Bumble is a brand synonymous with the modern world, new thinking and new ways of doing things. Their whole premise challenges and breaks down the status quo, so it was always going to be intriguing to hear how those within the ranks of this $6BN valued giant think, operate and execute. Step forward the brilliant Rosie Kipling – Senior Product Analyst – who rounded off our Analytics Engineering event with a talk surrounding the importance of speed in Product Analytics.
Online dating is big business. Global revenue for this industry is expected to hit $2.5BN by 2024, and whilst Bumble currently enjoy a large share of this market, competition is fierce against the likes of Tinder and Hinge, along with ample opportunity for upstarts like Thursday to become major players within the blink of an eye.
But what has this got to do with Product Analytics? In her presentation, Rosie summarises Product Analytics as the science behind making good decisions for your product. For an industry where the stakes are so high, and the rules of the game are constantly evolving, speed should always be a priority. In short, Product Analytics helps to keep you ahead of your competition.
As Rosie further highlights, this is often a messy and chaotic process, however, the key to success is the ability to learn fast.
- Front load your learning – Get your Product Analysts involved early on, have access to lots of data, and put the data in your stakeholders hands
- Accept lower fidelity data sources – use a variety of testing methods, not everything is an A/B test
- Set success criteria prior to test – be willing to let solutions go if they’re not right
- Two way door decisions – take baby steps and enable yourself to easily make corrections along the way
The organisations who spend too much time exploring singular opportunities and pursuing singular solutions to enhance their product are the ones who fall behind. Those who have adopted the FAST methodology, who possess the ability to spot multiple opportunities and solutions, and the conviction to test them in a variety of ways, are the ones who will gain the competitive edge. Quick failure, quick learns, quick wins is the name of the game here, and it is worth remembering, as Rosie put, ‘a wrong step forward is better than not making a decision at all’.
Using a real life example of product in practice at Bumble, Rosie talked us through the moving of the ‘Beeline’, which resulted in 3x more clicks and a 6% increase in total revenue. For those who don’t know, Bumble offer a ‘BFF’ function for users seeking friendships/platonic relationships; the opportunity here surrounded how users could best to switch to this function whilst in the app.
Opportunity:
Bring the mode switcher to the front screen, which was previously hidden right at the back of someone’s profile.
Possible solutions:
- Add mode switcher to the bottom navigation bar
- Add mode switcher next to the beeline button in the top left
- Move the beeline button
Hypothesis:
We will not damage revenue if we move the Beeline to the bottom navigation bar.
Risk Assumptions:
- Fewer users will click on the Beeline
- Reducing retention by frustrating users as they hit the paywall more often
Lowest Fidelity Test:
Risk 1: Measure how many people are clicking on the button.
Risk 2: A/B test
Answer:
Risk 1: The navigation bar gets 3x more clicks than the top corner button.
Risk 2: No negative impact on retention
Impact:
3x more users clicked on the button, leading to a 6% increase in overall revenue.
Learnings:
The navigation bar is the most clicked part of the app. Increasing the prominence of paid features can have a significant impact on revenue.
Following this example, we were introduced to a simple, but very powerful workflow Rosie drew on a sticky note (nearly 5 years ago!) that visualises different performance zones, and she explained where you want to operating within.
Bringing us full circle to the original point of the talk, the key takeaway here is that the overriding contributor to the success or failure of your product analytics is, you guessed it, speed! Quick losses (Rosie’s favourite quadrant) is your optimum learning zone, which directly impacts your ability to maximise your quick wins in the short, medium and long term, which will ultimately improve the performance of your business. The end goal for everything, right? Whilst slow wins are still wins, they’re risky. Who’s to say your competition isn’t getting there first? And not much needs to be said about slow losses other than avoid at all costs!
And so concluded the talk and subsequently the evening! A big shout out to Bumble and Rosie in particular for not only delivering an excellent presentation, but this was also her first time taking the plunge and speaking in front of a crowd at a meetup like this! A job very well done we’d say!
You can watch the full recording of Rosie's presentation here.
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