You're creating all the content yourself and it doesn't scale
Let users create and share things inside your product. Their content attracts new users, who create more content. A flywheel that spins faster over time.
When to use
Your product enables creation and users are already making things others would want.
Hypothesis template
If we enable users to [create/share content type] publicly, we'll see [target] organic contributions per month because creators want distribution and users want resources.
Method
The problem: You're the only one creating content, templates, and resources. It's exhausting and doesn't scale.
What Figma did: Built Community—a place where designers share UI kits, templates, and plugins. Millions of resources, all created by users.
Why it's a flywheel:
- Users create resources → attracts new users searching for resources
- New users see what Figma can do → they sign up
- Some new users become creators → more resources
- Repeat. It accelerates over time
How to build yours:
- Enable creation: What can users create that others would want? (Templates, workflows, integrations, guides)
- Enable sharing: Make it one-click to publish publicly
- Enable discovery: Search, categories, featured content
- Incentivize creators: Attribution, follower counts, featured spots
- Require your product: Using the content requires signing up
Keys to UGC flywheel:
- Content must be useful on its own (not just promotional)
- Creators need distribution (they come for the audience)
- Discovery must be good (search, categories, recommendations)
- Quality control matters (featured vs. everything)
Key insight: You don't need to build a marketplace on day one. Start with a "gallery" of featured user work and see what resonates.
Success metrics
- •Content created per month
- •Content views/downloads
- •New signups from UGC
- •Creator retention
- •UGC → signup conversion rate
Prerequisites
- Product that supports shareable outputs
- Public gallery or marketplace infrastructure
- Creator attribution system
- Content moderation plan
Common pitfalls
- •No quality control (content dump)
- •Not giving creators credit
- •Making sharing hard
- •Launching before you have enough content to browse
- •Not seeding with great examples first
Source: Figma Community. User-created resources drive millions of signups.
Suggested ICE scores
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