Stacking the Odds:

A Product Stack Story

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About Me

  • Passion for Technology
     
  • Background in Web/VR Development
     
  • Released DodgeblockVR on Oculus Store in August
     
  • Hackathon Enthusiast
     
  • Recently transitioned into a Product Management role
     
  • I lead the Product division at Agility CMS

@jameskvidler

linkedin/in/jamesvidler

github/jamesvidler

About Agility CMS

  • A headless, content-first approach to omnichannel content management
     
  • The fastest CMS to build, manage, and deploy
     
  • Built out of necessity to support editor and developer needs
     
  • Big enough for billion-dollar brands
     
  • Small enough to care about each user

Websites

Mobile Apps

Smart Watch Apps

Smart Fridges

A Few of Our Customers...

Our Transformation

  • From a services company to a product company
     
  • Launched a free version
     
  • Solved a lot of problems, created a lot of new ones
     
    • Influx of new users
       
    • Less direct feedback
       
    • Inefficient sales team

Some Big Questions

  1. How active are our free accounts?
     
  2. What were they doing? Where did they fall off?
     
  3. How do we increase engagement?
     
  4. How do we know we are on the right track?

The Solution...

CLONE ARMY!!!

The Solution...

  • Fill the gaps
     
  • Automate where possible
     
  • No one system is designed for us
     
  • Avoid building custom software

We needed to re-evaluate our practices and software, and do more with less

We needed a true Product Stack

https://productcraft.com/productstack/

The mesh of apps, integrations, and other technologies product managers need to be successful

An Effective Product Stack:

  • Keeps you resources focused on your product
     
  • Get things done faster
     
  • Learn how things 'should be done'
     
  • Gives you consistency
     
  • Better cross-departmental collaboration
     
  • Forces you to use it

Common Challenges

  • Proving ROI
     
  • Data Silos
     
  • Administration
     
  • Training/Onboarding

A Note on Workflow Automation

Our Current Stack Review

  • What systems do we already have?
     
  • Are they meeting our needs?

Task/Product Management

Azure DevOps

Azure Boards

Integrates with:

  • Zendesk

     
  • Azure Pipelines

Collaboration

Slack

Zoom

Integrates with:

  • Google Analytics

     
  • Azure DevOps

Support

Zendesk Support

Integrates with:

  • Zendesk Guide
  • Agility CMS

Knowledgebase

Zendesk Guide

Integrates with:

  • Zendesk Support
  • Agility CMS

Analytics

Application Insights

Google
Analytics

Onboarding

Humans

Integrates with:

  • Everything (kind of...)
  • In-person/Virtual training
     
  • Lacked consistency
     
  • Resource intensive
     
  • Self-guided documentation
     
  • Custom walkthrough tour in product
     
  • Didn't know where users were getting stuck

User Feedback: A Mixed Bag

Azure Boards

Zendesk
Support

Zendesk

Guide

Opinionated Colleagues

Feedback: A Mixed Bag

  • Inconsistent management of incoming feedback
     
  • Limited visibility for everyone
     
  • Lack of data to support feedback
     
  • Hard to make decisions

State of our Stack

 

  • Key areas for improvement:
    • Understanding user behaviour in our product
       
    • Improve onboarding of new users
       
    • Iterate faster

A new Member of the Agility CMS Team:

Pendo: Understanding User Behaviour

Added a small js snippet to our app...

Got this:

  • User timelines of exact sessions
     
  • Clear feature and page usage
     
  • Easily exportable 

Impact: Understanding User Behaviour

Less this:

More this:

Pendo: Improving Onboarding

  • Using Resource Center
    • Increased knowledge base usage
    • Increased chat engagements
       
  • In-app feature Guides 
    • Increased feature usage
    • Increased overall engagement
    • Higher likelihood to convert
    • Less support tickets

Pendo: Iterate Faster

  • Guides can be created/updated without developers or deployments
     
  • New data every day
     
  • Product decisions can be made faster

A Gap in the Stack: a CMS

Problem

Hard to manage content across all your platforms

  • In-app text, images, labels, links, etc.
     
  • Knowledgebase articles
     
  • Screenshots, Videos
     
  • Walkthrough Guides

Using a CMS in your Stack

Agility CMS uses Agility CMS to power its content

Using a CMS in your Stack

  1. Content is defined
     
  2. Content is created and published
     
  3. Content is consumed by the application
    • Agility Content Manager (CMS app)
    • Pendo Guide
    • Zendesk Guide Importer

The consuming app has code that is responsible for the presentation

Example: Our First Guide

Example: Our First Guide

Example: Our First Guide

Example: Our First Guide

Using a CMS in your Stack

Is it for you?

  • Must have a content-first approach
     
  • Do you need to iterate quickly on content?
     
  • Do you have a problem with inconsistent presentations of content?
     
  • A little thought and work upfront
     
  • It will save you time and money

What's Next for Us

  • In-app messaging for subscription limits using Pendo
     
  • Many more in-app Guides in the works
     
  • UX Updates
    • Promoting commonly used features
    • Demoting or removing rarely used features
       
  • Looking for a centralized place to manage user feedback and make it more public
     
  • Keep on tweaking

Thank You!

Questions, comments?

@jameskvidler

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