product-growth

How I designed for product growth (retention, user activation, user acquisition, monetization)

TEAM & ROLE

As a product designer, I was a part of the Product team of 3 product managers, 2 product designers, and a product analytic.

WHAT I did

My job was organizing, designing, and concluding usability testing sessions with users, analyzing data (using the CJM framework), and delivering the final design.

What I DELIVERED

Wireframes, user testing design, user interviews, user testing analysis (user interview results, insights from think-aloud testing, CJM), UI design.

PROJECT OUTCOME

Increased Day-1 user retention (+16.1%), user activation rate (+6.4%), and site publish rate (+10.3%). Updated vision to the onboarding functionality.

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Building a product valuable for customers and stakeholders

As a product designer, I was responsible for designing and developing the product. My main task was to consider users' needs and business objectives and find a creative solution to bring value to both the customers and the company.

I was working as a part of a product team in different vectors – user activation, monetization and took part in a few projects connected to user acquisition.

Strategy / Retention & User activation: features / Monetization: principles, features ‍‍ / Acquisition / Reflection

/Overview

Strategy

Retention & Engagement, Monetization, Acquisition is INPUT, Growth - is an OUTPUT

I created personalized activation flows for better results

From the moment someone becomes a user, the activation continues on different levels and throughout various stages. To track activation results, I created a personalized experience for top user archetypes and their specific user journeys. In general, the high-level flows for all users I identified as the following:

The first level of the user activation

A user visits the Yola website >> signs up for the product >> completes an initial site setup >> completes an onboarding >> completes the first set of tasks >> reaches the “aha!” moment >> tries out different features >> gets the value.

The second level of the user activation

A user moves from a basic to a premium account >> discovers the second layer of product value >> expands the usage >> returns to the product regularly >> becomes a product fan.

Identifying the “aha!” moment

I was working on identifying the most important "aha!” moments that drive user activation and investigating how to improve UX in those core points. I divided the core functional job-to-be-done into smaller ones and created the UX map that outlines the key steps a successful user would need to take to experience the platform's value. Also, I paid particular attention to users' pain points and barriers while reaching their goals at each stage.

Our goal was to help users to reach their “aha!” moments asap so that they see how our product helps them to solve their problems. In the future, they more probably turn into happy, paying customers.

The features I designed for increasing retention and user activation:

Better user archetype self-classification

To get a high-fidelity user segmentation, we launched a user archetype self-classification, asking them which type of website they wanted to create and their primary goals. I made the design for all possible flows in the initial site setup.

Result: The qualitative analysis and manual site review demonstrated that users who finished site setup self-classification provided conscious data, and we could offer them the best recommendations and customer support.

Website assistant that declares product value

The UX map I created highlighted the most important "aha!" moments that drive user activation and revealed opportunities to improve the UX. Another UX designer and I created prototypes, designs, and animations for the Welcome tour. Also, we came up with the concept of the Website assistant, which considers a guide provides users with instructions to solve the particular JTBD (see project details here).

Result: users became more engaged, making fewer mistakes and solving their JTBD more efficiently, thereby it increased the Day 1-7 user retention, publish rate and user activation.

Usability improvements that have impact on proxy metrics

I led the platform UX audit project (that included an evaluation of a product’s usability, learnability, and accessibility characteristics). Firstly, I investigated how to improve the UX in core points identified with the help of UX mapping. I did the funnel analyses for essential flows that drive user activation, and the product team focused on that improvements:

Image enhancements: editing, resizing, and changing the focal point;
Text usability enhancements: clear formatting and alignment;
Buttons, links enhancements: editing, alignment, display/hide options, etc.
New block selector: better predefined blocks categorization, adding color scheme selector to block selector, additional triggers to upgrade.

Result: both quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrated a positive influence on website quality proxy metrics, proving the causation between proxy metrics and customer retention.

Site publish rate improvements

We identified the 'Build a website' job as the primary job users hire our product, and the job can be assumed as completed once the user publishes their website. More times users publish their site, the greater chance that they are the target customers. All these improvements positively impacted the site publish rate and user activation. Also, we designed additional triggers to publish a website.

Result: the conversion rate from template selected to published increased to 46%, user activation rate increased to 128%, deeper user engagement.

Increasing Yola platform revenue by up to 150%. Designing for monetization

For half a year, I worked closely with the VP of Product for product growth and monetization. Working in collaboration with the Product team, I took part in strategic planning and monetization strategies. I continuously analyzed current approaches to get the effectiveness of the current monetization strategy and proposed new ideas to increase product revenue.

I designed the UX for in-app purchases, updated the checkout UI, described all possible checkout flows, updated the domain selector, etc. I was a user advocate in related projects, so monetization complements the UX and doesn't negatively impact it.

Also, I designed additional gentle triggers (upgrade interruptions, hints, etc) for users to remind them about the value of subscriptions and other paid features.

Here I described some monetization-related projects based on new principle:

Timing + transparency + tone = less annoying sells

new principle

Designing the paywall

I designed both the in-app paywall and the paywall for yola.com (see), trying to build trust with our users, establish brand recognition and authority, and encourage people to subscribe. We tested different paywall approaches, and I did qualitative and quantitative analyses to choose the best option.

While designing the paywall, I concentrated on ensuring that:

the pricing structure is easy to understand;
it's effortless to compare all available pricing plans;
it's easy to choose the subscription that fits user needs;
the paywall is optimized for mobile devices.

Result: Conversion Rate from Paywall Displayed to Successful Hosting Purchase (1 day) increased to 130%.

Boosting conversions with smooth checkout UX

We hypothesized that responsive checkout would significantly impact general conversion from free to premium. I redesigned the checkout, ensuring the payment process is straightforward so that users don't get frustrated and abandon their subscription attempts.

Keeping in mind that the checkout service should provide users with different payment options and different services for purchase, such as domains, hosting subscriptions, and additional services, I concentrated on avoiding a large and tangled checkout UX.

Result: With an updated UI, the Checkout Abandonment Rate decreased. As the previous checkout was non-responsive, with the new design, the Checkout Engagement Rate from mobile increased, and the Mobile Abandonment Gap decreased.

Increasing conversion rates to paid users and acquiring new visitors with the branded header

Image enhancements: editing, resizing, and changing the focal point;
Text usability enhancements: clear formatting and alignment;
Buttons, links enhancements: editing, alignment, display/hide options, etc.

Result: both quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrated a positive influence on website quality proxy metrics, proving the causation between proxy metrics and customer retention.

Domain purchase flow improvement to better retention rates and LTV

Updating the domain selector in both yola.com and Latitude Sitebuilder+ allowed us to increase the conversion rate from free users to paid ones (that bought domains and core subscriptions).

I designed the responsive domain selector and described all possible flows for domain purchasing. The updates of the domain selector included: autocomplete function in the search field, improved search field UX, tailored paywall demonstration, etc.

Result: All UX metrics for the domain selector increased, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis demonstrated that the domain selector became easier to use. The retention rate increased.

Improving SEO and attracting new users with brand-new site templates

While the dedicated PM was working on SEO improvements, he discovered that we had an insufficient variety of site templates to cover some of the business verticals.
I lead the project of new template creation. Firstly, I communicated with users and analyzed their requests regarding site templates to understand their needs better. Also, I defined which business niches should be covered, prioritized them, and set up a detailed template design and implementation process. In collaboration with PM, we created additional SEO tags to attract people to our platform and ensure it appears in search queries.

Result: 20+ new website templates created, covering 16 business verticals, improved SEO rate.

Some of the templates I did design for:

Gift shop template

Non-profit organization template

Grocery store template

Film production template

Confectionery template

Music band template

Things I learned in the Product designer role

Retention drives Activation, Acquisition, Monetization

That was interesting to me to discover that focusing on retention rate improvement is key to product growth. As Yola uses a freemium business model, the company benefits when users sign up and return to the product over time. Retention indicates that users are getting enough value from the platform and may be willing to be paid customers at some point. The more free users who retain in a given time, the more opportunities the company has to upsell them over time to the paid tier and increase revenue and their LTV. Good retention accelerates acquisition and opens new acquisition channels to grow faster.

Good UX for templates categorization can reduce user churn

I realized that putting myself in the shoes of our users gave me more understanding of where to move further, what our users hire our product for, their intentions, fears, pain points, and many other valuable insights. User empathy helps put the customer at the center of everything a business does, creating better products and memorable brands.

I answered users' requests, helped solve issues, and regularly communicated with support team members to boost my empathy with people using our product. And I realized that I was designing the product not just for 'users' but for real people with real needs. And I really could help them to solve their issues. And I think that increased my designs to a higher level.

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