The compelling case for looking beyond MAU
Treating clients like patients
Doctors don’t determine whether their patients are in good health based on whether or not they still have a pulse. That would be far too late.
Not only is a patient’s pulse the last thing to go, but there are clearly many signs and symptoms that can be detected much earlier to prevent that sort of fate.
But in SaaS? That’s exactly what we do. We’re still measuring client health based on their pulse – or monthly active usage. Is anything happening? Are they still there? Are they alive?
It’s time to get more sophisticated
We’re creatures of habit. We’re stubborn to change.
But, smart leaders will stop measuring customer health on MAU alone, and turn to earlier, diverse indicators to get a better sense for how likely customers are to stay – or go.
Fundamentally, end-user conversion is a funnel, not a switch. So, what are the stages of the funnel that results in usage? Distilling down the key pieces of the most widely-accepted frameworks for change management and adoption (ADKAR, AIC, etc.) we know that:
- Users need to know your tool exists.
- Users need to believe your tool might help them.
- Users need to know their leaders are invested in your tool.
- Users must be able to easily learn how to use your tool.
- Users must get value from your tool.
Measuring whether or not these earlier stages are happening or not, and having the levers to respond, will have much faster and better impact than watching a rolling 30-day logins report.
1 - Users need to know your tool exists.
Are licensed users aware that they have access to your tool? Do they know why to use your tool?
Suggested metrics:
- End-user product marketing email open rates
- Whether or not your customer has a communications plan in place
- Speed of license activations
- First login
2 - Users need to believe your tool might help them.
Have users received a tailored vision for how your tool will help solve their unique problems?
Suggested metrics:
- Completion of user onboarding content
- Responses to user polling and user NPS comments
3 - Users need to know their leaders are invested in the tool.
Does your product matter to the people who matter most?
Suggested metrics:
- Speed of implementation
- The presence of active and visible Executive Sponsor
- QBR attendance and responsiveness to CSMs
4 - Users must be able to easily learn how to use the tool.
Do users have what they need to hit the ground running with your tool? If it’s complicated, the risk of abandonment is high.
Suggested metrics:
- Product university visits and content consumption
- Training webinar registration and attendance
- Rate of abandoned product tasks
5 - Users must get value from your tool.
Do users have what they need to hit the ground running with your tool? If it’s complicated, the risk of abandonment is high.
Suggested metrics:
- Depth of feature use (are they doing more than the basics?)
- Responses to user polling and user NPS comments
While keeping an eye on MAU as one signal is valuable, supplementing MAU with more dynamic and forward indicators will give them a more comprehensive understanding of user behavior.
You’d never expect to finish a marathon in five hours if you were already two hours behind at mile marker 10.
Rather than only focus on measuring the user behaviors that signal your end goal – ongoing usage and conversion – start measuring user engagement much earlier – at the “awareness” and “interest” levels of the AIC pyramid (Awareness > Interest > Conversion).
Identify and study the activity and behaviors that indicate a user:
- has awareness of your product,
- is interested in how it might help them,
- and knows how to successfully integrated it into their regular workflow.
Then, isolate the levers in your control that get them to take those actions.
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Debra Wilson is a senior product & marketing leader at BrainStorm. She has built her career on the belief that excellent execution of a decent idea is better than decent execution of an excellent idea. Debra is most passionate about product positioning and otherwise stays busy with two young children who keep her on her toes.
BrainStorm drives real end-user behavior change with the applications people use every day to do their jobs. The BrainStorm adoption platform gives software vendors – and their clients – a shared, intelligent platform for driving next-level software adoption.
