Achieving first place in G2's iPaaS Usability Index in 2023 for Celigo while managing the usability roadmap.
G2 usability index: Celigo leads in iPaaS, as demonstrated in this chart from the respected peer-review platform, G2, known for its comprehensive user-driven software insights.
160% boost in product-qualified leads and contributed to team generating $1.09M net new revenue Q2 ‘23.
PLG summary: Chart showing a 160% rise in qualified leads and $1.09M revenue, verified across multiple data sources, underscoring the success of our data-validated strategies to the executive team quarterly.
Activation funnel metrics
Demonstrates a significant improvement in user engagement, showcasing a rise in connection, source, and destination creations, as well as an increase in flow executions, validating the successful refinement of the user activation process.
30%
Increase in app connectivity
33%
Increase in app connectivity
44%
Increase in app connectivity
35%
Increase in app connectivity
Existential Crisis
An increase in churn rates demanded an immediate solution for the declining user base at Celigo, a market leader in business process automation, with inbound leads remaining as an untapped revenue source.
Problem
3-5% free trial conversion rate for inbound lead generation signaled a critical problem in our growth funnel.
Solution
Spearhead efforts to improve the user activation metric, i.e. the moment the user experiences meaningful value using the product through a free trial or freemium model, by guiding users through critical milestones that correlated with strong product-market fit.
Role
To tackle the challenge of improving the Free Trial conversion rate, Celigo established the Product Led Growth (PLG) team.
I owned the user activation metric— defined as an increase to the number of product qualified leads.
I led UX/UI & prototyping, managed usability enhancements for core platform.
Team roadmap highlighting strategic phases, with my role central in 'Activation,' defining PQL metrics and advancing product and messaging to enhance engagement.
Target Audience
As a prerequisite, I strategically honed in on the ideal customer profile (ICP) in our funnel poised to deliver the most significant revenue impact, defined as:
Organization size
Enterprise organizations with annual revenues ranging from $25M to $75M.
Customer personas
Focused on product/e-commerce and software/services sectors.
Technical prowess
IT professionals scouting solutions on behalf of their organizations.
Activation trigger
Self-serve users who independently sign up and activate their trial on their initial login.
User Persona for Jordan Hill: A visual summary capturing the essence of a Senior Systems Integrator's professional life, goals, and challenges in the tech industry.
Empathy Map for IT professionals' selection process in enterprise organizations, capturing their thoughts, feelings, actions, and statements about iPaaS solutions.
Defining Metrics
Subsequently, I established Product Qualified Lead (PQL) criteria aligned with Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) actions indicative of a high likelihood to subscribe.
Implemented a 4-step activation funnel using Pendo, including:
1
Connection created
Users establishing a new connection within the platform.
2
Source created
Users setting up a data source for their integration.
3
Destination created
Users configuring a destination for their integration.
4
Workflow run
Execution of a data flow, demonstrating active use of the platform.
Empathy Map for IT professionals' selection process in enterprise organizations, capturing their thoughts, feelings, actions, and statements about iPaaS solutions.
Time to First Use Funnel: Tracking 4 key milestones, revealing engagement speed and bottlenecks across user onboarding.
Key Hypothesis
Using a first principles approach, I aimed to dissect the user activation and Free trial funnel, identifying the stages with the highest drop-offs to pinpoint exactly where we could intervene for maximum impact.
Preliminary Research
I aimed to comprehensively understand user behavior by analyzing data, consulting with our internal team, and gathering insights from customer feedback reported to sales.
Full Product Audit
I conducted an extensive product audit, identifying 25 critical drop-off points from sign-up to post-trial across product, marketing, and sales channels.
To identify the reasons for low conversion rates, I broke down the free trial funnel into individual stages and identified the pain points, and solutions, at each step. I then further split this into 3 colors - purple for user facing pain points, blue for the marketing internal process pain points, and yellow for the sales nurture process pain points.
Free Trial Journey Design
I designed distinct user journeys tailored for the IT and VP, Director, or Managerial roles. Journey spanned from accepting account invite to customizing and troubleshooting flows, ensuring a seamless trial experience.
IT persona user journey: Key insights reveal the necessity for simpler navigation around the platform and an enjoyable workflow building experience.
Leadership persona user journey: Key insights reveal the necessity for meticulous permissions filters and informed purchase decisions.
Insight Struck
Pivotal usability issues, such as familiarizing with the platform and building flows, and unclear messaging, such as direction on how to get started and establishing use cases, obstructed user activation.
Backlog management for enhanced UX/UI: This image shows the structured backlog that I directed, focusing on critical features such as the Flow Builder, navigation, homepage, onboarding, and marketplace.
Solutions & Implementations
After identifying that the core issues stemmed from usability and messaging, I took charge of all UX/UI responsibilities, contributing extensively across various organizational aspects.
Flow Builder Redesign
I spearheaded a redesign of core platform's most prominent feature, the Flow builder, the creation tool for building workflows, introducing an open canvas. An experience that adapts to the users own decisions and gives them the flexibility to proceed through their workflow at a low-pressure pace.
Navigation Redesign
The new design features a collapsible sidebar that expands on hover, providing additional information when needed while maximizing screen space when collapsed.
Marketplace Redesign
Introduced sorting and filtering for easier template discovery, including by process which required tagging each template. Popular templates were now prominently featured on the front page.
Homepage Redesign
Introduced a bold create button, direct access to recent flows, and a refined toolbar for essential information. Added an additional column, with subscription information and workflow recommendations, to inspire adoption.
Omni-Channel Experience
I orchestrated a coordinated 30-day omni-channel initiative, crafting a cohesive UX for in-product onboarding guides, personalized email campaigns, and sales scripts, all aimed at demonstrating the platform's value.
Execution & Collaboration
Cross-functional team dynamics
Collaborated seamlessly with a diverse team including Group PMs, PMs, Engineers, QA, Data Ops, Internal Feedback Teams, Marketing, Sales, and other stakeholders.
Constant UX team review
Engaged closely with the UX team for continuous reviews, given the pervasive impact of PLG across the entire platform.
Comprehensive toolset
Benefitted from robust tools, such as Pendo, LogRocker, UserTesting, Zendesk, and ThoughtSpot.
Achieved buy-in
Successfully obtained buy-in from leadership and feature owners, aligning strategies with organizational goals.
Regular CTO engagements
Conducted bi-weekly meetings with the CTO to secure approvals and solicit feedback on designs in line with PLG objectives.
Backlog management
Established launch dates, applied RICE scoring, aligned metrics, segmented large epics, and formulated detailed user stories and hypothesis statements.
© 2024—Made by Arieh Movtady.