How Skene Became Our Autonomous Growth Team

When our early-stage startup began scaling, we faced a challenge that many small teams encounter: we needed serious PLG optimization but couldn’t afford to hire a growth team. Our two-person founding team was entirely focused on building product, and we didn’t have bandwidth for manual growth experiments or constant onboarding tweaks. That’s when I discovered Skene, and over the past few weeks, this automated PLG engine has completely transformed how our product grows itself.

The first thing that struck me about Skene was how fundamentally different it is from traditional growth tools. Rather than giving us another dashboard to monitor or experiments to configure manually, the platform actually does the growth work for us. It’s a self-learning system that observes user behavior, identifies friction points, tests alternative flows, and deploys winning variants—all autonomously. For a small team without growth engineers, this was exactly what we needed.

Watching the platform work has been fascinating. After connecting our repository, Skene analyzed our codebase to understand our product architecture deeply. This isn’t superficial scanning—the system builds genuine comprehension of how our product works, which enables it to create intelligent onboarding flows that make sense for our specific use case. Within days, it began automatically testing variations of our user flows to identify what drives better activation.

The automated optimization has exceeded my expectations in every way. The platform continuously experiments with different onboarding sequences, measures their impact on activation and retention, then automatically implements the configurations that perform best. Previously, we would have needed to manually design experiments, wait for statistical significance, analyze results, and deploy changes. Now, this automated growth engine handles that entire loop without our involvement, freeing us to focus entirely on building product features.

One of my favorite aspects is how the system handles our rapid product evolution. As an early-stage startup, we ship features constantly based on user feedback. Before using Skene, keeping our onboarding aligned with product changes was impossible with just two people. Now, the platform monitors our repository for changes and automatically adjusts user flows accordingly. This means our growth optimization never falls behind our product development—it evolves automatically alongside our features.

The behavioral analysis capabilities have been transformative for understanding our users. Skene observes user actions to detect where activation drops off, which features drive engagement, and what patterns lead to retention. But the real magic is that it doesn’t just show us data—it acts on it autonomously. The platform creates improved flows, tests them against current experiences, and deploys the winners. It’s like having a growth team running experiments 24/7 without us lifting a finger.

The impact on our PLG metrics has been phenomenal. Our activation rates have increased by nearly three times since implementing Skene, and we’re seeing stronger retention patterns emerge. What’s remarkable is that these improvements happen continuously without requiring our attention. The platform is essentially our growth team, handling all the optimization work that would typically require dedicated resources we don’t have.

The pricing model is perfect for early-stage startups operating on tight budgets. We’re not paying for expensive seat licenses or enterprise contracts—this transparent and fair pricing structure is designed specifically for indie developers and small teams. When I reviewed the pricing options during our evaluation, I appreciated how accessible it was for startups like ours who need professional growth capabilities without massive budgets.

Integration with our existing analytics stack was seamless. The platform connected with our tools without requiring complex setup or ongoing maintenance. For a small team where every hour counts, I appreciated that Skene just works autonomously in the background without demanding our attention.

Throughout these weeks of using this self-optimizing PLG platform, I’ve been consistently impressed by how it enables small teams to achieve growth that typically requires dedicated specialists. Our product is improving its own onboarding, strengthening its own retention loops, and optimizing its own activation funnel—all without us spending time on growth work. This platform has proven to be exactly what we needed: a growth team in a box that lets us focus on building product while our PLG engine runs itself. If you’re an early-stage team struggling to find time for growth optimization, I’d recommend you sign up and see the results for yourself. The platform removes the manual growth loops most small teams simply don’t have bandwidth for.