Reforge Case Study

February 2025

Dear Growth Designer 👋

I’m Erin, and I recently led product & design at Reforge, a professional development platform for growth professionals. Now I’m exploring new opportunities post-Reforge, I’ve been reflecting on the biggest lessons from my past 5.5 years.

One lesson stands out:

It’s tough to admit a carefully crafted strategy isn’t working. But recognizing this early—and taking decisive action—can be transformative.

In this case study, you'll see how we pivoted from a free product to a free trial strategy, doubling our paid subscription conversions and strengthening our business model. I hope it sparks new ideas and helps you tackle similar challenges in your own growth journey.

Keeping growing,

Erin Mongan, Startup Design Leader

Why We Pivoted

In December 2023, Reforge launched a free product called Artifacts. It’s a repository of real work from product, growth, and marketing professionals. We planned to use Artifacts as a lead magnet to build a large free user base that we’d eventually convert into our paid subscription. But it was clear we needed a new approach after several months of missed targets.

Here’s what we discovered:

1. Artifacts are highly valuable

Users—both free and paid—loved this curated content as it offered a window into how companies approach their work.

2. Increasing free users didn’t outweigh the decline in paid members

While “free” attracted more sign-ups, it also lowered overall willingness-to-pay, driving down conversions among those who might otherwise have become paying subscribers.

3. Declining paid subscription rate

We discovered that our paid conversion rate was dropping because we were explicitly prioritizing free user growth over monetization—yet we weren’t meeting those free-user targets either.

4. Shifting customer mix toward (healthier) team plans

Historically, Reforge sold bottoms-up (individuals convincing their managers). But by mid-2024, most subscriptions were purchased by teams and team plans retained better than individuals.

All these factors led us to prioritize paid subscription growth over free user growth and refocus on a B2B motion. We pulled Artifacts behind the paywall and introduced a free trial of our annual subscription.

Our Process

1. Change Management

I redefined the charters of our squads. The Growth Squad took on pulling Artifacts behind the paywall and launching the free trial, owning new subscription growth.

The squad previously focused on free product engagement pivoted to driving weekly active users for the paid subscription.

We (myself and other executive leadership) had extensive conversations with the impacted squads. This was a top-down decision, so it required careful communication and buy-in, especially since the team had spent months investing in a free product.

2. Appoint a Directly Responsible Individual

The switch to a free trial model had complex ripple effects across the product. We needed to handle existing free users losing access and help Artifact creators maintain their content sharing capabilities.

To ensure a smooth transition and launch, I designated Daniel Watson (Product Lead, Growth) as the Directly Responsible Individual to coordinate workstreams and ensure everything came together for the launch.

3. Design and Develop

The scope of the work involved migrating Artifacts behind the paywall, shifting our logged-out experience to free-trial call to actions, and building the free trial flow. Ashlee Perry (Sr. Product Designer, Growth) was responsible for crafting the new experience. She took took inspiration from other products and sketched out her vision. This vision informed what we went on to ship and iterate toward in the weeks following initial launch.

4. Ship and Iterate

The Growth Squad completed the free trial in five weeks. They then ran usability tests with new users, which prompted quick iterations that contributed to an even stronger conversion lift.

Results and Learnings

Paid subscription rates more than doubled (+131%) after the free trial launch, reversing our previous downward trend.

A deeper funnel analysis revealed that our trial start rate was near the 95th percentile (best-in-class), while our trial-to-paid conversion was in the bottom quartile*.

This discrepancy pointed to an immediate opportunity for the Growth Squad: new user activation during the 14-day trial period. Although I left Reforge in mid-October—before this effort began—the team continues to iterate on the subscription experience, focusing heavily on B2B use cases.

Conclusion

This pivot from free product to free trial marked an important shift in Reforge's evolution from B2C to B2B. While challenging, the change proved essential for our business growth and showed the importance of adapting to market shifts and changing customer needs.

About the Author

I’m Erin Mongan, a startup design leader with 13 years of experience across 3 companies and 10 products. As a repeat founding designer and startup design leader, I specialize in zero-to-one product design, building design teams from scratch, leading through change and ambiguity, and driving business outcomes through practical, execution-focused leadership.

I’m currently looking for a design leadership role where I can shape strategy, elevate craft, and deliver impact at all levels of the organization.

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

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