Growth Is Stalling? 8 Ways.. | 매거진에 참여하세요

Every product hits this moment.

Growth slows. Traffic plateaus.

Metrics start looking flat. It’s the dreaded growth stagnation phase—a point where teams start asking tough questions:

• “Is this our ceiling?”

• “Why aren’t people using it more?”

• “Is our product losing relevance?”

But stagnation doesn’t mean the end. It might mean something else entirely:

"You’ve reached the threshold. And now it’s time to unlock the next chapter of growth."

Here are 8 battle-tested strategies to help you break through the wall.

1. Get Existing Users to Use You More – Retention Optimization

Growth isn’t always about more users. It’s about deeper usage.

Products that win retention eventually win growth. LTV goes up. Word of mouth kicks in. Stickiness compounds.

• - Habit loops: Duolingo uses streaks to encourage daily check-ins.

• - Smart reminders: Slack nudges users to return with contextual push/email reminders.

• - Content expansion: Brunch (a writing platform) added discovery and curation to increase time spent.

Ask yourself:
What was the last thing your user did before leaving?
How can you make them come back sooner—and stay longer?

2. Target a New Segment – Reposition Without Rebuilding

Sometimes the product isn’t the problem—your audience is just tapped out. Try repositioning without rewriting.

• - Notion started with designers and PMs, then expanded to students, engineers, and startup teams.

• - Evernote added use cases for students, writers, and researchers beyond just office workers.

Experiment with:

• New onboarding copy

• Segment-specific campaigns

• Behavioral tracking after acquisition

3. Audit Your Funnel – Find Where You’re Losing People

If users are coming in but not converting, your funnel has leaks. Track and patch the drop-off points:

• - Visit-to-signup rate

• - Signup-to-first-use rate

• - First-use-to-retention rate

Use:

• A/B tests to simplify onboarding

• Heatmaps and session replays (e.g., Hotjar, Fullstory)

• Psychology-driven nudges to reduce friction

💡 Tip: Optimize the first 5 minutes of experience. First impressions drive retention.

4. Rethink Your Pricing – Balance Value and Friction

Sometimes, pricing isn’t just a business model—it’s a growth blocker.

If conversion is low despite interest, consider:

• Expanding the free tier or trial period

• Shifting key features into free, and upselling premium (à la Figma or Notion)

• Adding price anchoring: e.g., “Best value,” “Team favorite”

5. Add Virality – Get One User to Bring Another

Growth flattens when the viral loop breaks. You need one user to naturally bring in at least one more.

• - Canva makes it easy to share designs, encouraging organic spread

• - Grammarly adds a “Checked by Grammarly” signature in emails

• - Substack uses referrals and recommendation features to grow networks

Viral growth doesn’t require gimmicks. Just good UX and incentives for sharing.

6. Expand the Product – Horizontally or Vertically

If users have explored every corner of your product, maybe it’s time to add new rooms.

• - Feature expansion: Trello added Calendar and Timeline modes to evolve beyond task lists

• - Ecosystem growth: Notion launched a public API to enable third-party integrations

• - Platform extension: Offer web, mobile, desktop versions for different use contexts

But don't confuse bloat with value. Build only what truly unlocks new usage or users.

7. Activate Your Community – Let Users Drive Growth

When users connect with each other, they stick around. Community becomes the new moat.

• Run contests, challenges, or story-sharing events

• Highlight user-generated content or profiles

• Host meetups or webinars with creators, fans, or superusers

Think beyond “user → product.” Try “user → user → product.”

8. Reset Your Positioning – Ask Why You Exist (Again)

If growth has stalled for a while, it might be time to zoom all the way out.

Ask yourself:

• - Who are we really for?

• - Why do they need us now?

• - What’s changed since we launched?

• Have our users moved on? If so—where?

Sometimes, what you need isn’t a feature. It’s a full repositioning, rebrand, or even a pivot.

Final Thought: Stagnation Isn’t the End. It’s a Signal.

It means you’ve reached stability.

Now, it’s time to choose:

Settle for where you are—or experiment your way to the next level.

Start small. Test one of these 8 strategies. Measure results. Iterate.
Because growth doesn’t happen by waiting—it happens by building the next version of your product and your thinking.

Would you like this turned into a downloadable checklist or slide deck? I can help format it for sharing with your team or stakeholders.