PagerDuty Product Led Growth Trial [SaaS][product design][UX architecture][B2B]

PagerDuty is incident response software used by engineering teams. One of its newer features let teams automate parts of that response, but the only way to try it was through a sales call. I designed the UX architecture that turned it into a self-service trial — accounting for different user roles, permissions, and product entry points. Monthly trial requests went from 6 to 50.

Impact:Trial requests jumped from 6 to 50/month · 223 total requests · 50 activated trials · 4 converted accounts

Role:UX Architecture, Product Design, User Flow Mapping, Cross-functional Collaboration

Collaborators:Julianna Green (Lead Engineer), PagerDuty Automation Team

Why

The only way to try PagerDuty’s automation feature was through a sales call or contact form — monthly trial requests sat at 6, and the feature couldn’t grow without a self-service path.

How

A self-service trial flow that accounted for two user types, multiple entry points, and every combination of permissions and trial states — turning an open-ended problem into a finite set of screens and components.

Impact

Trial requests jumped from 6 to 50/month · 223 total requests · 50 activated trials · 4 converted accounts

PagerDuty helps engineering teams respond to outages. One of its newer features automated parts of that response — but the only way to try it was through a sales call.

PagerDuty is incident response software — when a server goes down or a service breaks, it alerts the right people and helps coordinate the fix. Automation Actions was a newer feature that let teams automate parts of that response: running diagnostic scripts, restarting services, executing predefined fixes. But the only way to try it was to either have a relationship with a sales rep or submit a contact form and wait. Monthly trial requests sat at 6. The feature needed to become self-service.

I was working with two user types and multiple entry points — each combination of role and discovery point needed its own path.

UX flow architecture mapping both user personas — Requestor and Activator — across three entry points, documenting permission logic, trial states, and design deliverables at each decision node.
UX flow architecture mapping both user personas — Requestor and Activator — across three entry points, documenting permission logic, trial states, and design deliverables at each decision node.

Through ongoing collaboration with Julianna, I used engineering constraints to define the design boundaries. The permutations collapsed into a focused set of deliverables: introductory landing pages, activation modals, a setup wizard, admin email notifications, success and error states, and a reusable React modal component. Everything was designed to fit into existing PagerDuty UI patterns and minimize net-new engineering work. This process involved healthy debates within the team about what to build and what to cut — I led those conversations and they produced clear outcomes.

The Run Action modal serving both personas — the Activator sees "Activate trial," the Requestor sees "Request trial" with a note confirming the admin will be notified.
The Run Action modal serving both personas — the Activator sees "Activate trial," the Requestor sees "Request trial" with a note confirming the admin will be notified.

When a user encountered Automation Actions for the first time, an introductory page explained the trial and guided them toward activation based on their role.

The other key discovery point was a modal that appeared when a user tried to run an automation on an active incident — admins saw “Activate trial,” general users saw “Request trial.”

Run Action modal on the Incident Detail page with role-based CTAs — admins see "Activate trial," general users see "Request trial."
Run Action modal on the Incident Detail page with role-based CTAs — admins see "Activate trial," general users see "Request trial."

Every state needed a response — successful activation, pending request, ineligible account, duplicate submission.

The trial also bundled a second product, Runbook Automation, and included a step-by-step onboarding guide to walk users through setup.

The trial wasn’t limited to Automation Actions alone. It also included Runbook Automation — a companion product that let teams define and manage more complex automated workflows. The two products worked best together, so the trial bundled both. To support onboarding, we introduced an in-app guide at the start of the trial that walked users through the setup process: connecting their automation runner, creating their first action, executing it on a live incident, and reviewing the output.

Multi-step Pendo onboarding guide walking trial users through runner setup, action creation, incident execution, and output report review.
Multi-step Pendo onboarding guide walking trial users through runner setup, action creation, incident execution, and output report review.

Here’s how the full activation flow played out — from discovery inside an active incident to the first day of the trial.

Trial discovery inside an active incident — "Run Actions" surfaces a tooltip introducing Automation Actions with "Activate trial" and "Learn more" CTAs at the exact moment a user would want it.
Trial discovery inside an active incident — "Run Actions" surfaces a tooltip introducing Automation Actions with "Activate trial" and "Learn more" CTAs at the exact moment a user would want it.

Runbook Automation provisioning modal where admins enter their email and subdomain to spin up a 14-day trial instance directly from the product — no sales call required.
Runbook Automation provisioning modal where admins enter their email and subdomain to spin up a 14-day trial instance directly from the product — no sales call required.

"Verify account via email" loading modal walking users through the three RBA setup steps while the instance spins up in the background.
"Verify account via email" loading modal walking users through the three RBA setup steps while the instance spins up in the background.

"Welcome to Automation Actions!" Pendo tooltip on first load of the activated trial, with "Get started →" and progress dots for the onboarding sequence that follows.
"Welcome to Automation Actions!" Pendo tooltip on first load of the activated trial, with "Get started →" and progress dots for the onboarding sequence that follows.

Monthly trial requests went from 6 to 50 after release — 223 total requests, 50 activated trials, and 4 converted accounts.