How Docusign Evolved from Point Solution to Platform
Plus: Updates from Asana and SurveyMonkey.
Welcome back to Good Better Best.
Today’s newsletter is jam-packed with insights on how to evolve from a point solution to a platform. First, we’ve got a case study from the team at Docusign, followed by a strategic framework from Ulrik Lehrskov Schmidt.
Let’s get to it!
📰 Pricing News & Updates
Your in-house billing stack might be costing you more than you think
In-house billing works—until it doesn’t. As SaaS companies scale and shift toward usage-based pricing, internal systems often become blockers: slowing product launches, draining engineering time, and risking revenue leakage.
This post breaks down why high-growth leaders like OpenAI and Databricks ditched their custom billing stacks—and what they gained in speed, flexibility, and control. If billing is starting to hurt more than it helps, this is your roadmap.
👉🏼 Read why top SaaS companies are leaving in-house billing behind
Docusign’s Evolution from Point Solution to Platform
For years, Docusign was synonymous with electronic signatures.
But as the e-signature market grew, they saw an opportunity to evolve from a point solution to a platform that manages the full agreement lifecycle.
As Product Monetization Principal, Sandra Tamer played a central role in bringing this new Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform to life — including building the pricing model from the ground up.
Sandra was kind enough to share the story of how IAM (which solves the needs around the entire agreement process) came to life, from product conception, to pricing model, to GTM at launch.
From market leader to market builder
Docusign is one of the rare companies that dominated a category so extensively that its brand name is used to describe the category itself.
But over the last few years, e-signature started to become a crowded space, pushing the team to think about what came next.
“We were known first and foremost for e-signature,” Sandra says. “But over the last two to three years, that started to become commoditized—and it happened quickly.”
Inspired by their own vision beyond e-signature to the entire agreement journey, and driven by insights from industry analysts, they landed on a bold new direction: transforming Docusign into an intelligent agreement management platform.
Importantly, they didn’t just want to build a suite of features. They wanted to create a new category and platform.
So what is IAM?
IAM combines three core products: eSignature, Maestro, and Navigator. Across the three products, IAM helps users solve 3 core jobs: (1) prepare agreements for signature, (2) verify signers and get signatures, and analyze and manage agreements in one place.
Each product fills a distinct role:
Maestro is a no-code, low-code tool for creating custom agreement workflows that connect to existing business systems (e.g., forms, ID verification, signature).
eSignature serves as the commitment layer in the agreement lifecycle, enabling secure, compliant execution of contracts and formal documentation.
Navigator makes it possible to manage and deeply understand contracts across the business by using AI to surface critical insights (e.g., renewal deadlines) in dashboards and reports
Crucially, Navigator isn’t just storage. As Sandra explains, it’s insights first, meaning customers can define their own data fields and surface them instantly across agreements, thanks to AI-powered extractions of custom agreement terms and data at scale.
Designing the pricing model: from scratch to scale
Launching an entirely new product category meant rethinking pricing from first principles.
“We explored flat fees, good-better-best, everything,” Sandra says.
They needed a model that worked for both existing eSignature customers and net-new buyers discovering IAM.
Their approach was deeply research-driven: conjoint studies, cross-functional workshops, and iteration loops with sales and customer feedback. The final model landed on a user-based pricing structure, with plenty of debate.
“There’s so much disdain for seat-based pricing,” Sandra says, “but it's still a suitable option for many solutions aligned to customer value, and a need for predictable spend.”
In IAM’s case, it aligned value with usage: users interact directly with Maestro and Navigator and derive immediate value, so pricing per user made sense.
To de-risk adoption, they included unlimited manual sends (a big shift from eSignature’s envelope caps), and tiered allowances for storage and AI usage.
The Rollout: part customer, part design partner
Docusign took a thoughtful approach to rollout by beta testing Maestro and Navigator with select customers. These customers were given a year of free access to build trust and gather feedback (similar to how Figma rolled out FigJam and Figma Slides).
In Sandra’s words, offering these customers free access was a no-brainer.
“These customers co-built with us,” she explains. “Why wouldn’t we reward them?”
One year in, the results are promising — over 10,000 customers have adopted IAM. Sandra says growth has come both from upselling existing customers and attracting net-new buyers interested in automation or contract intelligence, a signal that the category is starting to gain recognition.
IAM’s value prop is especially compelling in a world of vendor sprawl. But the transition hasn’t been frictionless. Customers used to buying envelopes now have to think in terms of users and thresholds.
“It’s a learning curve. We had to iterate a lot on the allowances and thresholds to make it work.”
Flexibility has been key. Sandra says the current model is a result of feedback and iteration from internal stakeholders and customers.
“When sales flagged an issue, we listened. When customers hit a wall, we adjusted. That’s how we landed on the model we have today.”
Key Learnings
The Docusign IAM launch is a blueprint for successful evolution from single-product to platform pricing. For SaaS builders, here are the the key takeaways I’d take to heart:
Use pricing to signal your shift—from product to platform.
Be ready to iterate, incorporating both internal and customer feedback.
Involve customers early, and reward them for co-building.
Docusign’s evolution is a reminder that product innovation alone isn’t enough. Shifting perception requires pricing, packaging, and go-to-market to move in lockstep.
💭 Expert Opinion
When I first started advising SaaS companies on their growth journeys, I noticed a consistent pattern:
Founders would build an excellent point solution that solved a specific problem brilliantly. Then came the inevitable question: "How do we grow beyond this?"
The path from point solution to platform is treacherous. I've watched too many promising companies fall into one of two traps along the way.
The Two Growth Traps
The first trap is what I call the Hydra Product – a beast with too many heads. Companies frantically create new modules and add-ons for every piece of functionality, resulting in a disjointed collection of purchases. The sales team struggles to explain it, customers get confused about what they're buying, and development costs spiral out of control.
The second trap is the Monolith Product – the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach. Companies continuously add functionality to their core product without adjusting packaging or pricing. This leads to severe under-monetization, with increasing value delivered for relatively static prices. The product becomes harder to explain, and sales teams resort to discounting pieces of functionality rather than selling coherent solutions.
How to Avoid the Traps
The solution lies in what I call packaging integrity. The guiding principle is simple:
When new functionality solves a distinct new job for your customer, create a new offering around it.
When new functionality simply helps solve an existing job better, add it to your current offering for that job.
Every package should directly address a specific customer need. This keeps your product development aligned with real market demands and gives sales teams clear value propositions to communicate.
Critically, this approach requires regular price reassessment. I advise my clients to review pricing quarterly, not annually. Your product's value increases with each improvement, and your pricing should reflect that. Avoid contractually fixing future prices – this flexibility is essential for sustainable growth.
The most successful platforms I've seen employ strategic laddering within their land-and-expand strategy. They design sequential product tiers that address evolving customer needs, creating a natural pathway from initial purchase to more comprehensive solutions.
This approach requires discipline. It's tempting to chase short-term revenue by creating unnecessary add-ons or to avoid difficult conversations about price increases. But the strongest platforms maintain this discipline relentlessly.
One example, I enjoyed watching is HubSpot.
What began as a straightforward inbound marketing tool evolved into a comprehensive CRM platform with distinct but interconnected hubs for marketing, sales, service, and more. Each expansion solved distinct customer problems without creating a fragmented experience.
Thanks for tuning in and see you next week!
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