The document discusses reasons why users may not be converting on websites. It states that there are three main reasons for lack of conversion: 1) users don't understand what is being offered, 2) they don't have the problem being solved, and 3) the product isn't worth the cost. It encourages testing with users to identify which of these three issues may be causing low conversion rates.
27 Revenue Model Options B2B (curated by @arnevbalen - Board of Innovation)Board of Innovation
How to find new ways to make money in a B2B context? Explore 27 trigger cards with different business model options and pricing tactics (B2B version). (By Board of Innovation)
29 Revenue Model Options for Industrial enterprises (curated by @arnevbalen -...Board of Innovation
How to find new ways to make money as an industrial company? Explore 29 trigger cards with different business model options and pricing tactics (Industrial enterprise version). - by Board of Innovation
27 Revenue Model Options B2C (curated by @arnevbalen - Board of Innovation)Board of Innovation
How to find new ways to make money in B2C? Explore 27 trigger cards with different business model options and pricing tactics. (by Board of Innovation)
27 Revenue Model Options B2B (curated by @arnevbalen - Board of Innovation)Board of Innovation
How to find new ways to make money in a B2B context? Explore 27 trigger cards with different business model options and pricing tactics (B2B version). (By Board of Innovation)
29 Revenue Model Options for Industrial enterprises (curated by @arnevbalen -...Board of Innovation
How to find new ways to make money as an industrial company? Explore 29 trigger cards with different business model options and pricing tactics (Industrial enterprise version). - by Board of Innovation
27 Revenue Model Options B2C (curated by @arnevbalen - Board of Innovation)Board of Innovation
How to find new ways to make money in B2C? Explore 27 trigger cards with different business model options and pricing tactics. (by Board of Innovation)
Doing customer development (and stop wasting your time) - StartupBus editionHans van Gent
Why would you bother to talking to people while you actually could be building your product?
Because everything you assume could be wrong. Time to validate those assumptions and start your business on the right track while being on a moving bus.
Adopting lean startup? Talking to customers? Many product managers, marketing teams, website, app or software developers talk to their customers but lack the right techniques and draw bad conclusions. Don't build something nobody wants. Instead dip your big toe into the psychology of what it is like to be interviewed and get feedback that is 100% to be trusted.
I have spent years on building startups, some based on what customers told me that they wanted. Then I built it. Then they didn't use it or buy it. How can this be? How can the customer be always right, yet give us feedback that is so wrong? Were they lying to us? Yes, obviously!
The answer to this riddle is in the psychology of how we talk to people, what the context and introduction is to how we start our customer development or interview sessions. At different stages of development, we have different outcomes that we want to achieve; from understanding behaviour to identifying what is really a problem customers care about to whether a given solution to that problem would work to getting your first product built and gathering some usage data. What do you want to know?
There are a few truths for every stage. Customers are always going to be polite and not want to hurt our feelings. Customers will want to present a good version of themselves that eats healthily, makes good environmental choices, goes to the gym regularly - even when the reality could not be further from the truth. Customers will make suggestions to appear intelligent, to tell us what they think we want to hear. Can these biases be stripped out? Absolutely, if you know what to do and what the warning signs are.
Finally, if you live in the product management, web development or software development world, how do you incorporate this feedback into some useful insights that you can bring back to your team? I'll tell you more in the presentation
From SES Training in London in February ’09. Four hour training seminar covering why a company might blog, how to form a corporate blog strategy, how to create a blogger outreach program and how to pitch.
How To Start Kindle Publishing - How to instantly write at least 2,000 words ...Kindle Publishing Tips
How To Start Kindle Publishing - I will take you by the hand and show you step-by-step how you can finally make a killing just by selling Kindle e-books that will generate passive income, month after month.
My website: http://bit.ly/2NdEAyb
How To Publish A Book On Amazon - How to instantly write at least 2,000 words...Kindle Publishing Tips
How To Publish A Book On Amazon - I will take you by the hand and show you step-by-step how you can finally make a killing just by selling Kindle e-books that will generate passive income, month after month.
My website: http://bit.ly/2NdEAyb
Soon Your Whole Content game is going to change
• You will be able to easily pump out epic content
• I will give you my proven formula to write content for
social media platforms like Facebook, this formula also
works wonderfully for writing emails.
• You will be able to see content ideas everywhere and will
never run out of content ideas ever
6TH DAY OF 40 HOURS NLP WORKSHOP for the TRAINING OF TRAINERS @ADARSH AMDAVAD
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a model about human behavior. It is not a theory because a theory must be proved. On the other hand a model merely has to be tested and if the model yields consistent results; it qualifies as a working model.
Every model is based on pre-suppositions which are assumed to be true. The presuppositions
for any given model are fine tuned till such time that the model yields
consistent results.
1. Everyone lives in and operates from his/her own unique model of the world.
2. People always make the best choices available to them, given their unique model of the world and the situation.
3. There is a desirable solution/possible outcome to every problem.
4. Each person is equipped with everything he/she needs to solve his/her
problems.
5. It is important to separate and distinguish a person from his/her behavior.
When someone is learning something new, it is useful to evaluate the
behaviors while holding constant a positive evaluation of self.
6. All behaviors that people exhibit are motivated by a positive intention or
purpose.
Taking Care of Your Campus Customers - An Inclusive Approach to Customer Servicemichellebaker
These slides were used with the "Taking Care of Your Campus Customers" workshop, delivered at Ball State University in September 2014.
Workshop facilitated by Michelle Baker, phase(two)learning
phasetwolearning.com - phasetwolearning@gmail.com
Job Search Survival Kit -- How To Deal With The Layoff Hurt And Learn From It --Anthony Hines
This is my most important presentation because it helps to build you back up so that you are able to be strong during the process and really thrive when you gain your next opportunity.
The following is a presenation that discusses possible ways to handle people at work who are just plain nasty to be around. Hopefully these tips will help you out if you are dealing with this in the workplace.
Who Am I….I am a hardworking guy who, like many others, found himself out of work during the economic downturn in 2010. After a long battle of wrong turns, job search strategies that led to no where, and dead end leads, I decided to take a more strategic approach to my job search. Like anything else in life, I needed to treat my search like a full-time job and create a plan that would allow me to stand out above the competition. This came in especially handy as I was in transition again in 2017. Basically, I just used the tips that I have shared with others and was out of work a total of ZERO days. Yes, I got a job offer the day after my last day at my previous job. Let me show you how I did it so you too can have a quicker landing than you would have had without my tips.
Why Am I Sharing What Helped Me…because I quickly realized that to handle an event like that is to focus on what you can control and share the experience to help others. I believe that an experience not shared is a lost opportunity in life, and that smart people learn from their mistakes and smarter people learn from other people’s experiences. Plus, I told myself that once I figured this out I would share it with others so that they too could navigate the world of unemployment. In these chapters, I show you how I did it so that you will have the confidence to make it through the process. I hope that this presentation helps you to get your next great job.
#career #job_search #job_opportunity_tips #unemployment #motivation #attitude #depression #Job_search_survival #confidence #interviewing #networking #resume #recruiting #hiring_manager #work #transition
Doing customer development (and stop wasting your time) - StartupBus editionHans van Gent
Why would you bother to talking to people while you actually could be building your product?
Because everything you assume could be wrong. Time to validate those assumptions and start your business on the right track while being on a moving bus.
Adopting lean startup? Talking to customers? Many product managers, marketing teams, website, app or software developers talk to their customers but lack the right techniques and draw bad conclusions. Don't build something nobody wants. Instead dip your big toe into the psychology of what it is like to be interviewed and get feedback that is 100% to be trusted.
I have spent years on building startups, some based on what customers told me that they wanted. Then I built it. Then they didn't use it or buy it. How can this be? How can the customer be always right, yet give us feedback that is so wrong? Were they lying to us? Yes, obviously!
The answer to this riddle is in the psychology of how we talk to people, what the context and introduction is to how we start our customer development or interview sessions. At different stages of development, we have different outcomes that we want to achieve; from understanding behaviour to identifying what is really a problem customers care about to whether a given solution to that problem would work to getting your first product built and gathering some usage data. What do you want to know?
There are a few truths for every stage. Customers are always going to be polite and not want to hurt our feelings. Customers will want to present a good version of themselves that eats healthily, makes good environmental choices, goes to the gym regularly - even when the reality could not be further from the truth. Customers will make suggestions to appear intelligent, to tell us what they think we want to hear. Can these biases be stripped out? Absolutely, if you know what to do and what the warning signs are.
Finally, if you live in the product management, web development or software development world, how do you incorporate this feedback into some useful insights that you can bring back to your team? I'll tell you more in the presentation
From SES Training in London in February ’09. Four hour training seminar covering why a company might blog, how to form a corporate blog strategy, how to create a blogger outreach program and how to pitch.
How To Start Kindle Publishing - How to instantly write at least 2,000 words ...Kindle Publishing Tips
How To Start Kindle Publishing - I will take you by the hand and show you step-by-step how you can finally make a killing just by selling Kindle e-books that will generate passive income, month after month.
My website: http://bit.ly/2NdEAyb
How To Publish A Book On Amazon - How to instantly write at least 2,000 words...Kindle Publishing Tips
How To Publish A Book On Amazon - I will take you by the hand and show you step-by-step how you can finally make a killing just by selling Kindle e-books that will generate passive income, month after month.
My website: http://bit.ly/2NdEAyb
Soon Your Whole Content game is going to change
• You will be able to easily pump out epic content
• I will give you my proven formula to write content for
social media platforms like Facebook, this formula also
works wonderfully for writing emails.
• You will be able to see content ideas everywhere and will
never run out of content ideas ever
6TH DAY OF 40 HOURS NLP WORKSHOP for the TRAINING OF TRAINERS @ADARSH AMDAVAD
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a model about human behavior. It is not a theory because a theory must be proved. On the other hand a model merely has to be tested and if the model yields consistent results; it qualifies as a working model.
Every model is based on pre-suppositions which are assumed to be true. The presuppositions
for any given model are fine tuned till such time that the model yields
consistent results.
1. Everyone lives in and operates from his/her own unique model of the world.
2. People always make the best choices available to them, given their unique model of the world and the situation.
3. There is a desirable solution/possible outcome to every problem.
4. Each person is equipped with everything he/she needs to solve his/her
problems.
5. It is important to separate and distinguish a person from his/her behavior.
When someone is learning something new, it is useful to evaluate the
behaviors while holding constant a positive evaluation of self.
6. All behaviors that people exhibit are motivated by a positive intention or
purpose.
Taking Care of Your Campus Customers - An Inclusive Approach to Customer Servicemichellebaker
These slides were used with the "Taking Care of Your Campus Customers" workshop, delivered at Ball State University in September 2014.
Workshop facilitated by Michelle Baker, phase(two)learning
phasetwolearning.com - phasetwolearning@gmail.com
Job Search Survival Kit -- How To Deal With The Layoff Hurt And Learn From It --Anthony Hines
This is my most important presentation because it helps to build you back up so that you are able to be strong during the process and really thrive when you gain your next opportunity.
The following is a presenation that discusses possible ways to handle people at work who are just plain nasty to be around. Hopefully these tips will help you out if you are dealing with this in the workplace.
Who Am I….I am a hardworking guy who, like many others, found himself out of work during the economic downturn in 2010. After a long battle of wrong turns, job search strategies that led to no where, and dead end leads, I decided to take a more strategic approach to my job search. Like anything else in life, I needed to treat my search like a full-time job and create a plan that would allow me to stand out above the competition. This came in especially handy as I was in transition again in 2017. Basically, I just used the tips that I have shared with others and was out of work a total of ZERO days. Yes, I got a job offer the day after my last day at my previous job. Let me show you how I did it so you too can have a quicker landing than you would have had without my tips.
Why Am I Sharing What Helped Me…because I quickly realized that to handle an event like that is to focus on what you can control and share the experience to help others. I believe that an experience not shared is a lost opportunity in life, and that smart people learn from their mistakes and smarter people learn from other people’s experiences. Plus, I told myself that once I figured this out I would share it with others so that they too could navigate the world of unemployment. In these chapters, I show you how I did it so that you will have the confidence to make it through the process. I hope that this presentation helps you to get your next great job.
#career #job_search #job_opportunity_tips #unemployment #motivation #attitude #depression #Job_search_survival #confidence #interviewing #networking #resume #recruiting #hiring_manager #work #transition
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 5DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 5. In this session, we will cover CI/CD with devops.
Topics covered:
CI/CD with in UiPath
End-to-end overview of CI/CD pipeline with Azure devops
Speaker:
Lyndsey Byblow, Test Suite Sales Engineer @ UiPath, Inc.
Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing DaysKari Kakkonen
My slides at Nordic Testing Days 6.6.2024
Climate impact / sustainability of software testing discussed on the talk. ICT and testing must carry their part of global responsibility to help with the climat warming. We can minimize the carbon footprint but we can also have a carbon handprint, a positive impact on the climate. Quality characteristics can be added with sustainability, and then measured continuously. Test environments can be used less, and in smaller scale and on demand. Test techniques can be used in optimizing or minimizing number of tests. Test automation can be used to speed up testing.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
GridMate - End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid...ThomasParaiso2
End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid regressions. In this session, we share our journey building an E2E testing pipeline for GridMate components (LWC and Aura) using Cypress, JSForce, FakerJS…
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
• What is SAP Fiori and why it matters to you
• How a better user experience drives measurable business benefits
• How to get started with SAP Fiori today
• How SAP Fiori elements accelerates application development
• How SAP Build Code includes SAP Fiori tools and other generative artificial intelligence capabilities
• How SAP Fiori paves the way for using AI in SAP apps
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
14. People Don’t Convert for 3 Reasons
They don’t understand what you’re offering
They don’t have the problem you’re solving
The product isn’t worth what you’re asking
16. They’re not converting because
They don’t get it
They don’t need it
They don’t want it enough
17. Think Different
What Can Brown
Do for You?
You Deserve a Break Today
Snap
Crackle
Pop
Just Do It
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
Sometimes You Don’t
These Are Total Gibberish
18. Test For It
Five Second Tests
Guerrilla Usability
Site Intercept
19. They’re not converting because
They don’t get it
They don’t need it
They don’t want it enough
25. Those Three Reasons Again
They Don’t Get It
They don’t understand what you’re offering
They Don’t Need It
They don’t have the problem you’re solving
They Don’t Want It Enough
The product isn’t worth what you’re asking
26. Questions?
Here’s how to find me...
@lauraklein
laura@usersknow.com
UX for Lean Startups from O’Reilly
Editor's Notes
Hi, I’m Laura Klein. I’m going to talk to you about the 3 reasons your users aren’t converting.
You probably have no idea who I am, so very briefly...I’m a user experience designer, and I work a lot with startups. What this means is that I get to talk to a lot of different startups. And that means that I get to see a lot of startups make exactly the same mistakes. Over and over. I’d like to help you maybe not make all of those same mistakes. That way you can make your own NEW mistakes.
Here’s a common one. Generally a few people go off for awhile and build an awesome product. They’re super excited about it. They put it in the app store or put up a landing page on the web, and wait for the users to come pouring in. And then that doesn’t happen like 100% of the time.
So, maybe then the companies break down and do some advertising or try to get featured on techcrunch. And they get some users! So exciting! But then...nothing. They come. They look around. They leave. They never return. Boo.
The users are just not taking that next step. They’re not converting.
So, that’s when the startups realize they have what’s called a conversion optimization problem.
Here’s the thing, there are a lot of people with a lot of tactics for fixing conversion optimization problems. A LOT. Last I checked, there were about 8.5 million results on google for conversion optimization. So, you know, there’s no lack of tips on how to make your conversion better. Hell, we’ve heard some great stories here today about ways that might help improve your conversion.
The thing is, now that you have 8.5 million different suggestions for improving conversion, you should really pick one.
And that can be tough.
See, what worked for one company won’t necessarily work for you. If it would, we’d all be Dropbox.
But hang on a second. Let’s actually define what we even mean by conversion optimization anyway. Because I’ve heard the term used in almost as many ways as there are tips for fixing it.
What I’m talking about when I talk about converting users is moving a user to the next level.
In other words, you can take a visitor to your site and turn them into a registered user. When the 30 people in the world who don’t have Facebook accounts visit a Facebook page, Facebook wants to convert those people into registered users with their very own accounts. That’s the first step.
A visitor could also turn into a returning visitor. For example, let’s say you own a coffee shop. Generally, when somebody comes into a coffee shop, there’s no concept of turning them into a registered user. But you sure want them to come back. The next step for a visitor to a coffee shop is often turning them into a regular.
Or, and this is the holy grail people, you could turn them into a paying customer! Wouldn’t that be great? I mean, you would actually get money in exchange for letting people use your product. Yay!
So, a company like Dropbox lets you use the service for a little while, but when you want more space, they convert you into a paying customer.
But you knew all that already, right? I mean, you know what your goal is for your own product right? You’re going to all this trouble to get people to come look at your product. You want to turn them into the right kind of user for you! Registered, returning, and hopefully paying!
so why aren’t they doing it?
You’re paying all this money to advertise to them. You’re buying key words. You’re paying referral fees. You’re standing on the street corner with a big sign. Why are people checking out your product and then just wandering off into the mist?
I’m glad you asked.
Let’s take a look at some of these taglines here. Think Different. Just Do It. What Can Brown Do For You? They have something in common. They are all complete gibberish. Oh, also, you probably know what these companies are selling. But here’s the thing...these taglines don’t in any way tell you what these companies are selling. You know what these companies are selling because of multi million dollar ad campaigns that associate these nonsense words with cereal or candy bars or package delivery.
You don’t have that luxury, people.
Here’s what I see every day. People write these clever taglines for their products. They make these coy landing pages. They create these super clean looking designs. And they confuse the hell out of the people who are trying to figure out if they want to use them.
But here’s the deal. Nobody’s going to use your product if they don’t understand what it does. And if you think they are going to spend a lot of time digging around in your product trying to figure out all the wonderful benefits it delivers, you are delusional. People come to your product. Look at it for about 5 seconds. They fail to understand what it is or why they should use it. And then they leave. I see it over and over again.
Let me say it one more time. People might be leaving your product because they don’t understand what it does.
And you can implement all the growth hacks you want to, but if people show up at your product and don’t understand what it does, you’re going to fail.
So, how can you figure out if this is your problem?
Really easily, actually. That’s the nice thing about this. In fact, you can figure it out in about 10 seconds.
You see, there are these things called Five Second Tests. What you do is, you show the first part of your product – a landing page, an app download page, a product or buy page, whatever – to a person for five seconds. Then you take it away. And you ask this question. “What does that product do?” I guarantee you that a shocking number of people will say, “I have no idea.” It’s not because they’ve only seen it for five seconds. That’s plenty of time to figure out generally what a product does if the messaging isn’t awful. It’s because you haven’t done a very good job of conveying what your product actually does in that crucial first few seconds of attention that you get.
And this is important! Because that may be all you get. If somebody lands on your landing page or browses past it in the app store you’ve only got a few seconds to convince that person that they should give your product a try. They have to know, immediately, what it is your product does and whether or not they should check it out further. These decisions are made in an instant.
So, try that at the break. Take out your phone or your computer or iPad. Turn to the person next to you and show them your product for 5 seconds. Then see what they think it does. If they get it, great! You’re way ahead of the pack. If they don’t, maybe you want to look into your messaging to see what you can do to make it clearer.
Ok, so now you’ve figured out your messaging. It’s super clear. People get exactly what you’re selling them. But...they’re still not converting. Now they’re coming to your product, taking a look at it, and then saying “nope” and just leaving. WHYYYYYY?
Here’s something you may not want to hear. It’s very possible that your product simply doesn’t fulfill a need for those folks. You solve a problem that they don’t have.
I want to introduce you to a product. It’s called jobs4pets. It’s the premier job site for pets. Like Monster for dogs. Like TaskRabbit but for actual rabbits. That’s right, if you have a bored border collie, this is the place for you to find him employment. And of course, if you have a job that can only be done by a cat, this is where you would post it!
Does that make sense to everybody? I mean, you know what this site does, right? Does anybody need this? No! Because it’s insane!
The sad truth is, this has to be my example of a stupid product because it’s literally the only thing that I could think of that is so stupid that nobody else in the room was likely to be building it. Because let me tell you, there are a lot of products I see out there in the world that are solutions in search of problems. And again, all the growth hacking in the world isn’t going to help you build a business if your product fundamentally doesn’t solve a need for anybody but five or six crackpots.
So, how do you know if this is your problem? How do you know if you’re solving a real problem for people? Well, this is where you actually have to go out and talk to people. And no, you can’t just ask them, “does this solve a problem for you?” Because they will say yes, and they will be lying. You need to understand their habits. You need to understand their problems. You need to do good, solid early user research. This is hard work. But if you don’t get out and talk to your potential users, you will never truly understand their problems which means you will never be able to solve their problems.
Alright. Now, you know that you’re filling a serious user need for a specific group of people, and you know that those people understand what you’re offering them. But they’re still not converting. What the? Seriously? Yeah, seriously. This happens all the time. People need your product. You’ve validated that. They get it. Why don’t they want it?
Easy. They do want it. They just don’t want it enough to pay what you’re asking.
And hold off on that collective sigh of relief because your products are all free.
Cost doesn’t just mean money. Imagine this. I come to you and say that I’ve got a fabulous new email client. It’s fast, it does exactly what you want, it will keep you at inbox zero all the time. It’s fucking magical. One tiny downside. You need to change your email address. Are you going to do it? Probably not. Because changing your email address is a giant hassle. It takes a ton of time, and your time has value.
Well, surprise, your user’s time has value too! So does their effort and their pain. Every single thing you do to make your product hard to use or hard to understand or complicated to switch to or painful to use increases the cost to your user. And pretty soon, no matter how big the problem you’re solving, it’s simply not worth the hassle.
So, how do you know if your product costs too much in any of those areas? Well, you’ll need to do some different sorts of testing.
To find out if you’re causing your user too much pain, you’ll want to do some usability tests. Figure out just what you’re really inflicting on people.
To find out if you are solving a serious enough problem to justify any effort on their part, you’re going to want to get pre-build commitments. In other words, ask them to pay you before you build anything at all. Tell them what you’re going to require. See if they’re still offering to give you money to solve their problem.
And, of course, you may be charging too much in actual money. That’s when you’re going to want to do some price optimization tests.
Here’s the TL;DR; slide. These are the three reasons users aren’t converting again.
I also want to tell you why it’s important that you figure these things out. You see, if you don’t know why they’re not converting, you won’t know what to fix. In other words, if the problem is that they don’t get it, changing your price won’t do a damn thing. If the problem is that your product doesn’t solve a real problem for people, you can make the messaging as clear as you want.
You can only improve your conversion by first understanding what’s keeping people from converting. And you can only do that by listening to your users!
Thanks very much! Just so you know, this talk is based on a longer workshop that I do for LUXr. If you enjoyed it, you should check out the workshop and others like it at new.luxr.co. Also, there are all sorts of tips about learning from your users and turning that into good design in my book, UX for lean startups from O’Reilly. Please check it out.
And, if you have any questions whatsoever, please send me an email at [email_address]. I’m always happy to help. Thanks again!