Morning Brew - Subscription experience

This project is to redesign the subscription process to increase the conversion rate to registered users by 70%. I've work with UXR to help me identify new opportunities for product development based on user needs and behaviors.

Role

Product Design Lead

Timeline

9 weeks

Impact

75% more conversion rate

Please note these are only previews; see the full case study here.

Results on the New Subscription Design

These are the results after the second iteration, following the initial testing of the new subscription page.

Overview

Morning Brew is a daily email newsletter offering readers a brief, witty, and insightful summary of the latest business news. It covers diverse topics such as finance, technology, markets, politics, and more, aiming to keep young professionals informed about current developments in the business sector.

Audience / Users - Busy professionals wanting to stay updated with the latest business news and world happenings in just 5-10 minutes a day, young CEOs and entrepreneurs who frequently check blogs, news, and listen to podcasts on financial and business topics, tech-savvy professionals who consume tech and business news, anyone interested in entrepreneurship or learning how business relates to various aspects of the world such as culture and health, and new entrepreneurs focusing on startups and small businesses who enjoy listening to related content.

Problem Statement:

The onboarding process for Morning Brew is not currently optimized to encourage new users to sign up and engage with our newsletter. This has led to a low conversion rate of website visitors to registered users, which ultimately harms our business growth and revenue. Below are some that I've listed of the critical issues that were causing the friction, and what stands out to me as the main pain points:

Lack of clarity: The onboarding process is not clearly defined and can be confusing for new users, leading to drop-offs and frustration.
Lengthy registration process: The current registration process is lengthy and time-consuming, which discourages users from completing the sign-up process.
Uninspiring copywriting: The language used in the sign-up process is dry and uninteresting.
Inadequate communication: We do not effectively communicate the value and benefits of our daily newsletter to potential users during the onboarding process.
Lack of visual appeal: Sign-up process is just a basic form without any imagery or visual elements; it's a bit dull and uninteresting.
No incentives: We do not offer enough incentives or rewards to encourage users to sign up and engage with our platform.

Please note these are only previews; see the full case study here.

Results on the New Subscription Design

These are the results after the second iteration, following the initial testing of the new subscription page.

Overview

Problem Statement:

Lack of clarity: The onboarding process is not clearly defined and can be confusing for new users, leading to drop-offs and frustration.
Lengthy registration process: The current registration process is lengthy and time-consuming, which discourages users from completing the sign-up process.
Uninspiring copywriting: The language used in the sign-up process is dry and uninteresting.
Inadequate communication: We do not effectively communicate the value and benefits of our daily newsletter to potential users during the onboarding process.
Lack of visual appeal: Sign-up process is just a basic form without any imagery or visual elements; it's a bit dull and uninteresting.
No incentives: We do not offer enough incentives or rewards to encourage users to sign up and engage with our platform.

Objectives

Our objective is to optimize the onboarding process to increase the conversion rate to registered users by 75-80% within the next quarter. The goal is to make the sign-up process as frictionless as possible, reducing the perceived lengthiness and enhancing the overall user experience.

To achieve this, we will focus on the following:

Work with UXR to perform a usability test of the current state to identify user pain points and usability issues and get user feedback for opportunities for improvement.
Simplifying the registration process and reducing the number of steps required to sign up.
Improving the clarity of the onboarding process and providing more information about MB’s content and benefits.
Conduct A/B testing to compare the effectiveness of different onboarding strategies and identify the most effective approach to optimize the onboarding process.

Usability test

6 Morning Brew NL users, 45 min 1:1 moderated sessions
Gender split. Ranging from 20s-30s yrs old
1-5+ years with one or more MB NLs.

Key Questions:

What detracts users from completing the onboarding flow?
How long did it take you to complete the sign-up process?
Do they navigate smoothly from one step to another, or do they get confused and go back and forth?
Which part do they get stuck in?
What errors that users encounter during the onboarding flow?
Are they able to understand the purpose of each step?
Did you encounter any difficulties during the sign-up process?

User testing goals:

Evaluate current onboarding flow/experience
Identify delights, frustrations, and areas of confusion
Identify hurdles
Identify opportunities for improvement

User Research Insights:

Findings from user interviews and surveys informed my design decisions.

Solutions: Based on their feedback, I’ve outlined some ways to enhance user experience and address their concerns.

Grouping them and splitting them into multiple pages rather than a single list.
Break the form into smaller, bite-sized steps and gather information gradually.
Start with essential fields like name and email address for initial sign-up, and then prompt users to provide additional information.
Adding a progress bar so that users will know how far they have reached in the steps.
Enhance the experience by making the selection more interactive and engaging.
Leverage smart defaults and autofill features to pre-populate form fields and streamline the sign-up process.
Use multi-select chips instead of checkboxes to prevent mobile mistakes
Saving data after clicking the next button, and adding a “back” button
Make it a personalized experience by using the information you gather during the onboarding process for each user. This could include tailored recommendations and personalized welcome messages like “Hi [Name], Welcome…”
Inject some humor or MB tone with emojis and gifs, etc.
Adding a welcome page with an opportunity to cross-promote with other brands

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