problem
As Contentful scaled from start-up to scale-up and repositioned to attract a new audience, many aspects of the product were unclear and intimidating to the new, non-technical users, creating anxiety and resistance.
root cause
The original product was built by primarily technical roles for a developer audience. As we began to pivot towards enterprise customers, the legacy positioning was ignored in the product, but adjusted on our marketing website.
solution
• Segmented onboarding experience, with tasks based on proven adoption triggers
• Refreshed UI for product onboarding and empty states, matching the refreshed brand
• Refreshed UX copy, replacing confusing technical jargan with intentional UX copy
impact
We built segmented onboarding flows for both technical and non-technical users, significantly reducing anxiety,
increasing understanding, and accelerating onboarding of working with Contentful. This was measured through customer interviews and through the observations of our customer success manager team.
my role
As an IC, I initiated the opportunity through an internal hackathon, and found a way to move it forward though attaching it to a planned React Migration. I illustrated, animated and wrote the script for the onboarding video, working with a voiceover professional to complete it. I also built out our UX Copy guidelines, aiming for more clear, concise and creator-friendly copy throughout the product. Finally, I worked with the brand team to create illustrations and copy for each empty state, bringing brand expression into our product.
