User research drove 600% in growth by redefining our ICP and deploying a go-to-market strategy to smoothly acquire and onboard them.
Modumate
Go-to-Market Journey and Onboarding
Product Design • GTM Strategy • UX Research
Onboarding for a new ICP
As Modumate started to mature as a software platform we started to talk to our users and their struggles to get to get to making their first deliverables. A disconnected series of steps and hurdles defined an onboarding process we were tasked to make seamless and performant.
Our ideal customer profile from day one was the small AutoCAD user architect and the software was defined to serve them. As we started to conduct market research and deploying Traction style marketing campaigns, we quickly started to learn that our product was not a match for architects, but for builders. Now that we had an ICP, it was time to design a seamless, end-to-end onboarding experience for them.
Role
I supported and lead research projects, conducted sales and user interviews, and worked with a small team to design a highly iterative go-to-market strategy. This included graphic design, web development, sales and automation integration, and UI/UX design for the onboarding views and account center.
Goals
Finding our Market
After struggling to establish market fit with architects, we took a step back and created personas based on the 150+ user interviews and demos conducted over a 5 month period. We categorized 6 personas into 3 categories: architects, builders, and developers.
Crafting a User Journey
We identified that homebuilders were served by Modumate’s features and we adjusted the roadmap to focus on addressing pains coming from this research. Using Zapier, n8n, and Autopilot, we an integrated approach to user onboarding from the first advertisement in the awareness campaign to the landing page and user guardrails for the user’s first, second and third sessions increasing signups, demo bookings, and paid subscriptions.
Test, Iterate, Deprecate
We utilized the increase in signups to test a variety of experiments to help users jump from mobile to their desktop in the onboarding journey. Some experiments, such as the Go Code and text message reminders, worked smoothly but didn’t resonate with users who were not ready to move to their computer at the time they sign up. We stayed nimble and cut out what didn’t work.
Emails That Convert
The shift from mobile to desktop was mainly through email, using A/B testing to confirm its effectiveness over QR codes and magic links. Email was crucial for encouraging software adoption in the self-serve funnel, eliminating the need for demos by personalizing notifications.
Email designs were aligned with the app's aesthetic, serving as user-specific guides. These dynamically generated emails, informed by user data and journey stage, included direct links to projects, fostering user engagement and progress towards completing their first 3D project and exporting renderings. Not only did the emails lead to sales but they reduced the burden on demo and training calls.
Impact
The business goals for the product always set a seamless onboarding experience on top of the roadmap. Modumate’s sales-first go-to-market strategy increased sales by 600% in the first 6 months followed by the development of a self-serve sales model with a new marketing website, onboarding journey, and telemetry that led to the onboarding of over 6,000 customers in 6 months.