How to Grow a Product with a User Journey Brandon Owens - http://linkedin.com/in/brandonowens Mauricio Estrella - http://linkedin.com/in/mestrella Too often growth is assumed to be a marketing problem but the overall pace of growth is frequently governed by how well the product converts new users into heavy users. This presentation highlights how you can create a User Journey to identify the most important parts of a product experience that drive or inhibit growth. i. How we related a User Journey to Growth ii. 3 things to focus your teams on for Growth iii. Then what? User Journey iv. What is the “aha moment” v. Things you can do to build a user journey vi. Final recommendations Presented at Barcamp Shanghai, Spring 2014

1. VIDEOHOWTO GROW A PRODUCT
WITH A USER JOURNEY
BRANDON OWENS, MAURICIO ESTRELLA

2. PRESENTATION STRUCTURE
I. HOW WE RELATED A USER JOURNEYTO GROWTH
II. 3THINGSTO FOCUSYOURTEAMS ON FOR GROWTH
III.THEN WHAT? USER JOURNEY
IV. WHAT ISTHE “AHA MOMENT”
V.THINGSYOU CAN DOTO BUILD A USER JOURNEY
VI. FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
HOW TO GROW A PRODUCT WITH A USER
JOURNEY
PRESENTATION STRUCTURE

3. 1. We “Borrowed” a simple outline of product growth
from Chamath Palihapitiya, “How we put
Facebook on the path to 1 billion users”
Watch the youtube video here.
2. Then we mixed in our own experience with User
Journeys
3. Came up with simple presentation to share our
ideas
i. HOW WE RELATED A USER JOURNEY
TO GROWTH

4. II. 3 THINGS TO FOCUS YOUR
TEAMS ON FOR GROWTH
Chamath
Palihapi+ya,
“How
we
put
Facebook
on
the
path
to
1
billion
users”
1. How to get customers in the Door
2. How to get users to the “Aha Moment” *
3. How to deliver your Core Product Value as
frequently as possible.
* Often overlooked, extremely valuable and is often an
inhibitor or an enabler of growth.
* It does not matter how many people try your product if it
takes people too long to ‘get it” - your core value.

5. III. THEN WHAT?
CREATE A USER JOURNEY
Use a User Journey to answer for your product…
1. What is your “Aha Moment” ?
2. Where are you losing users in the process? (funnel
analysis)
3. What hassles, barriers or confusion exist in the
early-user flow?
Then use design, UX & emotions to put people on path
to your product’s “core value”

6. “A simple, intuitive expression of what a user needs to
do, by when, to really understand the core value of
your product - when they ‘get it’.”
Facebook example -
Get a new user to add 7 friends in their first 10 days
!
Brandon w/ online Spanish example -
Study more than 15 hours (3 hours speaking) in his first 21 days
IV. WHAT IS THE “AHA MOMENT”
“Aha Moment”

7. III. THEN WHAT? USER JOURNEY
• User Test - on the street, with friends or services like usertesting.com
!
• Search through customer service cases for common feedback or common
stumbling blocks
“Give a study guide! There are so many tools that I don't know which one
to use for my needs.”
!
• Use analytics to construct funnels
- Major flows (homepage, click join, create account, confirm email)
- Key parts of service (attempt to search, get results, click results, book,
share)
!
• Survey your users
- http://blog.kissmetrics.com/best-ways-to-get-feedback/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Customer_feedback_management_services
Things you can do to build User Journey
• User Test - on the street, with friends or services
like usertesting.com
!
• Search through customer service cases for
common feedback or common stumbling blocks
“Give a study guide! There are so many tools
that I don't know which one to use for my
needs.”
V. THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BUILD USER
JOURNEY

8. III. THEN WHAT? USER JOURNEY
• User Test - on the street, with friends or services like usertesting.com
!
• Search through customer service cases for common feedback or common
stumbling blocks
“Give a study guide! There are so many tools that I don't know which one
to use for my needs.”
!
• Use analytics to construct funnels
- Major flows (homepage, click join, create account, confirm email)
- Key parts of service (attempt to search, get results, click results, book,
share)
!
• Survey your users
- http://blog.kissmetrics.com/best-ways-to-get-feedback/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Customer_feedback_management_services
Things you can do to build User Journey
• Use analytics to construct funnels
- Major flows (homepage, click join, create
account, confirm email)
- Key parts of service (attempt to search, get
results, click results, book, share)
!
• Survey your users
- http://blog.kissmetrics.com/best-ways-to-
get-feedback/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Customer_feedback_management_services
V. THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BUILD USER
JOURNEY

9. How to deliver
your core product
value as frequently
as possible.
USAGE
CYCLE
SOCIAL USECOREVALUE
SEARCHING &
CONSIDERING
Buying on the phone
Buying online
Having questions
CHECKOUT OR LOGIN
PROBLEMS & ENROLLMENT
CUSTOMER SERVICE
CASES OR JUST
CLOSING THE APP
EXPLORING
PRODUCT
UPSELL or NICHE
FEATURES
CRM Emails
Welcome
Get started
Google &
Friends? Landing
pages or your
homepage?
Username
Fill in a profile?
Credit card?
Now what?
Take a tour? Explore the
product ? Watch an
onboarding video? Anything?
Big source of
info & problems
What very few people
actually do but is
valuable to you &
important for retention.
Pride & Enjoyment
in use will lead to
invite others.
An example User Journey

10. Importance of early emotional reaction
EMOTIONS, DESIGN & DETAILS MATTER AS THEY POWER
CYCLES.
!
You only have a few moments where new users are evaluating your product and deciding ‘do I
understand this’ ‘can I use it’ and ‘will it be valuable’. Their emotional reaction powers positive
or negative cycles that can drive them in or out of your product.
!
Graphic recreated from Pride Frustration model psych paper here

11. 1.How to get to your product’s “Aha moment”
!
2. Designing for early emotional reaction
!
3. UX checklist for early adoption
!
4. Connecting the dots
VI. FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS

12. 1. How to get your product’s “Aha moment”
1. User Journey gives you the customer-centric experience
and context to properly understand your data.
2. Data analysis & creating funnels show you where you lose
most users.
3.Work back from “power users” of your product
- how did their early activities differ compared to regular
users
- how did it differ compared to ‘abandoned’ or ‘inactive’
users
4. Add a healthy load of common sense on when, how, why
users first try your product
5. Synthesize into “Aha moment” & focus teams to improve it
for growth.

13. 2. Designing for early emotional reaction
Design answers:
!
Does this “feel” right? Do I trust this product with my
information? (design)
!
Almost all products require some information from a user.
!
“Does the ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of the product align with user
expectations? If not, you will continue to have more and more
users who shy away from providing you data.
As they shy away, fewer and fewer people get far enough along
to understand you product’s core value.”

14. 3. UX checklist for early adoption!
!
UX = Confusion can lead to friction
When getting users to their “aha moment”, remove all confusion and
all friction possible. If they don’t understand something or it does
not function as they expect, that creates confusion & friction.
!
UX = All Friction adds up towards critical point of frustration
This is obvious – every time you try something new that requires too
much information or doesn’t make sense, you get frustrated. That
fuels the negative appraisal cycle and pushes users right out of your
product.
!
UX = Simplify by remove barriers, remove confusion
Every step required reduces the percentage of new users who
continue. Is there substantial value in every step such that it
compensates for all those customers who abandon at that stage? Or
who abandon at that field? Use funnels to measure overall progress
as well as form progress.
!

15. FUNCTIONAL DESIGN PROBLEMS THOUGHTFUL DESIGN PRACTICES
4. CONNECTING THE DOTS
COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR
CHECKOUT
Too many fields
No sense of
security
Template-style
Robotic
language
https:// page
Intimidating
Unbranded
Testimonials
Privacy
statement
Simple fields
Security badges
Autocomplete
Crystal-clear UI

16. FUNCTIONAL DESIGN PROBLEMS THOUGHTFUL DESIGN PRACTICES
4. CONNECTING THE DOTS
EXAMPLE: MOST COMMON PROBLEMS AND
SOLUTIONS FOR ONBOARDING
Long signup
forms
Poor
copywriting
Poor design
The “Kitchen
Sink” effect
Great visuals
Too many clicks
Too many
notifications
Ads.
Micro
interactions
Transitional UIs
Contextual help
Friendly faces
Power
statements
Expert
suggestions
Wizards &
Assistants

17. MARKETING / PRODUCT
TWITTER.COM/
BILLYEVERYTEEN
LINKEDIN.COM/IN/
BRANDONOWENS
DESIGN / UX
!
DRIBBBLE.COM/
MANICHO
LINKEDIN.COM/IN/
MESTRELLA
GET INTOUCH
Images credit
Journey
www.thatgamecompany.com