How We Launched a New Product and Ended Another at Disqus

This was a presentation I gave at Mixpanel's HQ on 6/27/13 about Disqus increased product adoption of our newest version of our core embed through user targeting and feedback.

Disqus is the web’s largest discussion network that powers millions of commenting communities all over the world. As a Product Manager at Disqus Mat Mullen has a wide set of responsibilities, but focuses on growing and improving the size of their total network. Disqus recently released a major upgrade to their core product and needed to fast-track customer feedback and adoption. Mat will share how Disqus used analytics to rapidly increase the rate at which their customers adopted the new product as well as how they tackled some unexpected issues uncovered along the way.

Transcript

1. DISQUS · June 27, 2013 Thursday, June 27, 13
2. What the heck is Disqus? Thursday, June 27, 13
3. HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE DISQUS? What is Disqus? YES NO Thursday, June 27, 13
4. DISQUS IS THE WEB’S “COMMUNITY OF COMMUNITIES” What is Disqus? Thursday, June 27, 13
5. What is Disqus? WHAT DOES DISQUS LOOK LIKE? Thursday, June 27, 13
6. What is Disqus? LOOKS PRETTY, WHO USES IT? Thursday, June 27, 13
7. Who uses Disqus? Thursday, June 27, 13
8. What is Disqus? 2.5 million communities have Disqus running their comments 50 million active users 100 million network events per month (comments, votes, follows, etc) 3 billion page views have some interaction with Disqus powered communities every month. DISQUS BY THE NUMBERS Thursday, June 27, 13
9. Rewind back a few years... Thursday, June 27, 13
10. 1. PUBLISHER CENTRIC BACK IN THE DAY, DISQUS WAS A VERY DIFFERENT COMPANY Thursday, June 27, 13
11. 2. INCONSISTENT EXPERIENCE ACROSS THE NETWORK 1. PUBLISHER CENTRIC BACK IN THE DAY, DISQUS WAS A VERY DIFFERENT COMPANY Thursday, June 27, 13
12. 3. RECEIVED LITTLE PRODUCT FEEDBACK 2. INCONSISTENT EXPERIENCE ACROSS THE NETWORK 1. PUBLISHER CENTRIC BACK IN THE DAY, DISQUS WAS A VERY DIFFERENT COMPANY Thursday, June 27, 13
13. Classic Disqus FRAGMENTED USER EXPERIENCE BACK IN 2009-2011 Thursday, June 27, 13
14. 1. REBUILD THE PRODUCT FROM THE GROUND UP WE SET AN AMBITIOUS GOAL FOR DISQUS Thursday, June 27, 13
15. 1. REBUILD THE PRODUCT FROM THE GROUND UP WE SET AN AMBITIOUS GOAL FOR DISQUS 2. MAKE DISQUS A CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE EVERYWHERE Thursday, June 27, 13
16. 3. BUILD A BUSINESS AROUND CONTENT DISCOVERY 1. REBUILD THE PRODUCT FROM THE GROUND UP WE SET AN AMBITIOUS GOAL FOR DISQUS 2. MAKE DISQUS A CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE EVERYWHERE Thursday, June 27, 13
17. Looking forward to a new Disqus SPENT A COUPLE OF MONTHS DEVELOPING A NEW PRODUCT Thursday, June 27, 13
18. Finally a consistent experience across all sites that use Disqus REDESIGNED AND REBUILT DISQUS FROM THE GROUND UP Looking forward to a new Disqus Thursday, June 27, 13
19. LOOKS AND FEELS THE SAME ON EVERY SITE Looking forward to a new Disqus Thursday, June 27, 13
20. Looks great. How do we get sites to use it? Thursday, June 27, 13
21. 21 Highly targeted messaging to specific groups of sites. 3 Ways We Pushed Adoption Thursday, June 27, 13
22. 22 Highly targeted messaging to specific groups of sites. Solicited user feedback to learn where we were failing. 3 Ways We Pushed Adoption Thursday, June 27, 13
23. 23 Highly targeted messaging to specific groups of sites. Solicited user feedback to learn where we were failing. Retargeted opt-outs once we addressed specific product concerns. 3 Ways We Pushed Adoption Thursday, June 27, 13
24. 24 Highly targeted messaging to specific groups of sites. STEP 1 Thursday, June 27, 13
25. 25 Targeted Messaging Ac#va#on  Funnel Blog Email TARGETED MESSAGING TO GROUPS OF SITES System Notification Thursday, June 27, 13
26. 26 HOW DID WE GET USERS INTO THE FUNNEL? A/B tested system messages to determine the best email subject line. Passed a custom UTM source and tracked through Mixpanel. Targeted Messaging Thursday, June 27, 13
27. Version 1 Version 2 User Funnel Allowed a moderator to enable all their sites rather then one at a time Thursday, June 27, 13
28. FIRST MONTH AFTER LAUNCHING THE NEW DISQUS Measuring Success Thursday, June 27, 13
29. New Disqus Events Total Disqus Events New  Disqus 4% EVENTS IN THE NEW DISQUS VS. THE ENTIRE NETWORK 21% 100% After One Month (June 2012) 79% to Go Measuring Success Thursday, June 27, 13
30. 30 Product Feedback STEP 2 Solicited user feedback to learn where we were failing. Thursday, June 27, 13
31. TRACKED AND CONTACTED USERS WHO DROPPED OFF Product Feedback Thursday, June 27, 13
32. 32 ASKED FOR PRODUCT FEEDBACK Data Email Feedback Product Feedback Thursday, June 27, 13
33. 33 SORTED THROUGH THE NOISE TO FIND QUALITY FEEDBACK Product Feedback Thursday, June 27, 13
34. 34 By empowering our users through funnel data we learned a few things...go figure. Addressed browser bugs that were causing issues. Built new features based on common requests. Translations (Language Support) HTTPS Support Drag & Drop Media Tweaked the upgrade page to include better wording. Allowed more moderators to enable the features for their sites. Made all new sites include the new version by default. Product Feedback Thursday, June 27, 13
35. 35 36 STEP 3 Retargeted opt-outs once we addressed product concerns. Thursday, June 27, 13
36. 36 Retargeting opt-outs RE-CONTACTED SITES WHO DISABLED THE NEW VERSION Included  the  Mixpanel  tracking  pixel  in  each  email Thursday, June 27, 13
37. How did retargeting help new adoption? Thursday, June 27, 13
38. 38 Retargeting opt-outs WAS THE RETARGETING SUCCESSFUL? New Disqus events increased 126.89% in one month. July Events June Events Thursday, June 27, 13
39. 39 0" 20,000,000" 40,000,000" 60,000,000" 80,000,000" 100,000,000" 120,000,000" 5/19/12" 6/19/12" 7/19/12" 8/19/12" 9/19/12" 10/19/12" 11/19/12" 12/19/12" 1/19/13" 2/19/13" 3/19/13" 4/19/13" 5/19/13" D12$Total$Events$ D12"Total"Events" Retargeted sites who had answered the survey. New Disqus Launched We disabled the ability to opt-out Began to End of Life our old classic plan. What is Disqus? Major Inflection Points Thursday, June 27, 13
40. 40 What is Disqus? 0" 20,000,000" 40,000,000" 60,000,000" 80,000,000" 100,000,000" 120,000,000" 5/19/12" 6/19/12" 7/19/12" 8/19/12" 9/19/12" 10/19/12" 11/19/12" 12/19/12" 1/19/13" 2/19/13" 3/19/13" 4/19/13" 5/19/13" D12"Total"Events" Classic"Total"Events" Classic Disqus New Disqus Old Disqus vs New Disqus Thursday, June 27, 13
41. 41 0 25,000,000 50,000,000 75,000,000 100,000,000 June 2012 June 2013 New Disqus Events Total Disqus Events 98% 100% 100% What is Disqus? 21% In one year, total events in Disqus have doubled Breakdown  of  Events Breakdown  of  Events Thursday, June 27, 13
42. 42 Target your product messaging on segments of customers Make it easy for customers to provide you with feedback Data removes the guesswork from decision making 3 Biggest Learnings Thursday, June 27, 13