Understanding User Needs In Subscription Offerings

While it can be easily believed that customers are the ultimate experts about their own needs, there are ways to gain insights and knowledge that customers may not be aware of or able to articulate directly. While customers are the ultimate source of truth about their needs, product managers can complement this knowledge by employing a combination of research, data analysis, and empathetic understanding to gain a more comprehensive understanding of customer needs and expectations. The goal is not to know more than customers but to use various tools and methods to gain insights that can lead to building better products and delivering exceptional user experiences. ➡️ User Research: Conducting thorough user research, such as interviews, surveys, and observational studies, can reveal underlying needs and pain points that customers may not have fully recognized or articulated. By learning from many users, we gain holistic insights and deeper insights into their motivations and behaviors. ➡️ Data Analysis: Analyzing user data, including behavioral data and usage patterns, can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and pain points. By identifying trends and patterns in the data, product managers can make informed decisions about what features or improvements are most likely to address customer needs effectively. ➡️ Contextual Inquiry: Observing customers in their real-life environment while using the product can uncover valuable insights into their needs and challenges. Contextual inquiry helps product managers understand the context in which customers use the product and how it fits into their daily lives. ➡️ Competitor Analysis: By studying competitors and their products, product managers can identify gaps in the market and potential unmet needs that customers may not even be aware of. Understanding what competitors offer can inspire product improvements and innovation. ➡️ Surfacing Implicit Needs: Sometimes, customers may not be able to express their needs explicitly, but through careful analysis and empathetic understanding, product managers can infer these implicit needs. This requires the ability to interpret feedback, observe behaviors, and understand the context in which customers use the product. ➡️ Iterative Prototyping and Testing: Continuously iterating and testing product prototypes with users allows product managers to gather feedback and refine the product based on real-world usage. Through this iterative process, product managers can uncover deeper customer needs and iteratively improve the product to meet those needs effectively. ➡️ Expertise in the Domain: Product managers, industry thought leaders, academic researchers, and others with deep domain knowledge and expertise can anticipate customer needs based on industry trends, best practices, and a comprehensive understanding of the market. #productinnovation #discovery #productmanagement #productleadership

Are you generating enough value for users net of the value to your company? Business value can only be created when you create so much value for users, that you can “tax” that value and take some for yourself as a business. If you don’t create any value for your users, then you can’t create value for your business. Ed Biden explains how to solve this in this week's guest post: Whilst there are many ways to understand what your users will value, two techniques in particular are incredibly valuable, especially if you’re working on a tight timeframe: 1. Jobs To Be Done 2. Customer Journey Mapping 𝟭. 𝗝𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗲 (𝗝𝗧𝗕𝗗) “People don’t simply buy products or services, they ‘hire’ them to make progress in specific circumstances.”  – Clayton Christensen The core JTBD concept is that rather than buying a product for its features, customers “hire” a product to get a job done for them … and will ”fire” it for a better solution just as quickly. In practice, JTBD provides a series of lenses for understanding what your customers want, what progress looks like, and what they’ll pay for. This is a powerful way of understanding your users, because their needs are stable and it forces you to think from a user-centric point of view. This allows you to think about more radical solutions, and really focus on where you’re creating value. To use Jobs To Be Done to understand your customers, think through five key steps: 1. Use case – what is the outcome that people want? 2. Alternatives – what solutions are people using now? 3. Progress – where are people blocked? What does a better solution look like? 4. Value Proposition – why would they use your product over the alternatives? 5. Price – what would a customer pay for progress against this problem? 𝟮. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 Customer journey mapping is an effective way to visualize your customer’s experience as they try to reach one of their goals. In basic terms, a customer journey map breaks the user journey down into steps, and then for each step describes what touchpoints the customer has with your product, and how this makes them feel. The touch points are any interaction that the customer has with your company as they go through this flow: • Website and app screens • Notifications and emails • Customer service calls • Account management / sales touch points • Physically interacting with goods (e.g. Amazon), services (e.g. Airbnb) or hardware (e.g. Lime) Users’ feelings can be visualized by noting down: • What they like or feel good about at this step • What they dislike, find frustrating or confusing at this step • How they feel overall By mapping the customer’s subjective experience to the nuts and bolts of what’s going on, and then laying this out in a visual way, you can easily see where you can have the most impact, and align stakeholders on the critical problems to solve.

Subscription services need strong analytics to build smarter & strategically strong plans. 🚀 Subscription models aren’t just a trend anymore—they’re shaping the future of eCommerce. 🛍 But are you leveraging data & analytics sufficiently, to iteratively build your strategy, & have your customers coming back? Here’s why you should make data analytics an integral part of your business approach: 🎯 Customer Retention Isn’t a Guessing Game Many eCommerce businesses still rely on gut feeling & high level market trends when deciding what keeps their subscribers happy. What if you could make smarter, data-driven decisions instead? Here’s how: 1️⃣ Understand User Behavior at a Granular Level Accurate analytics helps you spot patterns in how your subscribers behave. 👉 For example, a fitness app found that users who completed daily workouts stayed subscribed longer. With this insight, the app focused on features that encourage consistent engagement, boosting retention. 2️⃣ Personalize the Experience Analytics isn’t just about numbers—it’s about the people behind them. By segmenting your customers based on their behavior & psychographics, you can create personalized experiences that drive loyalty. 👉 Example: Netflix tailors its show and movie recommendations at a segment of one level, making subscribers feel seen and valued, while also making their life easier! 3️⃣ Track Key Metrics Keep an eye on crucial metrics such as Churn Rate, Average Order Value (AOV), & Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). These metrics tell you what’s working, & where you need to pivot. 👉 For instance, a music app discovered that users who created personalized playlists were less likely to churn. Now they focus on promoting playlist creation to keep users engaged. 4️⃣ Leverage Predictive Analytics Want to predict churn before it happens? Predictive analytics can highlight warning signs of disengagement so you can take action before your subscribers leave. 👉 Takeaway: With predictive analytics you can send personalized reminders, special incentives, or tips to at-risk users, keeping them engaged. 5️⃣ Test, Learn, Optimize Don’t settle for your first plan. A/B testing helps you experiment with different subscription models, pricing, & features to arrive at the best. 👉 Example: A video streaming service can test different pricing structures & tiers, & find the best pricing plans that maximize sign-ups, market share, & retention. Bottom line: Subscription analytics give you the insights you need to understand, retain, & grow your subscriber base. Embracing smart data, & analyzing it while keeping the people behind it in your mind can create more personalized, engaging, & profitable subscription model. At Appstle Inc. there are 30,000+ eCommerce businesses that hands-on use our granular analytics to make impactful data driven customer retention strategies. The analytics are an integral part of Appstle Subscriptions. Because there is no better way to profitably scale!