It may be idealistic, but I have always believed that the right digital product has the power to deliver tangible change in the world. A digital banking app can increase financial accessibility, and an IoT agritech ecosystem that helps farmers increase their yields.
However, change cannot happen unless people can use these products to successfully solve their problems.
It can be frustrating to see great ideas never reach their full potential, but this can be avoided when companies prioritise user success through product growth.
What is product growth?
Product growth is the process undertaken to increase a product’s value, identify new ways to satisfy users, attract new customers, and boost revenue. There are 6 different aspects of the product growth process which together drive business success.
Attracting new customers is just the first step
Of the 6 stages of product growth, the acquisition is arguably the most similar to traditional digital marketing. The goal of the acquisition is to drive product awareness and acquire new users and involves familiar marketing tools like technical SEO, app store optimisation, paid ads, and engaging content.
However, simply attracting users to your product or service doesn’t set them up for success or foster customer loyalty. It’s important to optimise every stage of the product growth engine to ensure that customers are able to successfully use your product or service. After all, a successful product helps its users succeed.
Also Read: 7 ways to optimise your product page to attract more sales
A real-life example of a product that drives user success is video games. Video games ensure that the player (i.e. the user) understands the game’s controls and tools to help them achieve as many goals as possible.
As players progress through the game, they continue to receive introductions to new features or skills so that they can adopt them into gameplay. If a player gets stuck, they’re able to access tips from the game and other players on how to proceed to the next level.
A new release doesn’t guarantee ROI
Product growth and funnel optimisation are more valuable for your business than feature releases. Rather than spending resources and time developing a brand-new feature based on a gut feeling, it can be more effective to identify where your users drop off.
An insurance app might discover that several users fail to fill out an in-app request for insurance quotations.
One reason for the drop-off might be that users need to submit their license plate number, which many users don’t have on hand. This issue can cost the insurance app valuable leads. However, by separating the form into separate steps, the insurer can collect a customer’s contact details and collect the license number later. This increases the user’s experience, satisfaction, and product revenue and avoids having to release a new feature.
Successful funnel conversion of your users is fundamental to your business success. Aim for the completion of user journeys — whether it’s to learn something new or to upsell a paid subscription. This drives business value and impact, both for your business and within the product itself.
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Even a modest improvement is a substantial return on investment. A small percentage of improvement in drop-off rates increases your conversion rate massively and contributes to your bottom line.
Plan for continued user success
Here are some ways you can plan for product growth success:
- Reach optimistic goals by planning like a pessimist. Think about all the ways things might go wrong. Consider whether or not users can complete jobs and why they might fail to make transactions on your app.
Also Read: How to hack product growth and user acquisition in Thailand
- Make data-driven decisions that improve the customer journey. Go beyond initial research and don’t rely solely on feelings or hunches. Perform AB testing and optimise your user onboarding.
- Set KPIs based on your company’s core objectives. Revenue and number of users may seem like a good benchmark, but if these metrics don’t align with your company mission and vision, then your product growth process will not deliver the results that your stakeholders are looking for.
The top benefit of product growth
From my experience, successful product growth converts your users into loyal product advocates.
When a customer becomes a product advocate, they aren’t just able to use your product to its full potential but love it enough to build a community of other product advocates and recommend it to others.
An example of this is the Figma community, Friends of Figma. This group isn’t an official platform run by the company but is run independently by a group of users who love Figma and use the forum as a place to share experiences, tips, and tricks on how to best use Figma to achieve their day-to-day tasks.
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