Building a Customer Engagement Program for a 0–1 Product
My team recently built a market-disrupting investor intelligence application for which we wanted to validate key use cases with users before bringing it to market.
We planned for everything. Every single piece of customer outreach was scripted, in-app metrics and goals were set, and a handful of power users were recruited to help us with testing.
We launched our customer engagement program to much fanfare, and then… crickets. A week into the testing period we saw very little engagement in the application, and had even less feedback coming in from our testing group.
What happened?
Despite multiple outreach attempts to our users through various means, we weren’t hearing back or making headway with our testing goals.
We had completed a ton of research through the product discovery process to understand our specific users’ goals, desires, and existing tools that they leverage to meet their goals.
Now that our application was in development, we wanted feedback from real users on key workflows to ensure that we were delivering on the promises we set out at the start of the build process.
We were far enough along with the product to have something to test, but not so far that we couldn’t pivot if we were seriously off-track. This real-world information was essential to our success.
Our process
Our approach was to try a beta access program, a type of user engagement program through which we would validate user flows and determine product-market fit.
In setting up this beta program we clearly and carefully defined our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), including the company type that would benefit the most from our application. This allowed us to focus on a subset of all our users and validate a smaller list of key workflows.
We also set out the program goals, or what it was that we wanted to determine through the program. We focused on the following four goals:
- Trust: do users trust the application enough to make decisions based on it?
- Usability: how easy is the solution to understand and use?
- Efficacy: how well does the product solve the customers’ problems
- Value: how much will the product change or influence users’ behaviour, and in what ways?
We set success metrics. Using the above set of goals, we determined what success would look like for each.
And finally, we defined access. Our program offered users exclusive access to the application for two weeks with the agreement that they would provide feedback to us on their experience. The feedback would take two forms: a short survey, and an optional call with the Product team.
Where did we go wrong?
One important thing to note about the capital markets space within which Q4 operates is that between quarterly earnings and investor meeting preparation, our customers are extremely pressed for time.
And so despite getting verbal confirmation of their availability to participate, we should have anticipated that they would have more pressing demands on their time.
Back to the drawing board
We took a step back and re-evaluated our approach. What could we do differently to keep users engaged with the application and invested enough to give us feedback on what’s working and not working for them?
We needed a way to make the value of trying the product compelling enough for our customers to take a few moments to check it out.
Users need to see value to stay engaged
As with other 0–1, market-disrupting products, ours offers users new ways of thinking about existing challenges. The full reach of its potential is not easy to convey by phone call or email. We decided to find a way to show users the value of the application.
Instead of funnelling users into the application and expecting them to drive activity on their own, we took a more hands-on approach. As Steve Jobs famously said, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” When building a new product, it is on the product team to wow users with the value in the application. Without this, they will never influence a change in behaviour.
The other key change that we made was to extend the exclusive access period from two weeks to five weeks. It takes time to build new habits, and this is as true with new products as it is with any entrenched behaviour. Users need time to familiarize themselves with the workflow and build their habits.
And so our revised early access program took shape. Participants received five weeks of hands-on access to the application plus marketing prompts tailored to each individual’s engagements within the system.
This took the form of onboarding support and weekly activity summary digests with prompts for ‘what has changed’ or ‘did you know’.
These are not new ideas in the context of the technology industry, but the changes had immediate, positive effects on our goals by surfacing:
- To users: the key use cases for the application that they might not otherwise be aware of (speaking to trust and efficacy)
- To the product team: what prompts users were responding to, what parts of the application they were interested in (speaking to usability and value)
- To the product and marketing teams: outlining templates for automated in-app and email notifications that are proven to work (speaking to usability)
How it worked out for us
By the end of the program, we saw significant open and click-through rates from all users enrolled. Many were coming into the application week after week, and we started to see new patterns in usage.
We learned what marketing features were tracking well with users, namely our email digests, and in-app CTAs. We also learned there was room for improvement with our in-app help and onboarding processes.
In short, we received valuable feedback on functional improvements that we continue to build into the application.
And most importantly, we built relationships with users that we can go back and tap into for future research.
In Conclusion
Reflecting on our experience, there are things we did well and things we now know for next time. We’re still learning how to do this right!
If you’re setting out to engage with customers on a brand-new product, consider the following in advance:
- Clearly lay out the goals of your engagement program. Consider what you want to achieve, why, and what you expect success to look like.
- Plan ahead, but stay nimble. Understand that, no matter how much you prepare, you may need to pivot from the plan. As long as your goals are clear, how you get there doesn’t matter. Pivoting will be easy because you have allowed yourself the flexibility to be creative in achieving those goals.
- Show the value. If you’re working with a 0 to 1 product, anticipate the need to show users the value in it. Sometimes they will find this on their own, but change is hard, and some users may be reluctant to give a new way a try. If they don’t see the value, consider it your golden opportunity to educate them and change the narrative in your favour.
Engaging customers on any new product is a challenge. Don’t feel discouraged if it takes more time than you thought it would to get the results you’re after.
Have you been through this before at your company? What worked and what didn’t? Drop us a comment — we’d love to learn from your experience for our next opportunity.
P.S.: Are you passionate about solving customer problems and want to shape the future of the Capital Markets? Visit our careers page and find out more.
