Knurture

Design + Storytelling + Behavioral Science. 2 Partners. 250+ Customers. 1 Decade. 2k+ Sprints. $2b+ in MRR.

We're not an agency. 

We're two partners who have worked alongside 250+ D2C & SaaS teams like co-op commerce (raised $5.8M from Bessemer VP & Shopify) • Clearbrain (YC, acquired by Amplitude) • Caseology (acquired) • Nixplay. Work with us: https://knurture.typeform.com/to/qP6CES

Co-Founder and Partner

co-op commerce

I wear many hats for team co-op including brand design, marketing, innovation & strategy, product design & user research.

ʙʀᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴇꜱɪɢɴ
• Developed the entire co-op brand including logo, color palette, typography and illustrations.

ᴍᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ ꜱɪᴛᴇ
• Designed, wrote copy and developed the co-op marketing site in Webflow.

ᴩʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛ ʀᴏᴀᴅᴍᴀᴩ
• Collaborated with the team to build the product roadmap by conceptualizing, prototyping & validating new concepts.

ᴩʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛ ᴅᴇꜱɪɢɴ
• Designed the co-op application from scratch.

ᴜꜱᴇʀ ʀᴇꜱᴇᴀʀᴄʜ
• Ran research to identify the most pressing needs for independent merchants & shoppers.

Fractional Creative Lead (Design, UX, Storytelling)

The Startup Factory

Triangle Startup Factory is the Southeast's premier accelerator that provides startups with hands-on mentorship and up to $200,000 in seed capital. Katie works with TSF's portfolio companies throughout the entire business development lifecycle to prioritize and undertake projects that will have the highest return on investment. She helps today’s fastest growing early stage companies maintain a relentless focus on their application’s experience.

Executive UX Strategist

Kate Page

Katie works as an independent user experience and content consultant. She creates and tests interaction patterns and microcopy for B2B and SaaS applications. She work with agencies, development shops, and expansion stage companies to make changes that have an impact on AARRR.

Freelance Experience Consultant

Connected for Cause

Connected for Cause helped student groups and small nonprofits develop a fund-raising plan. C4C hosted seminars, connected groups and planned large fund-raising events.

Founder & Co-Director

Beacon and Milestone

Katie worked with Beacon & Milestone as an independent contractor providing content solutions for marketing websites and product interfaces. She developed content audits, inventories, and style guides. She began focusing specifically on value driven interface microcopy and product focused content strategy.

Contract Content Strategist

Unblab

Collaborated with Unblab's CEO/CMO to refine the messaging around their marketing materials using customer feedback. The company was acquired by Aol in late 2010.

Contract User Researcher, Content Strategist & Web Writer

🍭 Fractional product designer & behavioral science nerd helping apps get good & sticky (300+ and counting).

I use design, storytelling & behavioral science to make your customers dance 💃🏻🕺🏽 inside. See how I've helped 250+ companies connect the dots between their product and their audience's desires here: https://tinyurl.com/y97z7uer or schedule a free 30 min call: https://calendly.com/knurture/intro

What’s the connection between 🔪 serial killers and your app?

When clients come to me because their users are churning crazy early in the journey, I know the culprit before I even look at their product.

There’s a serial killer at work somewhere in the onboarding flow.

I’ve profiled 8 main types of Onboarding Serial Killers, and one or more of them is usually responsible for the high customer body count.

Like all serial killers, these villains have a predictable pattern. Left unchecked they can decimate your customer base.

The thing is, the first fourteen days of a new customers’ journey with your product is a critical time period. Motivation is as high as it’s ever going to get, so it’s make or break time.

Fan the flames of that motivation, and you boost the odds of creating a loyal long term customer.

But a single misstep or stumble can negatively impact engagement, potentially leading them to death by churn before they’ve ever gotten started.

In today’s carousel, I’m unmasking these deadly onboarding serial killers and showing you how I help my clients defeat them.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#onboarding #b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

Katie Deloso 🍭

Is There A Connection Between Serial Killers & Your App?

🌶️ It's time to ditch the competitive analysis.

Instead...

Start looking at the competing alternatives.

It’s a subtle but profound difference.

Why?

Because your competition is a lot more broad than you think.

Like most people, you probably figure your competition consists of those things that are somehow “like” you, or in your general category.

If you’re a stationary bike, you think Peloton and a few knock offs — and maybe a treadmill — are your main competitors.

Wrong.

At the moment that someone could be riding a stationary bike, just think of all the other things they could be choosing to do instead. Reading a book on their Kindle. Going for a run. Watching Netflix. Planting flowers. Prepping for the workday ahead. Sleeping. Looking at Twitter. Doing their nails.

They could even be doing nothing.

That’s right: You’re also competing against nothing. And considering how lazy and resistant to change our human brains are, that’s some pretty stiff competition.

But don’t worry. In today’s carousel I’m showing you a UNIQUE method to understand the spectrum of competing alternatives so that your product can stand out from the pack.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#icp #competition #b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

Stand Out From The Competition

What can a ‘90s focus group failure teach us about user research for SaaS?

Turns out, quite a bit.

For starters: Think you can know what people want just by asking? Think again. 

Surveys and focus groups don't reveal the whole truth.

Let me clarify that: Relying solely on subjective data, such as surveys or interview questions that ask people to imagine their actions in hypothetical situations, is a great way to gather inaccurate data.

Case in point: the focus group that fooled Sony.

You’ve probably heard some version of the story: Sony wanted to introduce a sporty yellow model to their classic black Walkman lineup. So they organized a focus group.

And then they did what most people do: They asked a bunch of hypothetical questions relating to the participants’ preferences. The responses were music to the bean counters’ ears: "We love it! Need it! Gotta have it! Yellow rules!"

Only …

When participants were offered a free Walkman, they all chose black instead of yellow. What gives? Did Sony somehow put together a focus group made up of entirely pathological liars?

No, not at all. They just failed to account for a handful of cognitive biases.

Today I’m showing you why self-reported data stinks — and what the SaaS world can learn from the focus group missteps Sony made.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#feedback #focusgroups #userresearch #productledgrowth

Are Focus Groups Leading You Down The Wrong Path?

If you think your customer is “everyone,” you’re wasting your money.

Obviously you need customers to have a viable business.

But who are they? Where are they? 

How will you find and correctly target a juicy market?

You have no idea how many times I’ve heard some variation of, “Our target market is the mass market, obviously.”

Sorry, Charlie. No matter how big you think your idea might get, you CANNOT begin with anything containing the two-word, company-killing term “mass market.”

Why? Logic: You can't begin by targeting something that by its nature is so broad that .. it can’t actually be targeted.

There are no specific behaviors and attributes to hone in on. That means you can’t test OR validate it.

And what are you in desperate need of? Low-risk testing. Things you can try out that might attract the right people.

“Mass market” is like saying the whole school is potential best friend material.
You can see how that’s just a bit overconfident, right?

A mass market is something you may acquire down the road, if that’s appropriate to your product or service. But this can only happen after (like, way after) you’ve succeeded with the market segments that you’ve carefully chosen.

So, who will you target first?

To figure that out, you have to identify what you believe are your top Jobs To Be Done, which I’ve touched on in the past.

Then, it’s time to theorize about your juicy market segments.

I call these JAMs, or Juicy Addressable Markets.

Instead of focusing on things like:
🔵 Irrelevant demographics
🔵 Estimates or gut feelings
🔵 Generalities
🔵 Things that don’t relate to the job the product is meant to do

Instead, focus on two things: behaviors & attributes.

Why? Because you can only find, target, and test based on specific behaviors and attributes.

A behavior is: Driving kids to daycare
An attribute is: Single moms

If it’s too broad, keep digging. If you can’t find it - you can’t use it.

Your JAM segments are NOT based on needs, motivations, or problems. Why not?

These things belong in your JTBD statements.

If you create customer segments based on needs, motivations, or problems, then you’ve conflated your potential market with the Job to be Done. If you do that, you won’t be able to match JAM segments with the corresponding Job.
This matters because your number one Job needs to have the most and/or biggest segments in order for your business to be viable.

And you won’t be able to determine that if you conflate the two.

In today’s carousel, I’m breaking down how to find and target the specific JAM segments that will help you drive conversions, lower CAC, and save money.

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#b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg #icp

Lower CAC By Finding Your JAM

Quick: What’s your product’s value in one short, crystal clear sentence?

Having trouble coming up with something?

Don’t feel bad...

A lot of my clients come to me in the same boat.

But if you don’t get it, then your customers sure won’t.

The fix?

You need to nail your Yellable Why.

Okay, so what the heck is a Yellable Why?

It’s what I call the shortest, stickiest version of your value that someone could yell across the street to a friend (and maybe show, with an image as well) and that person would totally “Get It”.

A Yellable Why is the reason someone stops scrolling.

It’s why they click on a link or open the email or keep exploring your Web site.

A Yellable Why focuses on the core reason your product or service exists and why it matters to your audience.

But it can’t stop with messaging.

The implicit promise of your Yellable Why MUST align with the experience of your product.

It has to be immediately grasp-able – I’m talking as soon as onboarding.

And when it comes to your reputation? It’s Everything.

It’s what will amplify your success via the success of your customers … via that all-important sticky word of mouth.

If you don’t get this right, you risk having a shitty reputation -- or maybe even worse? No reputation at all.

There’s no formula for it, but there is a way to think it through, create your hypothetical Yellable Why, test it out, and hone it until it’s sticky perfection.

I’m showing you how in today’s carousel.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#positioning #b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

What's Your Product's Yellable Why?

An adorable little family of humanoid mermaids. 🧜‍♂️🧜‍♀️

That's what thousands of comic-book loving kids were sold.

What they received was...

Brine shrimp. 🍤

Let's talk sea monkeys.

This bizarre product first hit the market back in the 1960s.

Millions of comic book-loving kids in the 60s and 70s were lured into spending their hard-earned allowance on a family of Sea Monkeys.

These creatures were depicted in the ads as cute, intelligent, trainable, and downright humanoid pets that you could grow right in your very own aquarium. Just think – instant underwater pets!

So they’d mail in $1.25 and wait for the 6-8 weeks of “shipping and handling,” whatever that means.

Instead of a loving family of anthropomorphic aquatic creatures, what arrived was a packet of eggs that hatched into wriggly – decidedly not cuddly or trainable – brine shrimp. Ick.

Pre-internet kids couldn’t express their crushing disappointment on social media , so they did what all the other let-down Sea Monkeys kids had to do: Make the most of it and vow to never spend allowance money on comic book ads again. (Well, okay, maybe just the X-ray vision specs.)

Sea Monkeys are actually still for sale. But these days people buy them for the novelty and irony factor; no one actually thinks they’ll grow into a mini underwater human family as depicted on the packaging.

They’re a silly and extreme example of a disconnect between what is promised and what is delivered.

But just like a kid in the 70s who spent her whole allowance on a bowl of brine shrimp “pets,” your customers will feel frustrated, disappointed – and maybe even angry – when what they get isn’t what they expected.

Maybe you promised the moon, but only delivered a dry handful of green cheese. I’ve seen that this sort of thing often happens not because of willful deception, but rather because teams aren’t communicating and sharing the wealth of feedback they collect with one another.

And these days, misalignments like this can lead to churn, scathing reviews, and a terrible reputation.

In today’s carousel I’m showing you how to avoid becoming the SaaS version of Sea Monkeys.

When was the last time your expectations were crushed by the actual experience? Let me know in the comments!

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#saas #plg #productledgrowth #productbrand

Lessons for Software Teams from Sea Monkeys

What’s the first thing you think of when I say: Snakes on a Plane?

I’m betting it’s that (in)famous line from the 2006 action film …

You know the motherf&*king one I’m talking about.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m bringing up an over-the-top profanity-laden air disaster romp starring Samuel Jackson.

Turns out movies and products are more alike than you think.

They can both be blockbusters or flops, they live or die on their reputations, and of course, they both need to tell the right story to the right audience in the right way.

Snakes on a Plane happens to be a perfect example of a product with real sellability. And SaaS can learn a thing or two from it.

No, I haven’t lost my mind.

When I say a product or service has sellability, I mean that it practically sells itself. The value is so clear, so apparent, so in-your-face that people grasp it immediately.

Truly sellable products have a Yell-able Why, a differentiator so clear that someone could yell it across a loud, busy street to a friend, and the friend would totally get it.

Sellability like that makes it easy for people to share their experience -- to tell the story of you -- with others. This broadens your reputation and contributes to virality.

And oh yeah -- when your own customers are doing the selling for you, it really helps cut your CAC.Which brings me back to Snakes on a Plane.

Before memes were a thing, before Twitter, just at the dawn of FB when MySpace was the most popular social media platform, Snakes on a Plane went viral.

Fans started blogs about it, they posted rumors, and they couldn’t get enough. Why? Well, the announcement of the film, likely thanks to Samuel L. Jackson taking the lead role, sparked early hype.

And New Line Cinema embraced and cultivated that hype wholeheartedly.
Sellability is baked right into the title. What’s the movie about? Um, snakes. On a plane. Duh.

It sounds possibly campy, and maybe a little weird. And for fans of Samuel L. Jackson, this was a no-brainer ticket purchase.

The studio briefly changed the name of the movie to the generic and singularly un-sellable Pacific Air Flight 121, and Jackson said if they didn’t change it back, he’d pull out of the project.

It’s also hyper specific. New Line was not trying to appeal to everyone -- in fact, they doubled down on their specific JAM (Juicy Addressable Market), going as far as workshopping ideas with fans and even making tweaks to the film based on feedback.

New Line didn’t try to make Snakes on a Plane into highbrow art, or something that delivered a serious message. They remained laser-focused on the story the fans were expecting & craving.

In fact, the film’s most famous line was a fan’s contribution. Yep: That mother f*&^ing **line **was *actually written by a mother f%^ing fan who fantasized about Jackson delivering it.

Want that kind of viral sellability for your SaaS product?

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Want Viral Sellability For Your SaaS Product?

Steal this.

5 Behavioral Science Principles that every PM should know to:
⭐️ Hook new sign-ups
⭐️ Increase engagement
⭐️ Boost retention

Are also used by video games.

Video games, like Super Mario Brothers, are built to keep us engaged (and even a bit addicted).

I’m not the first person to notice that the Super Mario Brothers game has a lot to teach about solid product design principles. 

I’ve seen a lot written about:
⭐️ The power of proximity - Think the instant gratification when you smash a question mark

⭐️  Show, don’t tell - There aren’t any long-winded explanations; learning is intuitive + demonstrative

⭐️  Surprise and delight - The world of Super Mario is filled with diverse environments and surprising characters

These are all valid points.

Today, I’m unpacking one of the underlying principles at play: the way that the game uses behavioral science to expand our mental model, and what product teams can learn from it.

And what is mental model expansion, you ask?

Think of mental models like internal frameworks we use to understand the world. They’re based on our experiences, beliefs, and knowledge. They shape how we perceive situations, make decisions, and solve problems.

Mental model expansion occurs when we update or add to these frameworks based on new information, experiences, or perspectives.

But here’s the thing: Mental model expansion MUST happen incrementally, otherwise we get confused and overwhelmed.

Super Mario Brothers starts with simple skills and progressively integrates more complex strategies as players adapt to the game's increasing challenges.

In UX design, this concept is crucial. By progressively introducing features and complexity, SaaS products can guide users from basic understanding to advanced proficiency – all while keeping them engaged and excited to keep accomplishing their goals.

I’m breaking down 5 specific lessons from behavioral psychology that software teams can learn from the Super Mario Brothers game in today’s carousel.

Take these lessons to heart and your users won’t ever feel like telling you that it’s Game Over.

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#productledgrowth #plg  #onboarding #behavioralpsychology  #saas l

5 Behavioral Science Techniques Every PM Needs

What's one of the top engagement killers I've seen across 250+ client projects?

I've encountered it time and again.

Clients come to me with a good product that solves a real need, but they’re frustrated because engagement is low and churn is on the rise.

The problem?

Bland, boring, generic UX writing. 

I call it Stepford Wife microcopy.

If you aren’t aware, The Stepford Wives is about a suburban dystopia in which women have been replaced by robot duplicates, engineered to embody an idealized, submissive, and eerily perfect housewife.

Oh yeah - they’re also really boring, bland, and forgettable. They have no distinct personality of their own.

See where I’m going with this?

Generic microcopy is like a Stepford Wife. It seems okay at first glance, but it’s not quite right.

Bland microcopy doesn't inspire engagement, drive motivation, or make people excited to return to your product.

In fact, it can cause your users to churn simply because they forget you exist.

And that’s such a shame.

Microcopy is an opportunity for you to frame the events within your product to highlight value and heighten the intensity of a positive experience.

That’s science: Studies have shown that we remember emotionally charged words with greater accuracy and vividness than neutral ones.

In today’s carousel, I’m showing you how I’ve helped clients go from dull to delightful with exciting, engaging, and motivating microcopy that keeps their customers coming back for more.

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#microcopy #b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

Stop Driving Customers Away

Is your product boring?

Do your customers keep forgetting to engage with your product?

Here’s a thought: What if you could make it as engaging as a Top 10 Netflix series?

No, I’m not saying you should drop everything and launch a streaming platform.

I’m talking about creating the kind of product customers can’t live without.

The kind they can’t wait to re-engage with.

The kind they want to binge.

Sometimes my clients come to me with a good product, but very low repeat engagement.

So I help them become more binge-able.

Think about it. Ever wonder why you keep coming back to Netflix to binge the latest show?

Sure, you’re hiring a particular series to do a job -- to entertain you by allowing you to become immersed in a long form narrative. It feels good to escape reality and experience empathy for your favorite characters.

But how does Netflix keep you coming back for more?

Why does your watchlist keep growing?

Why did you happily spend all afternoon binging the last Harlan Coben series?

And what on earth does this have to do with your SaaS product?

Well, it all comes down to what I call the Binge Loop.

Netflix hooks you with a clever blend of personalization, anticipation, and reward.

These aren't just entertainment tactics; they're a blueprint for B2B SaaS success.

Curious?

In today’s carousel, I’m showing you how to apply Netflix’s approach to create a powerful engagement loop, one that will have your users excited to log in and binge your product over and over.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

How To Create Binge Loops

🤯 You've been lied to. 

There's a longstanding startup myth.

That you need to fail fast to innovate.

But, if you fail fast enough times, all you really do is… fail.

I know, I know.

Fail fast has been part of the DNA of startups ever since The Lean Startup became the tech founder’s bible.

You’re told to brainstorm like a superhero and come up with more product ideas than you could build in a lifetime in a single session.

After careful consideration and "getting out of the building", you’re supposed to pick the best of the batch — the surefire product success. Then you launch your MVP into the market in record time.

But then, just as you’re about to put a down payment on a condo in Ibiza, … you realize that your product has tanked. Instead of cries of customer joy and adulation, you hear nothing but …

… crickets.

The truth is, hoping that lightning will strike and you’ll get lucky is an awfully expensive and risky way to go about growing your business.

And practicing ideas-first innovation is essentially playing a game of chance, with very poor odds of success.

I’ve worked with a lot of clients who learned that the hard way.

The root of this mistaken belief lies in the glorification of the (mythical) visionary innovator combined with the (illusory) power of ideas-first brainstorming and ideation.

Turns out, if you brainstorm a bunch of ideas rather than approaching innovation from the point of view of filling a need in the marketplace, you’re constructing your house on a foundation of sand.

Each successive step is like building yet another wing.

Sure, maybe people like the pretty bells and whistles you show them when (or if) you’re testing your idea-driven product, but if that product doesn’t provide value and fill a need, no one will go on to buy it in the real world.

So here’s what I tell my clients:

Instead of failing fast, learn fast.

How? Rather than playing roulette with ideas-first brainstorming, practice needs-first innovation.

I’m breaking down how to learn fast in today’s carousel.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for lessons learned from delivering sticky experiences for 250+ SaaS teams.

#b2b #saas #plg #productledgrowth

Learn Faster, Don't Fail Fast

🔮 I'm not a psychic. But...

This one phrase tells me everything I need to know about your product strategy.

The phrase? You call your product...

🇨🇭 A Swiss Army Knife.

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Swiss Army Knife products try (and often fail) to be all things for all people.

Have you ever tried using a Swiss Army knife when all you needed was a sturdy flathead screwdriver?

That's the trouble with products that try to do it all.

Packed with features, Swiss Army Knife Products promise to solve everything.

But they generally make simple tasks way more complicated than they need to be.

It’s kind of like saying “My target market is everyone.”

When you try to appeal to everyone, you end up attracting no one.

When clients come to me with Swiss Army Knife products, I help them figure out how to give their users what they’re really yearning for: simplicity and specialization.

In today’s carousel I’m looking at this issue by way of the granddaddy of all Swiss Army Knife fails – Google Wave.

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#b2b #saas #productmanagement #productledgrowth #plg

Don't Be A Swiss Army Knife

Churn is a harsh reality of life in the SaaS world.

I’ve seen clients try to ignore it. Others lose sleep over it.

A lot of times, they’ve been throwing good money after bad trying to acquire customers to replace the ones they’ve lost.

Clearly, none of these are great approaches.

The thing is, as a company grows, the number of customers who no longer use the product is going to organically grow as well.

You can’t change that, but you can minimize the impact.

One way to do that is to be proactive. Focus on leading indicators of churn and reach out to customers before they cancel.

And while you most certainly should incorporate this into your game plan, there’s another, more impactful, approach you can take.

When clients come to me looking for ways to offset the revenue they’re losing through churn, I let them in on a little secret: $0 CAC.

Yes, of course I can also help them do things like improve their onboarding, understand their audience, hone their value, and optimize the user experience.

Think of $0 CAC as the cherry on top.

How does it work? By generating expansion revenue from the happy customers you already have.

I’m talking about upsells and cross sells.

And you don’t have to spend a single dime acquiring new customers to do it. 

That’s why I call it $0 CAC.

Instead of thinking solely about acquisition and retention, think about growth -- no matter how early it is in your product’s lifecycle.

As Lincoln Murphy once said, “It’s a lot easier to get more money from a customer who’s happy and already paying you than it is to get money for the first time from non-customers.”

I’m showing you how to be SMART about it in today’s carousel.

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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#churn #saas #cac #productledgrowth #plg

$0 CAC is the SMART approach

I work with a lot of clients who have PTSD.

No, I’m not a therapist.

I’m talking about Bad Iteration PTSD.

The root of this malady? They haven’t properly interrogated their assumptions before launching their product into the world.

Instead of a runaway hit, they end up with a dud that no one cares about.

It’s frustrating. In fact, it can be downright traumatizing.

Look, I get it.

It’s tempting to pounce on your Great Idea and get it out into the world as quickly as possible.

But launching anything before doing your research and asking the right questions will very likely result in a lot of wasted time and failed, dead-in-the-water products.

I get it. It’s cheaper and easier than ever before to explore new ideas at lightning speed. The costs of prototyping can seem insignificant.

The inevitable result of all this, as author and innovation scholar Michael Schrage predicted over 20 years ago, is a state of hyper-innovation.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?

The excitement and promises of new and better products, taken to seemingly infinite levels of possibility thanks to the ease of rapid iteration.

But it’s not all rainbows and puppies. Hyper innovators, after all, need hyper adopters, a fancy word for customers who will actually buy the product.

So do yourself a favor: Save yourself from a bad iteration before it’s too late.

I’m showing you how in today’s carousel.
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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#iterate #mvp #startup #saas #productledgrowth #plg

Save Your Team From A Bad Iteration

💊 Painkiller or vitamin? 

Who gives a damn?

I challenge you to...

Name one blockbuster product that positions itself exclusively as a vitamin.

Painkillers, vitamins. They're flip sides of the same coin. It's about how the product is positioned and how the messaging highlights a pain or a gain. In today's world — the pain is more compelling. Full stop.

Stop positioning your product as a vitamin.

Instead, it’s time to (as they say in the London Underground) mind the Gap.

💊 This scene spotlights the divide between your audience's reality and aspirations. It sets up the need for a painkiller, not a vitamin.

Now is the time to underscore the deficiencies of the status quo by contrasting it with the potential of a bright future.

The Gap is the part of the movie when the hero is beginning to see possibilities, but hasn’t taken action yet.

🥊 Rocky Balboa starts to dream of winning and improving his life after unexpectedly being offered a chance to fight in the world heavyweight championship, though he hasn't committed to the intense training and challenges yet.

🚀 Luke Skywalker glimpses a slice of a broader universe and a more adventurous life beyond Tatooine when he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi and learns about the Force.

💪 Diana Prince starts to see her potential role in ending WWI after she realizes Amazons’ arch-enemy Ares is behind the “war to end all wars.”

The Gap is really important because it’s ramping up your audience’s appetite for change.

In today’s carousel, I’m helping you work through this scene step by step.

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#saas #plg #productledgrowth #messaging

Your Product Is Not A Vitamin

“Make my product super slippery,” said no client of mine ever.

Look, everybody wants a sticky product.

And pretty much everybody knows you need loops baked into it.

But that’s where the consensus seems to end.

All loops are NOT created equal.

I like to think of sticky products like snowballs. (And who doesn’t love the thought of cooling off with a nice cold snowball in the middle of this infernally hot summer?)

Think of loops like layers of snow you pack on. Each one sticks and adds size, momentum, and impact to your product snowball.

But here's the catch. It's not just about slapping on any old loop and calling it a day.

The magic happens when they work together seamlessly.

It’s like crafting the perfect snowball - not too powdery, not too icy, just the right consistency to grow as it rolls.

As your product snowballs down the hill of the market, if the loops are nested well, it grows - gaining speed, power, and impact. If not, it might just crumble halfway down - or melt before it ever gets started.

In today’s carousel I’m walking you through a loop assessment so you can make sure you’re creating a powerful sticky snowball instead of a slippery, steamy melted puddle.

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Why Are Customers Slipping Through Your Fingers?

Their growth was in the gutter.

I was tasked with understanding why. 

This scenario is more common than you think. I've seen it several times. 

One common reason? They’re going about user research all wrong.

The thing is, asking the wrong questions can torpedo your product.

You end up with unusable or misleading intel.

And that can translate into a deadly domino effect:
❌ You don’t understand their users so ….
❌ Your product isn’t fulfilling a need which means …
❌ There’s no product market fit which leads to …
😱 Ballooning CAC and off-the-charts churn.

This is preventable, as long as you understand the right way to ask questions and interpret the answers.

I’ve conducted thousands of user interviews for SaaS companies for 15 years.

In that time, I’ve honed a set of behavioral science-based best practices that help me extract highly valuable and actionable insights.

In today’s carousel I’m showing you how I help my clients foster empathy and understanding with their customers. This is a critical foundation for creating sticky products that fulfill a real need.

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#research #jtbd #userresearch #b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

Don't Kill Your Growth With Bad User Research

I don’t know about you but when I’m looking for something to soothe my chapped lips,

I immediately think... Cheetos.

No?

Just me?

I’m kidding of course, but that’s what Frito-Lay must have thought would happen when they launched their fluorescent orange Cheeto-flavored lip balm back in 2005.

More accurately, they likely thought that customers’ loyalty to Cheetos meant they’d buy any product associated with the brand.

They were wrong.

Shocking news: Cheetos lip balm was discontinued after one year.

It’s a funny fail, yes, but here’s the thing: This ridiculous product is actually a cautionary tale for SaaS.

Making customers do a double-take because you had a crazy idea is a surefire way to leave them rethinking that renewal.

And it’s not always as obvious as a snack company coming up with a beauty product.

In today’s carousel I’m walking you through how to stay laser-focused on delivering value to your customers and avoid launching the next Cheetos Lip Balm.
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Follow me, Katie Deloso 🍭, for daily stories, tips and tricks for producing your sticky product.

#b2b #saas #productledgrowth #plg

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