| 2 min read

Product KILLS Product [Silently]

But how?

As you build more product, it will start overwhelming the users, and then two things might start to happen:

1. Increase in support calls/tickets
2. Drop in the usage (this is a silent killer, even in a best case scenario if you could identify this drop… many customers might have already started leaving)

I’m sure you’re thinking:

“Sachin, the product needs to be continuously evolved. There is SO MUCH more to do.”

True, but…

The more we do, the worse we also seem to get at it!

That’s NOT how it should work.

More product objectively solves a wider range of use cases.

Yet,  2 out of 5 users are a flight risk

Why?

Because companies are addicted to build more.

They’ve forgotten that “product usage and habit formation” is everything.

Here’s how we fight  back:

We have to create a product-help that is so good that it works across a broad spectrum of user-personas.

What does that mean?

We need to start building a multi-modal help system based on distinct user personas’ learning styles.

Next steps:

1. Start with your most promising product/feature
– Break down the entire user journey into a clickstream-style sequence
– Identify the probable friction points at every step
– Start creating answers for each of the friction point 
– Adapt these answers for multi-modal content formats like FAQs, training videos, in-line tips, product tours, task lists, nudges.
– Make these messages user-segment based.

2. Iterate
– Forever
– Never stop
– Keep testing

3. Repeat it for other products/features

The Bottomline is:

If you’re a product leader (or a founder), you should know product usage is a symptom.. that might not surface quickly on your radar.

That doesn’t mean it’s not the ONLY WAY to scale your retention and sustainable growth.

We must fight back against this silent killer.

We have to create better help system to increase product usage in the least amount of time without any extra coding or new development

We have to build a multi-modal based product help manifestation.

It’s time to have your users addicted to your product. It should be the only thing that matters.

I hope it helps.