Substack · Go-to-market · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Substack help writers grow?

Substack is a platform where writers publish newsletters, build direct relationships with subscribers, and can charge for paid subscriptions. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Product strategy
Go to market
Metrics
Creator trust
Prioritization

The situation

Your manager, Substack's Head of Product, asks you to propose how the company should help publications grow their audiences over the next two quarters. Today, most growth work still sits with writers. They bring readers from their own social channels, podcasts, and word of mouth, and many smaller publications feel they are good at writing but not at audience acquisition. Internal data suggests some new subscriptions already come from activity inside the Substack network, but this is not yet a deliberate product area and the experience is inconsistent. The CEO wants to know whether growth should remain mostly a creator responsibility or become a clearer platform promise. The decision is hard because Substack only succeeds when writers earn, so better growth could improve retention and revenue, but any platform driven system could also make creators feel they are losing control over how their publication is presented or recommended. You need to recommend a go to market strategy for a product area that could help many publications grow, without turning Substack into a generic social feed or weakening writer trust.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product strategy memo.

Your answer must

State the core user problem and identify which publication segments are most likely to benefit first.
Recommend whether Substack should invest in platform led growth, and name the first one to three product motions you would prioritize.
Explain your go to market plan for creator adoption, including defaults, opt outs, and how you would message the value to writers.
Define success metrics and guardrails, including how you would separate free subscriber growth from meaningful paid impact.
List the top risks and trade offs, including fairness, relevance, and creator trust concerns across the network.

Constraints

Do not assume Substack launches advertising or relies on large paid acquisition spend.
Any recommendation must let writers keep meaningful control over whether and how their publication is promoted on platform.
Your plan should work within Substack's core product surfaces, not by turning it into a general purpose social network.
Do not depend on changing Substack's basic revenue model.

Format

Use short headings and bullets. Prioritize clear choices over broad brainstorming.

How Substack actually played it

Substack reviews a year of building a growth engine for each publication, noting that the network went from about 10 percent of free subscriptions in January 2022 to 40 percent of free and 12 percent of paid by year end. The business model, where Substack only earns when writers earn, is used as the reason to invest in growth tools. A useful look at making growth a product feature instead of a task left to the customer.

Aligning revenue with customer revenue justifies investing in their growth.
Move growth work from the customer to the platform where possible.
Offer opt-outs so creators stay in control.
Track network-driven share of subscriptions as a headline metric.

Built from Turn on your growth engine by Substack Team.