💎 Growth Gems #76 - User Research, Activation and Gaming
Hey,
This week I’m sharing gems on:
These insights come from Yohann Kunders, Samuel Hulick, Bryan Eisenstadt, Hemant Sawle, and Beth Nations.
Enjoy!
🥇 TOP GEM OF THE WEEK
User Research: finding and interviewing customers
I already shared some insights on healthy growth in Growth Gems #73 from a discussion between Samuel Hulick (UX & Strategy Consultant at UserOnBoard) and Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths).
I was impressed at the depth with which they approached the topic.
Given the importance of talking to users, I was excited to dive into their episode on user research: Our User Value Research Process.
💎 What you want to identify with user research are patterns in the commonalities of users’ desired states. Understand the users’ points of view: “If I bring this product into my life, I hope to be better off in X/Y/Z in my life” (not just in the app/product).
Samuel Hulick (UX & Strategy Consultant at UserOnBoard)
at 04:24
💎 Don’t ask customers about the user experience: ask them about their before and after states. That’s what they are the most familiar with.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 05:00
💎 The set of customers you talk to and where they are in the customer lifecycle changes the kind of information you receive from them. Determine which part of the customer lifecycle is the highest leverage to invest in.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths) & Samuel Hulick (UX & Strategy Consultant at UserOnBoard)
at 09:05
⛏️ Going Deeper: if you talk to longer-term customers, it’s more likely that they’ll talk in broader strokes regarding the impact on their “timeline.”
If you talk to new users, you’re more likely to get more immediate, concrete feedback on why they chose your product.
💎 By default, start by talking to customers who have just made their first payment:
There are more of them (vs. 10th-time renewal)
They’ve taken the big step of paying you, so everything is fresh in their mind
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 10:50
⛏️ Going Deeper: Samuel shared that talking to people who decided to pay you weeds out people who are unlikely to be a good fit. You might lack focus if you talk to people who are just leads.
On the other end of the spectrum, there might be situations where it makes sense to talk with “older” users. Either because you’re trying to improve longer-term retention or because you want to make sure that the users you’re talking to are a long-term fit. To do this kind of research, you need to have enough volume.
💎 When approaching customers for interviews, hand-send emails (or create the appearance of hand-sent emails). Do not send a branded email blast to a bunch of different users. You want them to feel that if they take time to get on a call with you, they’ll be talking to somebody who cares: that you’re taking a genuine interest in their journey and understanding how your offering fits into their lives.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 16:50
⛏️ Going Deeper: it all starts with a cold outreach email, so you have to make it compelling to them. Samuel and Yohann had two pieces of advice on this:
WHEN you reach out is way more important than the contents of the email. Targeting an important and emotional moment will get you higher response rates.
Lean into the intrinsic motivations that people might have for giving you feedback (even if you’re offering an incentive).
💎 When requesting customer interviews, send out small batches of emails (e.g., 10/day). This lets you learn how people respond to it and iterate on your approach.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 20:53
💎 Try to get up to 50 qualitative interviews per research project:
First 10 people to get a feel for different patterns.
Another 10 people to see if the patterns are holding true.
Continue talking to people in a more targeted way about the identified patterns.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 24:45
💎 You need to start the interview with rapport-building to set people at ease and make them feel like they can be honest. Talk about the context of the research: “we want to invest in users in your particular situation, and this is why we want to learn about it.”
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 27:50
💎 Use the “situation-explorer” tool: each column correlates to a particular time in the user's life: before, current, and after states. Fill up the timeline with info on where they are and where they want to be.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 30:00
⛏️ Going Deeper: here is the order in which Yohann recommends conducting the interview
Target state
Further out
Present state
💎 Don’t interrupt the customer unless you absolutely have to. If you do interrupt, because you need more details, punctuate the interview with “why” questions. Example: “Oh, why do you say that?”, “Can you tell me why this matters?” about a detail. Also, use “what do you mean by that?” questions.
Yohann Kunders (Co-founder at Value Paths)
at 43:18
💎 When interviewing customers, you can get interesting revelations by letting awkward silence hang.
Samuel Hulick (UX & Strategy Consultant at UserOnBoard)
at 44:29
💎 When wrapping up a customer interview, resist the urge to make any promise. Instead, tell the customer that they are helping other users like them.
Samuel Hulick (UX & Strategy Consultant at UserOnBoard)
at 49:05
Activation: introductory offers, personalization, referrals
I did not expect much when I registered for Apple’s Optimize subscriptions for success: acquisition session.
But I don’t like to leave stones unturned…
I’m glad I had a look, as Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple) and Hemant Sawle (Commerce Developer Advocate at Apple) shared a few interesting insights.
💎 Free trials are uncommon in China, where paid offers are used more heavily. Looking at the global view (including Greater China), a quarter of subscriptions begin with a paid offer (e.g., pay upfront or pay as you go).
Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple)
at 03:34
💎 Paid offers (pay upfront or pay as you go) can be helpful in apps with strong brand recognition or specific content licensing considerations.
Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple)
at 03:50
⛏️ Going Deeper: HBO Max and Disney both have offers with a heavy discount on the first term.
💎 When customers are in the trial period, keep them engaged in exploring the value of your service. Use tools like in-app messaging and push notifications to reach these new customers.
Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple)
at 06:39
💎 When used alongside notifications, timeline/countdown messaging can help customers comfortably explore your service and understand its value proposition.
Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple)
at 07:30
⛏️ Going Deeper: you’ve probably seen the “Blinkist timeline” above everywhere by now!
💎 Consider using the information you learn about users during onboarding to distribute offer codes for acquisition offers tailored to a customer’s motivation. Example: question on a surfing experience to display a specific copy and an offer code to beginners.
Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple)
at 08:13
🤔 My 2 cents: it would be even cooler if we could know which Custom Product Page a customer came from…#AppleFeedback
💎 Peer-to-peer member referral programs are an effective way to reach new audiences and can be executed using offer codes.
Bryan Eisenstadt (App Store Monetization at Apple)
at 08:13
Gaming: CRM, IP, acquisition
At the last App Growth Summit LA, Olivia Thompson (VP Marketing at Sesh) interviewed Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely) about Growing Evergreen Titles.
This is focused on games but applies well to other products/apps.
💎 There is no CRM strategy with higher ROI than “Your friend played her turn; come back to the game.” It’s scalable and brings real-life connections inside the game.
Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely)
at 1:06:30
💎 Make sure that the experience evolves with the player's journey. However, the novelty needs to be introduced at the right pace.
Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely)
at 1:07:23
💎 Having an IP for a game plays a big role in how you think about the different parts of the lifecycle:
When you’re getting something off the ground, you have more tools: pre-registrations, PR, etc.
You can take advantage of “moments” that are happening with the IP to reactivate users (e.g., WWE: champions gets installs, and reactivation increase during Wrestle Mania and Summerslam)
The tradeoff is that you have to be very careful with your business model because the first people who use the game have the biggest emotional connection.
Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely)
at 1:08:45
💎 When you don’t have an IP, the quality and intent of users should improve with time as you improve the product. Your initial cohorts might not be your best cohorts. It also gives you more flexibility in who you can partner with.
Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely)
at 1:10:08
💎 Find the audience metric that most drives your P&L outcome and orient yourself towards it. For example: for casual games, DAU is a good one because there’s both ad revenue and in-app purchase revenue.
Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely)
at 1:13:50
💎 For creatives, continue to reimagine and visually reinvent the stakes in the emotional journey the player is on. Example: what if Yahtzee with Buddies was a color by number app, a bowling app, or a skeeball app? You can find visual representations of key moments of the game.
Beth Nations (VP of Growth at Scopely)
at 1:16:02
And before I leave, a quote regarding the importance of blended CPAs and not trusting the conversions a platform shows:
“One of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt post-ATT is to never believe a platform” - Shamanth Rao (CEO at RocketShip HQ)
See you next time. Stay savvy!
⛏️ Sylvain
🔗 sources: