Contextual

Category: Product Manager

  • Customer Support is a Product Managers untapped design resource.

    Customer Support is a Product Managers untapped design resource.

    Call it: Customer Success, Customer Care, Customer Support, Tech Support, HelpDesk – these teams and people are the first line of feedback from customer and the reality is they carry a lot of data from the intimacy and volume of interactions.

    In this Fireside Rachael Neumann (former director of Customer Experience Strategy at EventBrite and now Head of Startups AWS ANZ) talks about the psychological or emotional user experience.

    After an anecdote about how she discovered a different way to implement a product feature, I challenged Rachael about whether she was actually doing the Product Manager’s job.

    Rachael made an important point:

    “But it’s very powerful when you have someone who sits between customer and product because two things happen. If you just have a customer team:

    • they tend to be seen as a cost center instead of a strategic center.
    • They tend to be the first function that is off-shored and
    • they tend to be kind of pushed off to the side and
    • BUT they are basically speaking to hundreds or thousands of customers a day creating rich rich datasets that are never captured mined or used.

    And on the other side you have product managers who all think that they’re Steve Jobs and that they can create products from the vision of their mind…..and never shall the two meet.”

    Rachael’s comment is fairly incendiary but rings true – as teams get larger the Product Management function gets busy with backlog, internal meetings, analytics and lots of other inward-facing actions.

    The original methodology of Customer Development interviews is largely abandoned as its one of the least pleasant thing  to do AND its not usually incented with KPIs.

    What Lens do you use to view your Product? Design or Emotion?

    Careful, this is a trick question – your customer is only going to view THEIR experience of your product through their EMOTION.

    Rachael’s comment “speaking to hundreds or thousands of customers a day creating rich rich datasets that are never captured mined or used” has 3 ramifications:

    1. devaluing this data is a lost opportunity.
    2. your analytics platform never communicates heat or anger of the customer.
    3. qualitative human input  from your CS team is a valuable dimension that you’re tools simply cannot capture.

    In the next post we’ll dive deeper into this statement about customer anger.

    But for now, consider whether you are interacting with customers enough and feeling their heat. Is it possible that Product people are introverts and will naturally arrange their day with tasks that avoid hand-to-hand contact/combat with customers.

  • Pointzi is now called Contextual

    Pointzi is now called Contextual

    We have exciting news! As the graphic shows, Pointzi is now renaming to Contextual.

    In hindsight it seemed obvious – our Mission is to be “Contextual”, everything about what we do is to allow your Mobile and Web Apps to provide contextual guidance.

    Everything about User Activation, Onboarding and Feature Discovery depends on helping when needed and “keeping out of the way” when not needed.

    Specifically, the platform provides Contextual Guides, Tips, Announcements, Video, Feedback and “right-person, right-place, right-time” help with analytics to measure the uplift on your Activation goals.

    The new domain is contextu.al – so you only need to remember the name – oh and where the dot goes 🙂

    Thanks for your past support and we look forward to working with you in the Contextual journey!

    Timetable of Migration

    The following is the approximate planned changes.

    When What Notes
    1 Feb http://contextu.al website live No change to pointzi website or dashboard
    15 Feb https://dashboard.contextu.al live User can immediately start using this dashboard with identical functionality to the Contextual dashboard (its a skin).
    21 Feb Newsletter notification First newsletter from Contextual, top notice of re-brand.
    22/23 Feb Other Notifications Customer emails, pointzi.com notification banner.
    24 Mar LIVE: status.contexu.al, support@contextu.al Support pages
    1 Mar Banner on dashboard.pointzi.com Nudge to move to dashboard.contextu.al. Notice of end-of-life.
    8 Mar Redirects from pointzi.com and dashboard.pointzi.com pointzi.com and dashboard.pointzi.com will no longer be available, but don’t worry all the same capabilities are unchanged!
    9 Mar Chrome Extension for Contextual Rebrand and domain name updates.
    April ???? Dashboard V2 release This is looking good! Exciting! Subject to usability testing, we may release late March.

    Are you looking to get more users to love your mobile and web apps?  Click on the buttons below to get your 14 day free trial or contact us for a demo! 


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  • How To Reduce User Churn? 5 Tips For Product-Led Companies

    How To Reduce User Churn? 5 Tips For Product-Led Companies

    User churn rates can be daunting to see, especially if you’re part of a startup company, or even if you’re a seasoned product manager. You want your product to succeed, for people to like it, and to go from onboarding straight to product adoption. However, in reality, you can’t be everyone’s cup of tea. 

    While user churn is a natural phenomenon in product-led companies’ journeys, there are some measures you can take to reduce the rates. So, get ready to optimise the user journey of your App! In this article, you will read about the five tips that, if followed, will make product adoption more successful among your users.

    Analyze Why Churn Occurs

    As mentioned above, user churn rates aren’t something you can get rid of entirely. It’s part of the process, it could be:

    • your product has bugs or responsiveness problems
    • your product is not easy to understand and the onboarding is failing
    • your marketing is attracting the wrong users. (This is the Acquisition part of the AARRR pirate metrics).
    • the user deferred interest or got distracted
    • inconsistent messaging
    • myriad other reasons! 

    But that doesn’t mean you can’t turn it into something positive. Just ask yourself: why does customer churn happen for us?

    By analyzing the core reasons behind failed product adoption, you’re one step closer to making your App better. If you can isolate the PRIMARY reasons why your users choose to leave, you can focus on improving in those areas first and optimize for other (lesser) contributing problems later. 

    Whether it’s customer service, problems during onboarding, or differences between the web and mobile version, you should be aware of the root problems, so that you can focus on fixing them. 

    Therefore, turn your data into valuable insight for future user journey mapping. By putting more energy towards the problem areas of your product, you can reduce your churn rate, while also showing the user that their experience is important to you. This leads us to the second tip.

    Focus On User Experience

    User journey mapping might be one of the key parts of developing an App or adding features to an already existing platform. This practice helps you visualize your App through the user’s eyes, and it can make it easier to identify errors or weak points in your development process. These, in turn, help reduce the user churn rate your App may be experiencing. 

    It can also help a product development team to understand the expectations of new and recurring customers. For the latter category, this process is crucial in order to keep them loyal to the product. For users who are just finding out about the product, it’s essential to optimize the onboarding process, and with it, the user journey. 

    So, if you want to adopt a customer-oriented mindset for your product-led company, focus on user experience and user retention. 

    Through user journey mapping you’re not only prioritizing your customers, but you can also make a positive impact on the company’s internal collaboration practices. 

    This way, you’re ensuring that everyone is working towards the greater good: the overarching user experience. 

    Optimize Your Onboarding

    As mentioned in the previous section, for new customers, the onboarding experience is the deciding factor that determines whether they will go through with the product adoption process or not. 

    User retention may look like a scary concept, but when your product has a strong onboarding to back it up, it’s easier than it seems. Make sure to start building a rApport with the user as soon as they start using your App by inserting their name in the welcome message for a touch of personalization. 

    Don’t overwhelm them with notifications and popups from the get-go. Make sure to guide them through the App while allowing them to explore the features on their own.

    These aspects may seem small or insignificant, but in the end, they make the difference between product adoption and abandonment. So, to keep your churn rate low, make sure to optimize your onboarding process.

    Ask for Feedback

    User feedback is always important for a product-led company. You can ask for it during onboarding or after completing it, upon introducing new features to your product, and so on. 

    By asking users about their experience, you’re showing them that your company is humble enough to take suggestions and accept constructive criticism. Feedback helps you improve various aspects of your product, as well as the way in which the company is running. 

    You can ask for feedback in many ways. You could try surveys after implementing features, you could collect feedback through social media posts, or through NPS. Also called Net Promoter Score, NPS is the standard customer experience metric, and it’s based on one simple question: “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?” Obviously, the higher the score, the higher the likelihood of the user remaining loyal to your product. 

    By asking for feedback, you signal to your customers that their opinion matters to you as a developer. If they feel this connection with your product and company, they are less likely to abandon the App.

    Keep an Eye on Engagement

    Engaging with your users has a similar effect to asking for their feedback. It helps build a rapport between them and your company. The relationship between you and your users might be a factor in them deciding to go through with product adoption or add to the churn rate.

    User engagement might come in different forms: through periodic newsletters that have meaningful content, through social media posts, blog posts, or by having a chat option in your App. Besides helping with churn rate, user engagement also can be of aid in your user journey mapping, as it helps you see what do the customers like to interact with more. 

    Reducing User Churn Rates

    Although it might seem scary at first, churn rate is essential to figure out your customer niche. However, if you’re worried about it, you can implement the tips in this article to improve the relationship between your company and your customers. 

    Analyze your churn data, focus on feedback and user experience, and your churn rate is bound to improve. If you want to see more product-led growth, check us out at Contextual! 

    We offer a range of solutions, from onboarding through feature discovery to feedback. We’re here to help you with your journey towards product adoption. Book a demo with us today and don’t miss out on growing your product further!

  • Product Manager Fit: What PM Qualities Will Make Your App Fly

    Product Manager Fit: What PM Qualities Will Make Your App Fly

    Happy 2022! Lets hope we get a chance to hug people again this year ????. For our first 2022 post – let’s celebrate YOU – Product Managers and Product teams.

    It’s no secret that as modern people, apps are a vital part of our lives. It seems everything (except hugging) is possible through different apps – we take them completely for granted except when the flow or UX is “not right”. 

    As apps are such an important part of our lives, we should stop more often and think through the process of their creation. Each app has a story, a beginning, and the first spark of an idea from which it gets developed. 

    And who is the brain behind the story? The product manager.  

    We are all familiar with the term “Product<->Market Fit”, but is there such a thing as a “Product<->Product Manager Fit”? For an app to fly, you need a good pilot to be in control and a pilot (Product Manager) who has the skills that match the needs of the product – a B2B Product Manager will be very different to B2C Product Managers, and often you will find Technical Product Managers in deep products.

    In what follows, you will read more about what characteristics define a good PM so that your App meets the desired product market fit rate. So, if you’re a product manager yourself, or even part of a product-led company, buckle your seatbelts, we are ready for departure!

    Being Data-Driven is a Must

    Making decisions that are both market- and customer-centered is not a new concept. But, for an analytical project manager, it is essential to stand out from the crowd and make an app fly. How to do that?

    By paying attention to metrics and customer feedback, you can see where your product needs improvement. For instance, as a product manager, you should make it a priority to review the onboarding process as often as possible to achieve a satisfactory product market fit degree. You may be at the wheel of the app, but the users are at the core of your product. Without them, the app would fail and sink, so listen to their voices!

    Look at your data, then start improving your onboarding process. Analyzing and interpreting this information will help your product in the long run.

    However, be cautious. This is not a one-time task you can cross off your “To Do” list and never think of it again. It’s a process that needs to be repeated, and a good PM will recognize the need to check in with its users. Remember, consistency and perseverance are crucial qualities in a product-led company. 

    Be Brave Enough to Innovate

    If you have been analyzing your user feedback, you have perfected your product market fit, the user experience is overall a positive one, product adoption is going well, pat yourself on the back. You are doing a good job. 

    But trust yourself if you feel the need to elevate your product, even if the data is non-conclusive. Take a leap of faith when you recognize the need for a new feature or an upgrade. Courage differentiates a leader. 

    However, seeing the need for something new within your app doesn’t mean you should be careless with your user journey mapping. Feature discovery should be handled in a discreet manner so that it doesn’t disrupt the user’s workflow. 

    With this in mind, it can be challenging to elevate your product in a way that doesn’t frustrate your clients and doesn’t compromise the user journey. Screen real estate is precious, especially on mobile, and an app interface shouldn’t be messy. So what can you do?

    Consider adding popups to make announcements easy to see, but not bothersome. This way, feature discovery can be integrated organically into your app, without being too obnoxious for the client. But the first step should always come from a product manager!

    Being brave and innovative is key in the SaaS industry. With these qualities, a product manager can stand out in a crowd. In a product-led company, it’s crucial to make sure people remember you and your product. 

    Be Open for Feedback Even After Onboarding

    A good leader is always humble when it comes to feedback. A good product manager should be the same way. 

    Product adoption does not mean your customer will be with your product forever. Giving them continuous opportunities to review their own user journey will make them feel appreciated and heard. 

    So, when talking about user journey mapping with your team, make sure to include capture feedback in the flow of your app. Single touch methods of collecting feedback are popular due to their simplicity. As the user’s attention span tends to be short, this method is the easiest to implement and least disruptive for their workflow. 

    Being receptive to feedback defines a suitable product manager in the SaaS industry. Openness is especially important in this position, as a PM and the decisions they make will ultimately decide the product’s success and determine the product market fit. 

    Product Management is not Project Management

    In small teams, it’s common for the Product Manager to have many roles. Amongst these is the ability to prioritize into sprints and map to company OKRs. This might be in the form of a scrum master role. The message we get from Atlassian, Zip, Airwallex and others is that negotiation, diplomacy, being organized are all key skills. But none of these trump the need to understand the product and be passionate about how it serves customers.

    It’s easy to be busy with inward facing project management tasks but its dangerous when not knowing your product inside out. 

    Make Your Product Fly

    Product managers can feel a lot of pressure. Big responsibilities lay on their shoulders, and their decisions will make or break a product. 

    There are some key characteristics that every PM should have, such as being data-driven, being open to feedback, and being innovative with their apps. These will help with establishing a good rapport with a user, as the relationships with clients are an important part of a product-led company. 

    Besides that, it will also help a product stand out in a crowd. A good product manager is also a good leader that navigates the company in the direction of success. 

    Learn How To Become A Good Product Manager

    If you want to learn how to translate these qualities into your workflow as a product manager and practically implement them into your app, book a demo today with Contextual! We’ll help you with your onboarding process, feature discovery, capture feedback, and many more.

  • Reducing Trialler Abandonment: 5 Tips for Product-Led Companies

    Reducing Trialler Abandonment: 5 Tips for Product-Led Companies

    How many apps do you keep on using after the trial period?

    Worry not, you are not the only one who does so. Trialler abandonment is an unfortunate event. Yet it is a natural phenomenon that today’s app-driven world brings with itself. 

    While product-led companies are trying their best with social media campaigns, ads, and other marketing tools, statistics show that between 2010 and 2019, the average app abandonment rate after just one use (session) was 23%. 

    This might sound alarming for companies who rely on their user’s onboarding experience and product adoption. However, despite the statistics, not all is lost.

    If you are a product manager or part of a product-led company and your goal is to reduce the trialler abandonment your app WILL face, keep on reading. We put together a list of tips and tricks just for you!

    1. Invest in Your UX 

    It goes without saying that the interaction a potential user has with your product should be your biggest focus. Look at it as the channel of communication between your company and your future clients. 

    Whether you like math or not, we have a formula for you:

    Positive UX processes = increased loyalty on the customer’s end. 

    Simple, isn’t it? Well, for this to happen,  design of the user’s journey combined with visual economy and appeal are top priorities for product-led teams. By focussing on JTBD and paying attention to details such as functionality, personalized, contextual tips, announcements and notifications you ensure your product stays with a user beyond the initial onboarding. 

    App abandonment often happens because the company fails to invest in their clients first and the product after. Your product’s usability will greatly impact the client’s decision on whether it’s worth going through with the adoption.

    So, improving the app’s interface might help you not just with the initial trials, but will also help your company with a long-term retention rate. What marvelous results! o

    2. Learn How To Balance on The Fine Line of Notifications

    Mobile apps are an important part of the modern person’s life, whether we take its personal or professional aspects. Notifications are a vital tool of these products, as they help the user journey and also with the product adoption. 

    As such, notifications should take an indispensable place in your list of priorities when it comes to product development. So, next time your team discusses user journey mapping and optimization, take time to look at the impact of your app’s notifications throughout the user journey. 

    While notifications have a significant place in every app, there is a fine line between helping with user engagement and frustrating the client with too many push notifications. 

    Trialler abandonment is often caused by notifications that are either too obnoxious or even unnecessary. Making sure that you take time to create meaningful, personalized notifications can increase the chances of product adoption. 

    Connect with the user from the onboarding process. Something as simple as inserting their name in your welcome message can guarantee you a positive first impression.

    Yet, consider the timing of your notifications. Try not to interrupt your user in their workflow, as bad timing can lead to product abandonment. Especially with new clients.  

    You do not want to annoy people, but you don’t want them to forget about you. So, find the balance!

    3. Make Your Ads/Popups Less Intrusive

    How to do that, you might wonder?

    Similar to balancing notifications, pay attention to interuppting the user flow with the ads or other pop-over content (announcements, nudges, prompts) in the app during its usage. Read our posts about JTBD – so many Apps make the mistake of popping up something selflish (like a request for Appstore rating or SaaS NPS question) when the user is trying to get a “job done”.

    Most users are aware that ads are important in a B2C Apps, however, if they appear to be too frequent, occupying a large part of the screen or even interrupting the work of your user, it can easily be a source of frustration, which can lead to an increased app abandonment rate. 

    Users have low patience with new apps: the fewer distractions they have, the better. Especially in the first few uses of a new software product, clients can be more picky than usual, so it is crucial to be mindful of details such as positioning of the ads and their frequency, in order to ensure an increased app retention rate. 

    4. Security Should Be A Priority 

    Cybersecurity and digital attacks are topics that seem to be on the table constantly, especially with the rapid rate at which technology advances today. 

    If you’re part of a SaaS product development company, security should be prioritized within your product. Digital attacks can and should be avoided in order to increase client trust and your app’s retention rate. 

    The product should not only be secure, but product-led companies should especially focus on how this feature is perceived by clients who want to protect their personal data from getting hacked. 

    To ensure that your clients trust your product, you can create a sense of security by making sure your app runs well and doesn’t have many bugs, or that it’s user-friendly and easy to follow for your target audience.  

    5. Take Advantage of User Feedback 

    Accepting that not everyone will find your product useful is crucial in order to make sure you and your team can focus on narrowing down your clientele. 

    When you find your niche of customers, it becomes easier to listen to their feedback in order to improve your app for new and potential customers. 

    Take advantage of the onboarding feedback given by users who already completed this process and see what you can optimize for future clients in order to reduce app abandonment in the early stages of user onboarding.  

    Try to measure the effectiveness of different features your product has, pay attention to possible threats, and fix bugs as soon as they appear. 

    You not only ensure that your new clients perceive your product as a serious one (and thus are more likely to go through with the product adoption process), but you also build credibility within your existing clients. 

    If people feel heard, they are more likely to stick around for a longer time. After all, customer service is one of the strongest bridges between a product-led company and its users. 

    Overcoming Trialler Abandonment

    App abandonment in the trialler phases is a common occurrence during user onboarding and in the product adoption process. 

    However, you should not be disheartened, as there are some tricks to reduce these numbers and promote higher retention rates for mobile apps. 

    Some of them, such as investing in the UX, or ensuring product security, are foolproof methods of encouraging product adoption among new clients. 

    Others, such as managing ads and notifications, should also be considered as they help in facilitating the workflow of your users and providing a more pleasant experience when the product is being used. 

    Lastly, by listening to the already existing customers’ opinions, both your product and your company will be seen as reliable. 

    So, what is the next step?

    You are an expert in the theoretical part, congratulations!

    But you know what they say: practice makes it perfect. Would you like to implement these tips smoothly and swiftly into your app development workflow? If you want to learn more about obtaining better retention rates and how to grow your product, get started with Contextual today!