The DS way
We exist to turn product signals into customer value. No vanity metrics. No activity theater. Just measurable outcomes that prove your investment was worth it.
Dave Shay, founder. Photo by Dave Shay.
Where we come from
Most companies invest in Pendo expecting clarity. What they get is chaos: inconsistent tagging, fragmented ownership, dashboards no one trusts, and teams making product decisions on gut feel instead of real user behavior.
Before founding Deliberate Signals, Dave Shay built a career at the intersection of product analytics and customer insight in B2B SaaS. From early-stage startups to Fortune 10 enterprises, he led teams and transformation work spanning product marketing, customer success, product management and operations, and customer experience. The same problem kept surfacing: companies were failing because they lacked the systems and discipline to use the tools they already had.
That conviction was proven early. At a previous company, Dave pitched a professional services program to the board, secured private equity backing, and built the team from scratch. The program is still running seven years later. At ShootProof, the same approach took first-week activation from 25% to 34%, a 36% lift, with Pendo-guided onboarding. He later productized that methodology into an agency, refined the delivery model, and sold the framework to a growing software company.
Deliberate Signals applies that same operational discipline to Pendo. We launched without fanfare, just referrals from teams who had seen the methodology work. After Dave spoke at Pendomonium, demand accelerated. Within our first year we crossed $100K in ARR on delivery and results alone.
Today we help B2B SaaS companies turn their Pendo investment into a system that drives product decisions: standardized tagging, governance frameworks, cross-functional alignment, and analytics that connect user behavior to business outcomes. If your Pendo instance is generating more confusion than clarity, we should talk.
What we believe
Every engagement comes with a promise: you get full return on your investment, or we keep working until you do. SaaS growth does not come from prettier dashboards. It comes when onboarding drops 25%, support tickets shrink, and your board sees the revenue line move.
Behind every Pendo tag, every churn signal, every test result is a human trying to get their job done. We design with them in mind, not our assumptions. Our team comes first too: no burnout marathons, no 80-hour expectations, and time off that is protected.
We do not walk into audits pointing fingers at what you did wrong. We start with questions: what are users actually trying to do, and where is the data telling us we are blind? Your team's assumptions are not the enemy. They are the starting line.
Internal narratives feel good until retention flatlines. We cut through them with live product data: statistically significant, experiment-backed proof of what works. Your North Star metric does not move by wishing. It moves when you measure, then iterate.
Our systems do not evaporate when the engagement ends. The professional services program Dave built still runs seven years later. We leave you with frameworks, playbooks, and discipline that compounds, because real value is the machinery that keeps delivering.
This is our line in the sand. We are not here to sell hours or frameworks. We are here to make your product data drive your business forward, with humans at the center and ROI as the only scorecard that matters.
Next step
A free 30-minute strategy call. We look at your instance, name the biggest leak, and tell you what we would do first.
Book a free strategy call