Ryan Hops discusses how to avoid antagonizing customers when launching changes to a product or website. He provides six steps: 1) Give warnings before changes, 2) Find power users and connect with them personally, 3) Show mockups of changes for feedback, 4) Invite users to test beta versions, 5) Give legacy options for those resistant to change, and 6) Recognize that customers are sometimes wrong and innovation requires risk. The case of Digg's failed redesign that lost users is presented as an example of not involving power users and implementing too many changes at once without communication.
128 High Converting Growth Hacks - the most epic growth hacking list
How to (not) antagonize your customers in a Lean Startup world
1. Ryan Hops
HOW TO (NOT)
ANTAGONIZE YOUR
CUSTOMERS
IN A LEAN STARTUP WORLD
Loyalty World
March 2013
2. MY GOAL
I WANT TO LEAVE YOU WITH:
How to succeed in the digital era, in the
world of lean startup, and not piss off your
customers.
3. ME:
✓ 20 something entrepreneur
✓ Product guy
✓ From Chinese HedgeFund
to fintech entrepreneur
✓ UWO - Bachelor of Finance
4. WALL STREET SURVIVOR
SOME NUMBERS: 3M+ pageviews/month, 500k+ users
JOINT VENTURES: With huge financial portals like AOL and the
Motley Fool
OUR TECH: Our tech powers 80% of the top business
schools in the US
5. THE EVOLUTION OF WSS
Like many consumer internet startups,
WSS is the poster-child for being a pivot machine.
21. WALL STREET SURVIVOR’S
TWO BIGGEST FANS
The Johnson brothers from West Monroe,
Louisiana
22. TIP:
The more you connect with
your power users:
✓ the more passionate they will
become about your company
✓ the more you will learn about
your all users
23. #3 - SHOW MOCKUPS
✓ Get feedback early. Show to your future
customer base as well as existing.
31. 2,794,000
That’s how many people still use AOL dial-up!
Bottom line: Some people WILL not change.
If it’s still profitable to do so, give them options.
37. DIGG V3
✓ Digg was founded in 2004 by Kevin
Rose (picture on the right)
✓ In 2008, Google offered to buy it for
200m.
✓ By 2010 it was one of the ten biggest
sites on the internet
38. DIGG V4
✓ In 2010, Digg relaunched the site
with a brand new design and a
totally revamped functionality
✓ In one month after their launch
traffic dropped 34%
✓ The never really looked back. In
2012 they sold to Betaworks for
$500,000.
39. FATAL MISTAKE #1
✓ They didn’t involve their power
users.
✓ Digg was a community that thrived
on it’s power users (less than 100
people).
✓ When the site launched, they were
as shocked as everybody.
44. FATAL MISTAKE #3
✓ Too much change - too quickly!
✓ No communication
✓ No roll-out of features
45. COMPARISON: FACEBOOK
Facebook has had as many unpopular
changes as any startup but they roll-out their
features slowly - not all at once!
2006 - mini feeds
2008 - the Wall
2009 - Fan pages and the Like button
2010 - the Wall is gone... the Newsfeed is here!
2011 - Ticker and Timeline