Users create great workflows but nobody else benefits
Turn your best users into template creators. Each public template attracts new users who want to use it.
When to use
Your product has configurable setups or workflows that could be shared. You have power users who'd want recognition.
Hypothesis template
If we let users publish [templates/workflows] and share them publicly, we'll get [target] signups/month from template discovery because each template is a landing page.
Method
The problem: Your power users have built amazing setups inside your product, but nobody else can benefit from them.
What Notion did: The template gallery lets anyone publish their Notion setup. Users search for "weekly planner Notion template" and find a template that requires signing up for Notion to use.
The result: Notion's template gallery became one of their top acquisition channels. Each template is essentially a landing page with built-in product adoption.
How to do it:
- Build a simple way for users to "Publish" their setup as a template
- Create a public gallery where anyone can browse templates
- Require signup/login to "Use this template" (the conversion point)
- Let template creators get credit: name, profile, usage count
- Feature the best templates and promote them via social/SEO
- Track: template views, template-to-signup rate, creator engagement
Key insight: Users who create templates are your most invested customers. Users who use templates activate faster because they start with a working setup instead of blank.
Success metrics
- •Published templates
- •Template page views
- •Template-to-signup conversion
- •Creator retention vs non-creator
Prerequisites
- A template publishing mechanism
- A public gallery page
- User profiles or credits for creators
Common pitfalls
- •Launching the gallery with too few templates (seed with 20+)
- •Not moderating quality
- •Not promoting templates via SEO
- •Forgetting to credit creators
Source: Notion, Figma, Canva. Template galleries are top acquisition channels driven by user-generated content.
Suggested ICE scores
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