Case study: Pocket sprints with GV
We helped Pocket design a better experience for new users. The results: 58% more new users saved their first item to Pocket, leading to…
We helped Pocket design a better experience for new users. The results: 58% more new users saved their first item to Pocket, leading to higher activation rates and more active users.
THE CHALLENGE
Help new users of Pocket become active users. Lots of people were downloading and signing up for Pocket, but the team wanted to make it easier for those people to become active long-term users.
WHAT WE DID
Ran three design sprints in three weeks with the Pocket team. We prototyped and tested new getting-started flows in their iOS and Android apps. The results: 58% more new users saved their first item to Pocket, leading to higher activation rates and more active users.
HERE’S HOW WE DID IT.
DAY 1: UNDERSTANDING GOALS AND CHALLENGES
The Pocket team understood what made a new user likely to become an active user: things like adding 3 items to their list or installing Pocket on a second device. The team had also run a recent study on Usertesting.com, so we were able to see exactly how and where new users struggled.
We generated opportunities for improving the getting-started experience (in HMW form).
We voted on HMWs and summarized the most promising ideas.
We sketched a basic user story to help us understand the experience of new users
DAY 2: SKETCHING POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Using everything we learned the first day, we sketched possible solutions. Each sketch was a tiny 3-pane storyboard of the getting-started flow.
DAY 3: DECIDING WHICH SOLUTIONS TO PROTOTYPE
We evaluated each sketch based on our goals and understanding of the challenge.
We marked good ideas with orange dots, then separated out all the good ideas.
Then we stitched together the good ideas into two competing versions of the getting-started experience
DAY 4: PROTOTYPING
We built high-fidelity clickable prototypes of each concept in Keynote.
An iPad mini was just about the right size to run a keynote prototype
DAY 5: TESTING OUR PROTOTYPES WITH REAL PEOPLE
We recruited 5 people who hadn’t used Pocket to come into the office and try our prototypes. While the participants were using the prototypes, we observed from a separate room and took notes. (Read more about our user testing setup here.)
We summarized the findings immediately after each session, and by the end of the day we knew what was working, what wasn’t, and what we wanted to change for our next sprint and user study.
