Dovetail
Dovetail bridges the customer understanding gap through a user research repository. In the browser-based app, you can analyse, synthesise, store, and share customer research in one collaborative and searchable platform. Auto-transcribe video and audio interviews, highlight insights and use a tagging taxonomy to synthesise findings, before sharing them with the wider company.
2022
Responsibilities: Website UX/UI
UX Research: Anna Nguyen
Product: Bec Lourey, Pete Binns
Marketing: Susan Perry
Sales: Kai Forsyth
Project Management: Sascha Kerbert
Case Study: Pivoting to a Freemium Model
When I joined Dovetail, the pricing model was simple and tiered, with no free subscription available. Customers trialling the product regularly requested an extension to the standard one week offering, as it wasn’t long enough to get buy-in across the business.
One of the biggest pain points the app was resolving was the ability to promote customer-driven decisions company-wide, using shareable stories. These stories were backed by insights and evidence, captured from raw customer data using tags and highlights.
These features helped users—primarily UX Researchers, but also Product Designers and Product Managers—prevent their research from becoming shelf-ware. That way, they could be more impactful across their company.
The old pricing page
Freemium Model
User interviews were conducted by the product team with the core customer base. They highlighted the need for more stakeholders across the business to be able to trial the product—in tandem—in order to sell the product in, to the decision makers.
This was impacting acquisition, so Dovetail pivoted to a freemium model.
Minimising Impact
Given both existing and new users would be affected by the move, all communication around the transition needed to be as clear as possible to minimise churn, an increase in CS tickets and a drop in acquisition.
There were also a lot of stakeholders involved in this transition, so clear communication internally was just as significant.
The goal was to encourage trial via the freemium subscription, with upgrade prompts at strategic points within the app. In re-designing the pricing page for the Dovetail website, I started with scoping out the structure to meet that goal, and key questions that needed answering.
Wireframes for A/B user testing to ensure the new pricing model was clear to users
Scoping out the needs and surfacing the key questions
The goal was to encourage trial via the freemium subscription, with upgrade prompts at strategic points within the app.
I then worked with our UX Researcher, as I wanted to conduct usability A/B testing of two approaches while I was still working in low fidelity. I wanted to ensure we nailed clarity and comprehension, and had our stakeholders onboard with the direction, before proceeding any further.
At the same time as we were moving to a freemium model, we were also going through a rebranding and—more importantly—a re-naming of our products. I was concerned that these simultaneous updates would increase baseline cognitive load and in turn increase the likelihood of confusion. So testing throughout the process was key.
UI with the product branding that was tested on soft launch
The insights from the testing showed that users responded best to a simple, clear summary before the fold, with a clear delineation between freemium and paid subscriptions. Feature tables increased overwhelm, so we dropped them altogether.
A clear CTA encouraging sign up as a first priority
The individual product brands, and new names, were found to be confusing rather than clarifying. Product names were simplified, logos removed, allowing the design to be minimal with clear hierarchy.
The new product names are descriptive and clear, rather than unique, making them easier to understand