesson 4 • Roadmap Construction and Communication

Guides creation of outcome-based roadmaps and formats for different audiences. Connects product planning to the cross-functional stakeholder map from Chapter 1.

Lesson 1 • Pricing Experimentation and Iteration

Designs controlled pricing tests and defines success metrics for pricing changes. Builds a repeatable process for continuous pricing improvement.

Lesson 2 • Pricing Model Fundamentals

Surveys flat-rate, per-seat, usage-based, and tiered pricing structures. Establishes the trade-offs each model creates for growth and predictability.

Lesson 3 • Pricing Psychology and Anchoring

Applies behavioral economics principles to price presentation and comparison. Increases conversion rates without changing the underlying price.

Lesson 4 • Value Metric Identification

Defines value metrics as the unit customers pay for and teaches methods to identify them. Aligns pricing directly to customer-perceived value.

Lesson 1 • GTM Launch Planning and Execution

Sequences a product launch across internal readiness, partner enablement, and market activation. Integrates all GTM components into a coordinated launch plan.

Lesson 2 • Sales Motion Design

Defines self-serve, inside sales, and field sales motions and when to apply each. Connects sales model choice to ACV thresholds and CAC from Chapter 2.

Lesson 3 • Ideal Customer Profile and Segmentation

Constructs firmographic, technographic, and behavioral ICP criteria to focus GTM efforts. Prevents wasted spend on poor-fit prospects.

Lesson 4 • Messaging and Positioning Framework

Develops differentiated messaging hierarchies from ICP pain points and competitive gaps. Feeds directly into demand generation and sales enablement content.

Lesson 1 • Customer Success Playbooks

Creates standardized playbooks for onboarding, renewal, and expansion scenarios. Scales CS capacity without proportional headcount growth.

Lesson 2 • Scaling Customer Success Operations

Introduces tech-touch, digital CS, and pooled CSM models for efficient scaling. Connects CS capacity planning to the financial model from Chapter 2.

Lesson 3 • Customer Health Scoring

Builds composite health scores from product usage, support, and engagement signals. Enables proactive intervention before churn risk escalates.

Lesson 4 • Onboarding Design Principles

Maps the customer journey from contract to first value and identifies activation milestones. Reduces time-to-value, the primary driver of early churn.

Lesson 1 • Churn Prevention and Win-Back

Builds early-warning systems and intervention workflows to reduce preventable churn. Applies churn analysis from Chapter 2 to operational retention programs.

Lesson 2 • Growth Loops and Flywheel Design

Distinguishes compounding growth loops from linear funnels and maps them to SaaS models. Builds the strategic foundation for all growth tactics in this chapter.

Lesson 3 • Activation and Engagement Optimization

Identifies activation bottlenecks using product analytics and designs targeted interventions. Directly improves the conversion rates that feed ARR growth.

Lesson 4 • Expansion Revenue Strategies

Designs upsell, cross-sell, and seat-expansion motions triggered by usage signals. Leverages the health scoring and playbooks built in Chapter 6.

Lesson 1 • Organizational Design for Scale

Defines team structures, hiring sequences, and management layers appropriate to growth stage. Prevents organizational bottlenecks that slow product and revenue velocity.

Lesson 2 • Subscription Billing and Compliance

Covers recurring billing logic, dunning management, and regulatory compliance requirements. Protects revenue integrity as billing complexity grows with scale.

Lesson 3 • SaaS Technology Stack Design

Maps the core tooling categories across product analytics, CRM, billing, and support. Guides stack decisions that support scale without unnecessary complexity.

Lesson 4 • Revenue Operations Fundamentals

Aligns marketing, sales, and CS data and processes under a unified RevOps function. Eliminates the revenue leakage caused by siloed operations.