First Time Experience, Astrato
Overview
A project to improve retention for Astrato users that opt out of white-glove sessions. This initiative also allowed us to assess the effectiveness of our visual-first approach.
Outcome
Developed a self-service flow for first-time users, providing onboarding guidance, and useful video content to quickly demonstrate value. We included service shortcuts, and tracked critical event metrics, validating a data-first approach.
Role
Head of Product Design
Leadership
UX/UI/Research
User Testing
Worked with
C-Suite
Sr Product Designer
Project Managers
Developers
BI Developers
Marketing
Brand
Astrato, by Vizlib
Initiate
Problem Statement
The core challenge was a critical user retention and conversion gap, defined by four distinct issues:
Low commercial conversion: The existing core conversion rate was only 4.5%.
Critical engagement gap: Post-launch data revealed a major retention disparity between segments: 78% of Corporate users remained active vs. only 21% of self-service (Social) users. This confirmed the failure to replicate high-quality activation at scale.
Strategic misalignment: There was an internal debate and lack of consensus on the fundamental user journey (visual-first vs. data-first), which prevented alignment on a solution.
Lack of diagnostic data: The existing event tracking was insufficient, providing no clear data on the actual user journey, key drop-off points, or the true user preference required to resolve the internal strategic debat
Corporate user activity.
Social user activity.
Hypothesis
By creating a self-service flow for the Social segment that prioritises a data-first approach and leverages contextual educational features, we will successfully replicate the high-quality activation of the Corporate white-glove onboarding at scale. This will lead to both higher conversion rates (TTV-Initial) and stronger sustainable retention (TTV-Core).
Project Objectives
Retention uplift: Increase sustainable user retention for the self-service segment through optimised content and guided feature tours.
Journey validation: Validate the optimal user journey (visual-first or data-first) to connect users to the appropriate service quickly and achieve their goals.
Task efficiency: Reduce time to complete key tasks by removing unnecessary steps and clutter from the user interface.
Strategic insight: Gain insights to inform future product development and strategic roadmap changes
Discover
Zero to Hero
An intended user journey map was created to serve the ‘Expert’ persona, who has strong data analysis skills.
The map focused on a data-first approach, prioritising key steps such as data connection, exploration, visualisation, and workbook sharing.
It also functioned as a feedback board to gather user insights, identify quick fixes, and prioritise new features like an enhanced table view.
This journey was visually represented as a swimlane diagram for a clear overview of the user's intended experience.
User Feedback
Feedback and insights were gathered from monitored and unmonitored user testing sessions, workshops with internal and external BI experts and Astrato Galaxy (external community).
This is all fed into Glean.ly, our scalable research repository, creating a score system to help inform priority and design decisions. This feedback wasn't just a list of feature requests; it was a clear signal that users needed a data-first approach to even get started.
EVIDENCE SCORE 10
Create tutorials/animation/step-by-step for Joins in the DVE
EVIDENCE SCORE 8
Help users to add/understand data in their visualisations.
Personas Summary
‘Joe’ the ‘Expert/Influencer’
A DataViz wizard and passionate about great storytelling. Has 10 years of experience on the job as a BI Developer.
“I deliver insights to senior stakeholders making business decisions”
Evaluates the data.
Cleans up the data.
Maintenance and updating workbooks.
‘Juste’ the ‘Business User’
A charismatic & confident Marketing Manager with 20 years of experience who uses insights to drive performance.
“I use insight to drive performance”
Minimise time to insight.
Understand users and trends.
Report on business targets, performance and KPIs.
Ideate
Address existing issues: The team first addressed challenges such as excessive Intercom messages, inconsistent product tours, and lengthy marketing surveys.
Explore new starting points: In collaboration with stakeholders, a new user experience was explored, considering options like start by defining a data view (data-first), or start with a workbook (visual-first).
Research competitor flows: The team researched how competitors like GoodData, Motion, and GRID handled video tutorials and animated walkthroughs to guide new users.
Develop a high-level flow: A new flow that Integrates all the research, and ideas to guide the project's next steps based on user goals and needs.
Define
Self-Service Flow
Flow finalisation: A new self-service flow was finalised with stakeholders, integrating three distinct getting-started services, a marketing survey, video content triggers, and an optimised Intercom help chatbox.
Marketing survey: To gather insights on the types of users signing up, a multiple-choice marketing survey was implemented using Intercom. The survey asks users to describe their day-to-day, what existing BI tools they use, and where they are on their cloud journey.
Video content and triggers: For video content, the team evaluated custom development versus a quick-win Intercom solution. After finding that their Intercom plan lacked ‘Series’ functionality, they implemented basic video triggers on screen transitions as a short-term solution.
Help content: The Intercom help widget was updated to show context-relevant content in a hierarchical display. This content assists users with their current tasks and can also link to a larger help section if needed.
Getting Started Services
Wireframes were created for a visible panel that offers three distinct services for quick access.
Service 1: Connect my data: Start by connecting your cloud-based data source and create a data view.
Service 2: Design my workbook: Start by designing the layout, adding charts and graphics using manual data.
Service 3: Explore a demo: Start learning by editing our guided demo workbook.
Design
Getting Started Panel UI
Design: A raised, clean white panel with branded illustrations was created to bring the three new services to the forefront of the Lobby user interface. The panel was designed using existing components and familiar language to balance a seamless feel with high visibility to capture the user's attention.
Functionality: The panel allows for quick access to a user's preferred service. For recurring users who need more space, the panel can be easily hidden and then reactivated via the general settings if needed.
Video Content Creation
Methodology: A new AI tool called Synthesia was used for video creation, which utilised a single front-facing personality.
Collaboration: The team collaborated with the Marketing team for branded assets, and with product managers and BI experts for technical approval.
Key advantage: This approach was chosen because the resource would not be dependent on one team, which was essential for a fast-evolving product.
Finished Videos
A Welcome Tour provides an overview of key Astrato areas, and the expected workflow.
Two product section videos offer overviews of the Data View Editor, and the Workbook Editor.
Astrato Welcome Tour, 1 minute overview of key areas and the expected workflow.
Astrato Data View Editor, 1 minute tour of the Data View Editor section.
Astrato Workbook Editor, 1 minute tour of the Workbook Editor section.
Develop
Technical decisions: The initial proposal was to customise video content display. However, due to technical restrictions related to stability and development, an automated workflow was created in Intercom to trigger relevant video content depending on the user's choice of service.
Primary delivery mechanism: The marketing survey, video content triggers, and an optimised help chatbox were developed using Intercom as the primary delivery mechanism, allowing for a modular and scalable solution.
Documentation: New components such as the Getting Started Panel were added to the Astrato design system Aurora, with designs clearly documented to be searchable for all team members.
Intercom Workflows.
Measure
User Testing
In addition to our monitored sessions, we used the platform UserTesting to conduct regular unmonitored sessions.
This approach ensured we consistently had fresh eyes on Astrato, which was crucial for a fast-paced working environment.
UserTesting Session.
UserTesting Metrics.
Metrics Goals
To improve data accuracy for user activity monitoring, and inform design decisions, I established clear metric goals:
Goal 1: Conversion rate: To measure the impact of the new self-service flow.
What percentage of new users complete all critical funnel events (data connection, workbook creation, and visualisation) within the 14-day trial period?
Goal 2: Drop-off funnel: To visualise the most common user journey and drop-off points.
For converted users, what is the most common first completed event?
For non-converted users, what is the most common uncompleted event?
Metrics Workbook
The 'First Time Experience' metrics workbook was a work in progress, and this exercise helped the team set the best criteria to monitor user activity more accurately. The workbook was crucial in challenging the business's visual-first vision.
The key insights were:
User intent: Our data showed an overwhelming 91% user preference for a data-first approach.
Upward trend: Early data validation showed improved user activation and a positive trend in overall conversion rates.
Personas, displaying sign-ups and personas.
Event Order, displaying common key events.
Conversion, displaying conversion and drop-off funnel.
Conclusion
Results & Impact
60% conversion uplift: Our multi-factor self-service flow resulted in a 60% increase in core conversion (growing from 4.5% to 7.2%). This success was driven by:
Strategic Getting Started panel surfacing a visible 'Connect Data' option in the Lobby.
Stronger educational features (video content, contextual help).
40% sustained engagement (retention): We intentionally optimised for quality over speed (TTV-Speed). The investment paid off, the engagement gap was closed, and the resulting paid customer segment showed a powerful 40% increase in Week 4 retention, proving the investment in quality activation delivered strong long-term engagement.
Roadmap prioritisation: The 91% user preference for data connection resolved internal debate, and directly informed a fundamental roadmap change to prioritise data management features over new visualisation features.
Strategic vision pivot: This shift led to a pivot toward Data Apps, designed to go beyond viewing data by allowing users to interact with it, make updates, and trigger actions directly within a workbook. This created a crucial balance between immediate user needs and the business vision for long-term growth.
Key Learning
Strategic agility: User-driven data is paramount to strategic direction.
Challenge the status quo: Frame debates as testable experiments.
Robust foundations: Strong system design enables rapid pivots.