Summary of product experience design<\/h2>\n\n- Product experience<\/a> (PX) is a subcategory within the overall user experience and it refers to the overall sentiment and satisfaction<\/a> a user has based on their experience with engaging<\/a> with your product.<\/li>\n
- Product experience is part of customer experience<\/a>. The latter covers the whole customer journey and activities as communication with the support teams too, not just the product.<\/li>\n
- Excellent product experience is necessary to attract customers, strengthen existing customer loyalty and increase customer lifetime value<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Designing a great product experience starts with the use of data analytics<\/a> to establish a baseline.<\/li>\n
- Useful analytical methods include funnel analysis, path analysis, adoption<\/a> analysis, and retention <\/a>analysis.<\/li>\n
- The user data<\/a> informs the implementation of in-app engagements<\/a>, which educate the users about the product (user onboarding<\/a>), adoption of new features<\/a>, or re-activate dormant users<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Use feedback collected using microsurveys <\/a>and direct interactions with the customers to gather further insights into customer experiences and what else customers expect from the product.<\/li>\n
- Using a tool like Userpilot<\/a> you can track and analyze product usage analytics<\/a>, collect in-app feedback, and built in-app guidance using modals, tooltips, product tools, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What is product experience (PX)?<\/h2>\n
Product experience<\/a> is a subcategory within the overall user experience and it refers to the overall sentiment and satisfaction a user has based on their experience with engaging with your product.<\/p>\nIt’s the thoughts and emotions that the users experience as a result of their interactions with the product. Those could be affected by a range of factors, such as the product’s usefulness or usability.<\/p>\n
For SaaS products, this includes everything that happens from the moment they first create an account, until they churn.<\/p>\n![\"Product](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_b06f7efc3b069001e30fcf5925fa1785_800.png\")
<\/picture>Product Experience Infographic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHow does product experience differ from customer experience?<\/h2>\n
In short, product experience<\/a> (PX)<\/strong> is the perception of the product and its features.<\/p>\nThe customer experience (CX), on the other hand, is a much wider term based not only on the product experience but also on the customer’s impression of the company as a whole.<\/p>\n
So user interactions with the customer service teams would be equally important.<\/p>\n
Why is product experience important for SaaS companies?<\/h2>\n
Excellent product experience is necessary to attract new customers and increase customer retention.<\/p>\n
Offering a product that is easy to use and solves the user’s problems increases the chance that new users will upgrade from the free version <\/a>and continue using it.<\/p>\nOn the other hand, if the product experience is poor, your new customers are not likely to be interested in subscribing to the premium version<\/a>. If the product experience deteriorates over time, they will churn and move on to your competitors.<\/p>\nHow to design the perfect product experience<\/h2>\n
There are three key components of a product experience strategy:<\/p>\n
\n- product analytics<\/a><\/strong> – necessary to make informed product roadmap decisions and segment customers based on how they interact with your product<\/li>\n
- customer touchpoints and in-app engagements<\/a> <\/strong>– these need to be mapped to each other based on the data<\/li>\n
- customer feedback<\/a>– <\/strong>to further optimize product experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Product](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_f12c37ef99c9cd9532415236099c1fc7_800.png\")
<\/picture>Product Experience: Product Analytics, Engagement and Feedback.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n1. Leverage product analytics to make informed product roadmap decisions<\/h3>\n
By definition, product experience is very subjective and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to its design. Instead, it needs to be based on insights into user interaction with your product.<\/p>\n
Data analytics<\/a> helps you track user engagement with your product.<\/p>\nBased on product usage analytics you can understand where users encounter friction in your product, where are the drop-off points and which features are users finding most valuable.<\/p>\n
Use these to create in-app guides to remove friction across the customer journey and drive feature engagement.<\/p>\n
Funnel Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\nFunnel analysis is a technique used to identify the steps (known as goals or micro conversions) needed to reach a certain outcome (called conversion or macro conversion) in your app, and more importantly, how many users progress through each of the steps.<\/p>\n![\"Funnel](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_47ec6779b0bc56c2541ebbbf08d1f765_800.png\")
<\/picture>Funnel Analysis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFunnel analysis lets you identify the stage where users fall off on their way to conversion and design interventions to increase the odds of them reaching the next stages.<\/p>\n
Path Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\nPath analysis is the tracking of the user journey through your product and their interaction with the product features.<\/p>\n
Following the users, as they navigate through your product and how they discover and use its features (or don’t) allows you to identify the successful aspects of your product, and tweak it to improve their experience.<\/p>\n![\"Path](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_4ecf77fccc98d03c4a8e42bd81776391_800.png\")
<\/picture>Path Analysis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAdoption Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\nFeature adoption <\/a>analysis tells you which features of your product your users engage with more and make the product sticky and which ones users haven’t discovered yet.<\/p>\n![\"Feature](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_7959cc5c503f37f12deb337806a71e42_800.png\")
<\/picture>Feature adoption analysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUnderstanding feature adoption will allow you\u00a0to reduce churn<\/a>, increase retention rates or identify upsell opportunities.<\/p>\nRetention Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\nRetention analysis (also known as survival analysis) analyzes user metrics to gain insights into reasons why customer churn.<\/p>\n
Such analysis shows which features contribute to retention <\/a>and growth most (and which do not).<\/p>\nIt also helps you plan how long you need to support users once they start using the product (or its new feature) before they gain independence and the competence level needed to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_7f559a477d9e46837541f85ad4348ec2_800.png\")
<\/picture>Retention analysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSuch behavioral data can be used to modify the product and design customer onboarding to improve retention <\/a>and new user acquisition rates.<\/p>\n2. Map key customer touchpoints to in-app engagements<\/h3>\n
To improve product adoption<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0reduce churn<\/a>, you need to make the effort to constantly re-engage and re-activate users.<\/p>\nUser Onboarding<\/strong><\/h4>\nUser onboarding<\/a> <\/strong>is the ongoing process of teaching users how to use the product to get the best value out of it.<\/p>\nOnboarding involves the use of in-app guides<\/a>, in-app messages<\/a>, tooltips, <\/a>and product walkthroughs<\/a> to educate the users about their product features.<\/p>\n![\"Customised](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_6876372052bf7cdc81e5c82505da1a9e_800.png\")
<\/picture>Customized user onboarding for improved product experience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe goal is to lead them to the moment when they understand the value of the product (the Aha Moment<\/a>) and experience that value firsthand (Product activation).<\/p>\nActivation points will differ from user to user based on the user’s job to be done.<\/p>\n
You need to segment <\/a>your user base using product usage analytics and personalize the onboarding path for each segment for a better product experience.<\/p>\nNew Feature Activation<\/strong><\/h4>\nNew feature activation<\/a> is the moment the customer uses a particular feature for the first time, followed by feature adoption, i.e. the stage when the customer uses the feature regularly.<\/p>\nTo design a perfect product experience you need to continuously deliver value to your users. One way to do it is to announce new features in-app, making sure users discover what’s new.<\/p>\n
In-app notifications<\/a> are a good way of introducing new features to the right user segment.<\/p>\nCheck out how we announced the new and improved Resource Center feature in Userpilot, using a modal ( you guessed it, built with Userpilot).<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-new-resource-center-in-app-modal-product-experience_7e91e6c5929b2951afa2a2f8aaeb373c_800.png\")
<\/picture>New feature announcement using<\/a> an in-app modal- Userpilot<\/a> new Resource Center – built with Userpilot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSame as with onboarding, when you announce a new feature, for the best product experience you need to make sure the user who would benefit more from the new feature adopts it.<\/p>\n
User Reactivation<\/strong><\/h4>\nUser reactivation aims to win back disengaged customers.<\/p>\n
Because they don’t use the product on a regular basis anymore, in-app messaging may be of limited use. Instead, emails <\/a>could be more effective at reaching them.<\/p>\nThere could have been different reasons for them stopping to use the product, so again segmentation <\/a>is crucial when planning such communication.<\/p>\nOnce you got them back inside the app, using a personalized message will set the right user expectations and start their new product experience on the right foot.<\/p>\n
Check out how Monday greet reactivated users with a modal.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_1253e8b522f7d5ea465ed15382a22e94_800.png\")
<\/picture>User reactivation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n3. Use customer feedback to optimize your product experience<\/h3>\n
Apart from user analytics, direct customer feedback can be an invaluable source of information on product upgrades that are needed to further enhance user experience.<\/p>\n
For a good product experience, you should consider collecting feedback using in-app microsurveys.<\/p>\n
Microsurveys<\/strong><\/h4>\nMicrosurveys <\/a>are short surveys delivered to the user either via an in-app message or a pop-up on a website.<\/p>\nTheir aim is to collect general user satisfaction data (NPS surveys)…<\/p>\n![\"Microsurvey](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_ed06b24c159d056e43cb7b0badaf359e_800.png\")
<\/picture>Microsurvey used to gauge user sentiment- built with Userpilot<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n…or detailed feedback on very specific aspects of the product experience, for example, a particular feature.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/user-feedback-miscrosurvey-in-app-product-experience_65bac99505b694f5e527f5f4b254f63c.gif\")
<\/picture>In-app feedback survey built with Userpilot<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nContext-based triggering of microsurveys, i.e. immediately after they\u2019ve finished using a feature) can result in a better response rate and also more valuable insights that you can use to improve the user experience.<\/p>\n
Customer Success Questions<\/strong><\/h4>\nCustomer success<\/a> managers interact with users on a regular basis.<\/p>\nThis gives them the opportunity to ask the users a lot of questions and generate valuable customer data that can be fed back to the product teams and used to improve product experience by:<\/p>\n
\n- adding or removing features that are relevant or not for the user<\/li>\n
- removing friction with in-app guidance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Customer](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_93a6177940b5356904ea5c70b7a8575e_800.png\")
<\/picture>Customer success and<\/a> product experience go hand-in-hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt goes without saying that to boost customer loyalty, build strong customer relationships and increase customer lifetime<\/a> it is essential that you actually follow up on the feedback.<\/p>\nGood Product Experience Examples<\/h2>\n
Let’s have a look at a few examples of great product experiences.<\/p>\n
Userpilot: how we use our own product to improve user experience <\/strong><\/h3>\nUserpilot<\/a> is a product growth and adoption<\/a> tool that offers all of the three elements to provide a good product experience: analytics, collecting feedback, and communicating with users in-app.<\/p>\nYou’ve already seen an example of how we announced our new feature (Resource Center) update with an in-app modal.<\/p>\n
So how did we do it?<\/p>\n
First, we decided to use a modal since this was an important announcement for us and created an in-app flow that triggered for the relevant user segment.<\/p>\n
In Userpilot, you can create multiple user segments based on product usage data, microsurvey responses, and other user identification criteria.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/advanced-segmentation-userpilot_f200ea5d3219e5141c59554d3f90dde6_800.png\")
<\/picture>Advanced segmentation in Userpilot<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThen to make sure the users interact and adopt the feature our success team also set up a webinar to help explain the changes and the added value the new feature brings.<\/p>\n
What is product experience (PX)?<\/h2>\n
Product experience<\/a> is a subcategory within the overall user experience and it refers to the overall sentiment and satisfaction a user has based on their experience with engaging with your product.<\/p>\n It’s the thoughts and emotions that the users experience as a result of their interactions with the product. Those could be affected by a range of factors, such as the product’s usefulness or usability.<\/p>\n For SaaS products, this includes everything that happens from the moment they first create an account, until they churn.<\/p>\n In short, product experience<\/a> (PX)<\/strong> is the perception of the product and its features.<\/p>\n The customer experience (CX), on the other hand, is a much wider term based not only on the product experience but also on the customer’s impression of the company as a whole.<\/p>\n So user interactions with the customer service teams would be equally important.<\/p>\n Excellent product experience is necessary to attract new customers and increase customer retention.<\/p>\n Offering a product that is easy to use and solves the user’s problems increases the chance that new users will upgrade from the free version <\/a>and continue using it.<\/p>\n On the other hand, if the product experience is poor, your new customers are not likely to be interested in subscribing to the premium version<\/a>. If the product experience deteriorates over time, they will churn and move on to your competitors.<\/p>\n There are three key components of a product experience strategy:<\/p>\n By definition, product experience is very subjective and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to its design. Instead, it needs to be based on insights into user interaction with your product.<\/p>\n Data analytics<\/a> helps you track user engagement with your product.<\/p>\n Based on product usage analytics you can understand where users encounter friction in your product, where are the drop-off points and which features are users finding most valuable.<\/p>\n Use these to create in-app guides to remove friction across the customer journey and drive feature engagement.<\/p>\n Funnel analysis is a technique used to identify the steps (known as goals or micro conversions) needed to reach a certain outcome (called conversion or macro conversion) in your app, and more importantly, how many users progress through each of the steps.<\/p>\n Funnel analysis lets you identify the stage where users fall off on their way to conversion and design interventions to increase the odds of them reaching the next stages.<\/p>\n Path analysis is the tracking of the user journey through your product and their interaction with the product features.<\/p>\n Following the users, as they navigate through your product and how they discover and use its features (or don’t) allows you to identify the successful aspects of your product, and tweak it to improve their experience.<\/p>\n Feature adoption <\/a>analysis tells you which features of your product your users engage with more and make the product sticky and which ones users haven’t discovered yet.<\/p>\n Understanding feature adoption will allow you\u00a0to reduce churn<\/a>, increase retention rates or identify upsell opportunities.<\/p>\n Retention analysis (also known as survival analysis) analyzes user metrics to gain insights into reasons why customer churn.<\/p>\n Such analysis shows which features contribute to retention <\/a>and growth most (and which do not).<\/p>\n It also helps you plan how long you need to support users once they start using the product (or its new feature) before they gain independence and the competence level needed to achieve their goals.<\/p>\n Such behavioral data can be used to modify the product and design customer onboarding to improve retention <\/a>and new user acquisition rates.<\/p>\n To improve product adoption<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0reduce churn<\/a>, you need to make the effort to constantly re-engage and re-activate users.<\/p>\n User onboarding<\/a> <\/strong>is the ongoing process of teaching users how to use the product to get the best value out of it.<\/p>\n Onboarding involves the use of in-app guides<\/a>, in-app messages<\/a>, tooltips, <\/a>and product walkthroughs<\/a> to educate the users about their product features.<\/p>\n The goal is to lead them to the moment when they understand the value of the product (the Aha Moment<\/a>) and experience that value firsthand (Product activation).<\/p>\n Activation points will differ from user to user based on the user’s job to be done.<\/p>\n You need to segment <\/a>your user base using product usage analytics and personalize the onboarding path for each segment for a better product experience.<\/p>\n New feature activation<\/a> is the moment the customer uses a particular feature for the first time, followed by feature adoption, i.e. the stage when the customer uses the feature regularly.<\/p>\n To design a perfect product experience you need to continuously deliver value to your users. One way to do it is to announce new features in-app, making sure users discover what’s new.<\/p>\n In-app notifications<\/a> are a good way of introducing new features to the right user segment.<\/p>\n Check out how we announced the new and improved Resource Center feature in Userpilot, using a modal ( you guessed it, built with Userpilot).<\/p>\n Same as with onboarding, when you announce a new feature, for the best product experience you need to make sure the user who would benefit more from the new feature adopts it.<\/p>\n User reactivation aims to win back disengaged customers.<\/p>\n Because they don’t use the product on a regular basis anymore, in-app messaging may be of limited use. Instead, emails <\/a>could be more effective at reaching them.<\/p>\n There could have been different reasons for them stopping to use the product, so again segmentation <\/a>is crucial when planning such communication.<\/p>\n Once you got them back inside the app, using a personalized message will set the right user expectations and start their new product experience on the right foot.<\/p>\n Check out how Monday greet reactivated users with a modal.<\/p>\n Apart from user analytics, direct customer feedback can be an invaluable source of information on product upgrades that are needed to further enhance user experience.<\/p>\n For a good product experience, you should consider collecting feedback using in-app microsurveys.<\/p>\n Microsurveys <\/a>are short surveys delivered to the user either via an in-app message or a pop-up on a website.<\/p>\n Their aim is to collect general user satisfaction data (NPS surveys)…<\/p>\n …or detailed feedback on very specific aspects of the product experience, for example, a particular feature.<\/p>\n Context-based triggering of microsurveys, i.e. immediately after they\u2019ve finished using a feature) can result in a better response rate and also more valuable insights that you can use to improve the user experience.<\/p>\n Customer success<\/a> managers interact with users on a regular basis.<\/p>\n This gives them the opportunity to ask the users a lot of questions and generate valuable customer data that can be fed back to the product teams and used to improve product experience by:<\/p>\n It goes without saying that to boost customer loyalty, build strong customer relationships and increase customer lifetime<\/a> it is essential that you actually follow up on the feedback.<\/p>\n Let’s have a look at a few examples of great product experiences.<\/p>\n Userpilot<\/a> is a product growth and adoption<\/a> tool that offers all of the three elements to provide a good product experience: analytics, collecting feedback, and communicating with users in-app.<\/p>\n You’ve already seen an example of how we announced our new feature (Resource Center) update with an in-app modal.<\/p>\n So how did we do it?<\/p>\n First, we decided to use a modal since this was an important announcement for us and created an in-app flow that triggered for the relevant user segment.<\/p>\n In Userpilot, you can create multiple user segments based on product usage data, microsurvey responses, and other user identification criteria.<\/p>\n Then to make sure the users interact and adopt the feature our success team also set up a webinar to help explain the changes and the added value the new feature brings.<\/p>\n![\"Product](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_b06f7efc3b069001e30fcf5925fa1785_800.png)
<\/picture>How does product experience differ from customer experience?<\/h2>\n
Why is product experience important for SaaS companies?<\/h2>\n
How to design the perfect product experience<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"Product](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_f12c37ef99c9cd9532415236099c1fc7_800.png)
<\/picture>1. Leverage product analytics to make informed product roadmap decisions<\/h3>\n
Funnel Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Funnel](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_47ec6779b0bc56c2541ebbbf08d1f765_800.png)
<\/picture>Path Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Path](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_4ecf77fccc98d03c4a8e42bd81776391_800.png)
<\/picture>Adoption Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Feature](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_7959cc5c503f37f12deb337806a71e42_800.png)
<\/picture>Retention Analysis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_7f559a477d9e46837541f85ad4348ec2_800.png)
<\/picture>2. Map key customer touchpoints to in-app engagements<\/h3>\n
User Onboarding<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Customised](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_6876372052bf7cdc81e5c82505da1a9e_800.png)
<\/picture>New Feature Activation<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-new-resource-center-in-app-modal-product-experience_7e91e6c5929b2951afa2a2f8aaeb373c_800.png)
<\/picture>User Reactivation<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_1253e8b522f7d5ea465ed15382a22e94_800.png)
<\/picture>3. Use customer feedback to optimize your product experience<\/h3>\n
Microsurveys<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Microsurvey](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_ed06b24c159d056e43cb7b0badaf359e_800.png)
<\/picture>![](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/user-feedback-miscrosurvey-in-app-product-experience_65bac99505b694f5e527f5f4b254f63c.gif)
<\/picture>Customer Success Questions<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
![\"Customer](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_93a6177940b5356904ea5c70b7a8575e_800.png)
<\/picture>Good Product Experience Examples<\/h2>\n
Userpilot: how we use our own product to improve user experience <\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/advanced-segmentation-userpilot_f200ea5d3219e5141c59554d3f90dde6_800.png)
<\/picture>
![](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-slideout-release-announcement_416bf9208555f055457ae034709f5951_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_703e4c8cf8936d1b1483a80513de0bea_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"Netflix](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_9ec60c4462867063ab5ee83ae79e2ff2_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"Buffer](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_ec1ff4932de818a93af098cc91a5ee51_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"HubSpot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/image_a00d54e5cb63ea7351f1b7460287f576_800.png)
<\/picture>