Increasing Free Trial Conversion by 35% through Strategic Simplification

Increasing Free Trial Conversion by 35% through Strategic Simplification

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Product Strategy & Business Impact

As Lead Product Designer, I partnered with Product and Engineering to redesign BigAnimal’s onboarding experience, eliminate major adoption barriers, and influence product strategy by replacing customer-managed infrastructure with a streamlined managed approach.

Executive Summary

  • Proposed a strategic shift to pre-provisioned database infrastructure, eliminating a major onboarding barrier and dramatically reducing time-to-value for new customers.

  • Increased free trial conversion by 35% by redesigning the onboarding experience and simplifying the path from signup to cluster creation.

  • Drove product strategy and delivery by leading cross-functional collaboration across Product, Engineering, and Business Analysts.

Problem Statement

I am curious to test drive Postgres in the cloud,
but it’s new to me and I’m not sure how to get started

Problem Statement

I am curious to test drive Postgres in the cloud,
but it’s new to me and I’m not sure how to get started

Objectives & Goals

Objectives & Goals

  • I need to immediately create a cluster quickly

  • I need to immediately create a cluster quickly

  • I want to enable advanced features, but I’m not sure how to find them

  • I want to enable advanced features, but I’m not sure how to find them

Business Challenges

Business Challenges

Database professionals (DP) have data estates across multiple database vendors

  • Database professionals (DP) have data estates across multiple database vendors

DPs are seeking ways to reduce costs for their data warehouses

  • DPs are seeking ways to reduce costs for their data warehouses

DPs are moving towards more unified governance over their data estates

  • DPs are moving towards more unified governance over their data estates

DPs are often seeking an off ramp from Oracle

  • DPs are often seeking an off ramp from Oracle

DPs are a bit hesitant to migrate to open-source solutions like Postgres

  • DPs are a bit hesitant to migrate to open-source solutions like Postgres

Product Users

Product Users

Data Professionals seeking open-source fully managed Postgres in the cloud.

Data Professionals seeking open-source fully managed Postgres in the cloud.

User Research

User Research

Observations

Observations

90%

90%

Are “highly motivated” to migrate from Oracle

Are “highly motivated” to migrate from Oracle

80%

Cite “cost savings” as the primary factor in exploring BigAnimal

50%

Have their data estates spread out over 5+ vendors

60%

Anticipate making a decision within 3 days of starting the free trial

20%

Created a cluster within 5 minutes of starting the free trial

10%

Enabled advanced features after creating a new cluster in the free trial

We conducted qualitative user sessions with 10 existing free trial users and surveyed 30 users

80%

Cite “cost savings” as the primary factor in exploring BigAnimal

60%

Anticipate making a decision within 3 days of starting trial

50%

Have their data estates spread out over 5+ vendors

20%

Created a cluster within 5 minutes of starting the free trial

10%

Enabled advanced features after creating a new cluster

User Needs

User Needs

DPs have very short windows to dedicate to evaluating new SaaS offerings in an increasingly crowded cloud Database space

  • DPs have very short windows to dedicate to evaluating new SaaS offerings in an increasingly crowded cloud Database space

DPs need to be able to create a new cluster on entry into free trial so they can test drive more advanced features

  • DPs need to be able to create a new cluster on entry into free trial so they can test drive more advanced features

DPs are often coming from Oracle and/or AWS, so they prefer a user experience that is familiar and comfortable

  • DPs are often coming from Oracle and/or AWS, so they prefer a user experience that is familiar and comfortable

Features & Functionalities

Features & Functionalities

To resolve user needs

To resolve user needs

Next-level
PG functions

Next-level PG Functions

Five Nines
High Availability

Five Nines High Availability

🔋

Manage all DBs
in one place

⚙️

🧑🏽‍💻

Product User Challenges

Product User Challenges

DPs allocate very little time to evaluate new tools

  • DPs allocate very little time to evaluate new tools

DPs come from on-premise DB world and are much less familiar with cloud infrastructure, security, and management

  • DPs come from on-premise DB world and are much less familiar with cloud infrastructure, security, and management

DPs have operated in Oracle for decades, but are now being urged by CFOs to seek more affordable alternatives

  • DPs have operated in Oracle for decades, but are now being urged by CFOs to seek more affordable alternatives

DPs and CSOs are highly concerned with security of cloud products

  • DPs and CSOs are highly concerned with security of cloud products

Competitor Analysis

Competitor Analysis

Undergoing major strategic shift to infuse AI, expand data warehouses/lakes

  • Undergoing major strategic shift to infuse AI, expand data warehouses/lakes

Own 45% of nosql-database market share

  • Own 45% of nosql-database market share

Features :

Developer-focused tools that scale up for midsize and large enterprises

  • Developer-focused tools that scale up for midsize and large enterprises

MongoDB

Focus on managing open source cloud data infrastructure

  • Focus on managing open source cloud data infrastructure

Achieved $3B valuation

  • Achieved $3B valuation

Features :

Niche platform credited with democratizing open source DBs

  • Niche platform credited with democratizing open source DBs

Aiven

Unique Features

Unique Features

Next-generation, AI-driven governance, estate, warehouse features that are well ahead of the market

  • Next-generation, AI-driven governance, estate, warehouse features that are well ahead of the market

Hyper responsive to customer feature build requests

  • Hyper responsive to customer feature build requests

Industry-leading open-source contributors trusted by the Postgres community

  • Industry-leading open-source contributors trusted by the Postgres community

Executive Summary

  • Proposed a strategic shift to pre-provisioned database infrastructure, eliminating a major onboarding barrier and dramatically reducing time-to-value for new customers.

  • Increased free trial conversion by 35% by redesigning the onboarding experience and simplifying the path from signup to cluster creation.

  • Drove product strategy and delivery by leading cross-functional collaboration across Product, Engineering, and Business Analysts.

Neel Patel

DB Admin

About

age 42

London

20 years

AWS Certified

User Persona

User Persona

Description

Database Administrator for fortune 1000 company seeking an alternative to Oracle

  • Database Administrator for fortune 1000 company seeking an alternative to Oracle

A day in their life

A day in their life

On call for database emergencies 24/7

Dedicates less than 2 hours/week to trying new tools

Manually performs low-level admin tasks on databases spread out across 5+ vendors

  • On call for database emergencies 24/7

  • Dedicates less than 2 hours/week to trying new tools

  • Manually performs low-level admin tasks on databases spread out across 5+ vendors

Pain points

Pain points

Feels stuck with Oracle and other legacy solutions

Strongly prefers to move to the cloud and automate basic tasks to win back some time

  • Feels stuck with Oracle and other legacy solutions

  • Strongly prefers to move to the cloud and automate basic tasks to win back some time

We desperately want to migrate away from legacy on-premise databases, but the open source cloud space is unclear to me

We desperately want to migrate away from legacy on-premise databases, but the open source cloud space is unclear to me

Taskflows

Taskflows

I want to explore the advanced features of BigAnimal in a real-world free trial

I want to explore the advanced features of BigAnimal in a real-world free trial

User Need #1

Create Account

Explore Features

🥵 Set up CSP

🤬 Activate Region

😡 Multiple Tabs

✅ Create Cluster

I want to create a cluster quickly and go!

I want to create a cluster quickly and go!

User Need #2

Enter Dashboard

Create Cluster

✅ Approve Presets

☎️ Onboard Call

🤬 Setup Steps

😡 Multiple Tabs

Landing

Before

Before

After

After

Cluster Creation

Before

Before

After

After

Thank You

Thank You