How to build a framework
for customer empathy:
Learning from a company
that does it at scale
DIRECTOR OF GROWTH, CREATIVE CLOUD, ADOBE
@Kissmetrics
#Kisswebinar
@ThueLMadsen
Thue is the Kissmetrics Webinar Wizard and Marketing
Ops Manager. Before joining forces with Kissmetrics, he
was a Lyft driver in SF, which is also how he ended up as
a Kissmetrics marketer. Whenever Thue is not trying to
automate everything around him, you can find him hiking
in the Sierras.
THUE MADSEN
Marketing Operations Manager, Kissmetrics
@ThueLMadsen
Thibault is Director of Growth for the Creative Cloud business.
He has held various roles in product management within Adobe,
when he's not growth hacking, Thibault enjoys baking and
sharing his baked experiments on social media. Prior to joining
Adobe, Thibault was a software engineer and author
for Pearson and O’Reilly.
THIBAULT IMBERT
Director of Growth, Creative Cloud
@thibault_imbert
@adobe
#Kisswebinar
@thibault_imbert
1 Section One - Qual vs quant
2 Section Two - An empathetic product organization
3 Section Three - How to scale
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Qual vs Quant
BEFORE WE GET STARTED
QUAL VS QUANT
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A big leak from launch to signup,
there could be various reasons.
What is
happening?
QUAL VS QUANT
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Quantitative tells you
the what, Qualitative
tells you the why.
“
Building an empathetic
product organization
PUTTING YOUR USERS FIRST
USE THE PRODUCT
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Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
USE THE PRODUCT
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Quantitative and qualitative
won’t give you a vision. It
helps you validate
hypotheses.
“
USE THE PRODUCT
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Hire people that have genuine product interest
Empathy helps you develop intuition and a vision
Helps everyone respect each other
UNDERSTAND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS
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Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
UNDERSTAND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS
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Track the most active users and ask yourself
the following questions…
UNDERSTAND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS
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WHAT ARE MY MOST ENGAGED USERS DOING?
What features do they use most actively?
What features do they use in the first week (7 days)?
What’s the average retention (return use) of a power user?
Which platform do they use?
Desktop? Mobile?
How often do they use the app?
What time of day do they use the app and on which days?
UNDERSTAND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS
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WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ENGAGED USER?


What sources were they acquired from?
Was it an ad, a promotional email to the chain’s customer base, or some other place?
What is their demographic background, including age, income, and more?
Where do they live?
How many of them are paid vs free users?
Which other (competitive) product do they use?
UNDERSTAND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS
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Upload the emails into Facebook insights
Get a data scientist/analyst to make the data speak
Cluster your users and find behaviors that drive retention
UNDERSTAND YOUR EARLY ADOPTERS
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Normal Engaged
What are the traits of engaged users, and how do
we turn more users like them?
SEED A COMMUNITY
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Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
SEED A COMMUNITY
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Treat social media as a two way street
Give a voice to your followers
SEED A COMMUNITY
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Collect qualitative feedback
SEED A COMMUNITY
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Leverage your early adopters and most active users to seed your community
Community drives word of mouth which drives sustainable long term growth
SEED A COMMUNITY
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More than 30 shares a month
+ randomized selection
Eligible for VIP status
SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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0.76 shares per user/day 0.97 shares per user/day
27% increase in engagement
LISTEN TO EVERYONE, NOT JUST POWER USERS
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Leverage Facebook Groups as a platform
Nothing to build, already a habit for users
Get all the insights from Facebook reports…
SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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SEED A COMMUNITY
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LISTEN TO EVERYONE, NOT JUST POWER USERS
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You want to build a product for everyone, not just power users
You want to talk to the other extreme too…
UNDERSTAND YOUR CHURNED USERS
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Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
UNDERSTAND YOUR CHURNED USERS
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If not active for more
than 30 days?
Survey
UNDERSTAND YOUR CHURNED USERS
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UNDERSTAND YOUR CHURNED USERS
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UNDERSTAND YOUR CHURNED USERS
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Where did they left off?
How long have they been dormant for?
COLLECT NPS
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Collect NPS
(an ongoing pulse check on the product)
Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
COLLECT NPS
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COLLECT NPS
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Every user, once per quarter
Second session after at least one publish
NPS prompted while in the editors (in Spark), now experimenting with email
Never after a share or other key activation moments (This could skew NPS)
COLLECT NPS
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COLLECT NPS
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COLLECT NPS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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Collect feature requests
(what are the top requested features?)
Collect NPS
(an ongoing pulse check on the product)
Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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Allow your users to participate in the product roadmap
This can help drive loyalty, you show that you are listening
An easy way to surface the most requested features to the entire team
Another qualitative feedback source to learn from
COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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www.uservoice.com
COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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COLLECT FEATURE REQUESTS
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Map feature requests back to users engagement
What are the features requested by the most active or inactive users?
Helps with prioritization
FACETIME WITH YOUR USERS
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Facetime with your users
(observe them use your product)
Collect feature requests
(what are the top requested features?)
Collect NPS
(an ongoing pulse check on the product)
Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
FACETIME WITH YOUR USERS
#Kisswebinar
When was the last time you watched your users use your product?
FACETIME WITH YOUR USERS
#Kisswebinar
New Engaged
Interview both types of users,
new for capturing first time experience and engaged for
surface workarounds and limitations
FACETIME WITH YOUR USERS
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You need live time with users to observe and talk to them
You want to ask: What? How? Why, Why, Why?
Monthly interviews of active and new users of your product
Add getaways to visit your customers and learn from them in their local environment
Share learnings/observations with your product organization
COMMUNITY SUMMIT
#Kisswebinar
Community summit
(both parties are learning)
Collect feature requests
(what are the top requested features?)
Collect NPS
(an ongoing pulse check on the product)
Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
Facetime with your users
(observe them use your product)
COMMUNITY SUMMIT
#Kisswebinar
1 day online conference through screen sharing
Morning sessions is users presenting how they use your product
Afternoon is your product organization presenting their roadmap
Live feedback from our power users on what’s coming next
Get everyone in the org to attend (#empathybuilding)
#Kisswebinar
Community summit
(both parties are learning)
Collect feature requests
(what are the top requested features?)
Collect NPS
(an ongoing pulse check on the product)
Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
Facetime with your users
(observe them use your product)
PUTTING USERS IN THE CENTER OF YOUR ORGANIZATION
#Kisswebinar
Community summit
(both parties are learning)
Collect feature requests
(what are the top requested features?)
Collect NPS
(an ongoing pulse check on the product)
Understand your churned users
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Seed a community
(and start scaling)
Understand your early adopters
(who are they, what do the do, etc.)
Use the product
(from marketing to product managers, to engineers)
Facetime with your users
(observe them use your product)
User
How to scale?
IT’S A LOT OF FEEDBACK!
HOW TO SCALE
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NPS,
Churned users,
Feature requests,
etc.
HOW TO SCALE
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All that feedback can be overwhelming for product teams
You need to think about making that data as actionable as possible
HOW TO SCALE
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Two options
AutomatedResource on your team
HOW TO SCALE
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Two options
nomnom.it or clarabridge.comCommunity manager, support
Takeaways?
WHAT’S THE GIST
TAKEAWAYS
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Hire the right people
Talk to early adopters and non adopters
Build the product for both extremes
Seed a community
Understand what’s making engaged users stick
Understand what’s causing churn
Sit down with your users and observe, listen
Involve your community in your roadmap
You will learn faster, fail faster
THUE MADSEN
Marketing Operations Manager, Kissmetrics
@ThueLMadsen
tmadsen@kissmetrics.com
Questions?
THIBAULT IMBERT
Director of Growth, Creative Cloud
@thibault_imbert
timbert@adobe.com

How to build a framework for customer empathy: Learning from a company that does it at scale