How UX Design Strategy Can Act as Catalyst for Implementing PLG
Prathima Inolu
Chief Designer & Executive Director at Divami Design Labs - UX UI Design Agency
In my experience of working with SaaS firms over the past 2 decades, one key differentiator that has helped firms grow exponentially is ‘leveraging UX UI Design Strategy to drive Product-led Growth’.
And when I say design strategy, I don’t mean just optimizing functional workflows and enriching aesthetics; I mean design that drives tangible value to the users, and creates experiences while balancing business goals and product roadmap.
3 areas where UX UI design strategy plays a catalytic role are:
1. Increasing User Adoption by simplifying onboarding and enhancing user satisfaction
Users have a defined tolerance threshold for the onboarding process. If users feel overwhelmed when signing up on the platform, that’s a surefire way to lose them.
Ensuring that the experience is way under the tolerance threshold of the user is one way to increase user adoption.
For instance, a Loan Processing SaaS platform approached us to simplify their onboarding process and enable Product-Led Growth.
The platform's onboarding process was so challenging that users needed customer support to input information, follow the process, and submit the application. They would either take hours to complete the application or give up mid-way.
As a result, the process was entirely sales-driven and could not drive the expected business growth.
Our UX UI design solution focused on moving from a support-intensive onboarding process to a product-led onboarding. We did the following:
The loan processing time was slashed by 2000%—yes, you read that right—which was well under the users' tolerance level and greatly increased the platform’s user adoption.
2. Accelerating time to value for the user
Another key pain point we addressed was the user's time to value (TTV).
Lengthy forms and an even longer loan processing time led to user frustration.
Sometimes the turnaround time to simply get their loan eligibility status and loan amount exceeded 48 - 72 hours!
But users don’t want to be kept waiting. People's patience for experiencing value is decreasing every day, just like how we hear attention spans are getting shorter.
From a design standpoint, we need to focus on expediting the TTV to increase retention and speed up the time it takes for users to trust the platform.
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To accelerate the TTV for the users of the loan processing SaaS platform, we integrated AI/ML capabilities. The solution we implemented was split into 3 parts:
Users were able to complete a process as complex as a loan application through a conversation. It was simple and quick. Talk about instant gratification!
The solutions delivered immediate value and encouraged further customer engagement with the business. Over time the accuracy of the loan eligibility status also improved.
3. Cultivate value-driven experiences to foster user loyalty
We tend to interact more with those products that we feel understand us and make our lives easier. Without emotional connect, loyalty seldom exists.
However, this emotional connection does not just ‘happen.'
It must be integrated into the user experience. Here’s how:
The Loan Processing SaaS platform was accessible across multiple devices, like iPads, laptops, and mobile phones. Ensuring the user experience was consistent and enriching was critical.
Conversational AI and voice input enabled the platform to be empathetic toward the user by creating a dialogue-like experience, and real-time updates provided instant gratification. Users experienced value quickly.
The effects of the emotionally enriching user experience were as follows:
The compound effect created an emotional connection between the user and the platform that was so strong that it skyrocketed retention and loyalty.
Happy customers sharing their experiences boosted the perceived value of the platform. And when the product delivered more than users expected, they stuck around longer.
Retention doesn't begin after a user has been onboarded, it starts with onboarding.
To achieve PLG, we need to focus on crafting intelligent platforms that can anticipate, even predict, the user’s needs from the get-go.
Understand what users are trying to achieve with the product, and personalize the experience, effectively allowing your product to serve its purpose.
Only when we accurately predict these needs, does the user experience a sense of ease from the very first interaction with the product/platform.
Founder @Tailwind | Fractional CMO
6 个月These insights are a reminder that putting users first pays off big time! Thanks for sharing this fantastic breakdown of the power of UX design and the success metrics are a game changer for any SaaS founder.