One in all my essential jobs as a product supervisor is prioritization, which frequently means telling individuals “no, not now.” Tackling each new characteristic or design change without delay is inconceivable, however justifying “nos” with information will lend credibility to these choices.
Since April 2021, I’ve been the Senior Product Supervisor for Showcase IDX, the main IDX WordPress plugin for actual property that enables realtors to show native MLS listings straight on their web sites. eXp World Holdings acquired Showcase IDX again in 2020 to make use of the IDX know-how to enhance the search expertise for his or her international on-line brokerage eXp Realty.
The engineering and product groups frequently work to refine our person’s total search expertise—from property searches, evaluating choices, and requesting extra data—and assist them in the end discover a residence they love.
Knowledge sits on the coronary heart of this exercise. In my work as a product supervisor, I closely lean on my background in information warehousing and analytics. I dealt with large-scale information at unbelievable firms like Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, and Rogers, which gave me a singular perspective on information use inside huge, complicated organizations. At Showcase IDX, I knew we had to make use of information to unravel a looming downside – retention – and establishing the appropriate instruments and information tradition was essential.
The restrictions of Google Analytics and SQL
A key aim of Showcase IDX is to drive progress in net site visitors for eXp Realty. To try this, we wanted to extend our shopper retention charges. Sadly, we couldn’t decide one of the best methods to vary our product to spice up retention.
We primarily used Google Analytics for front-end journey monitoring, and SQL queries to question our backend databases, and each choices had limitations. On the time, Google Analytics solely allowed us to see high-level metrics equivalent to web page views, and SQL queries have been complicated for a non-technical person attempting to achieve insights. We additionally couldn’t monitor person actions in actual time or observe them by means of your entire buyer journey. What steps did customers take after initiating a search? Which customers dropped off the funnel after that? We couldn’t drill deeper into behavioral relationships to find out which options mattered probably the most, leaving us with huge blind spots.
When product groups don’t have a manner of surfacing insights, it’s arduous to establish a path ahead.
We didn’t have a manner of surfacing the knowledge we wanted, and with out that, we might solely be guessing at what to strive subsequent, and what was working.
A transparent alternative for better performance
Showcase IDX wanted a product analytics platform that would assist our experimental method with well timed and correct insights. Past that, we knew sharing capabilities could be important for partnering with key stakeholders and enhancing confidence in our forecasts. Not solely would this construct belief in our product growth course of, however it will direct higher funding choices and prioritize the appropriate tasks shifting ahead.
We thought of investing extra in our current instruments, however since this was important to our strategic progress plan, we determined to guage different choices available on the market. Our core aims have been easy: to trace correct MAU information primarily based on a selected product utilization definition, measure person retention, monitor conversion to key occasions, and decide which product options have been probably to affect enhancing retention and conversion.
Throughout our search, I couldn’t get Amplitude out of my thoughts. I had wished to strive Amplitude whereas in earlier roles, however there have been all the time limitations to adoption. Once I bought the chance to construct an enterprise-ready analytics platform from scratch, Amplitude was on the high of my checklist.
After considering what we wanted from a product, govt, and engineering perspective, it grew to become clear that Amplitude could be our greatest choice. We knew Amplitude would work nicely inside our tech stack and grant us the performance we’d been dreaming of.
Establishing a constant path to adoption
I used to be lucky to have executive-level assist, and we created a small, tight-knit workforce to work on implementation—important for one thing model new. I labored carefully with an engineer and the implementation knowledgeable from Amplitude to develop a prioritized venture roadmap. We have been up and working in lower than a month. Then, I turned to our workforce.
From the beginning, information grew to become part of our every day lives by means of curated Amplitude Analytics dashboards. I introduced these dashboards throughout our all-hands and technique conferences and established a set of parameters we might study to trace tendencies. It was tremendous useful to make use of dashboards and stories to point out individuals how monitoring results in tendencies and the way that impacts forecasting. We bought used to asking questions as a gaggle and exploring information accordingly to reply these questions, rising transparency inside our group.
We used the identical 4 or 5 chart varieties for the primary a number of months, and as we grew and gained a bit extra bandwidth, individuals grew to become assured sufficient to discover and experiment independently. By means of repeated perception discovery and data-based determination making, different product groups additionally adopted Analytics of their day-to-day operations. There was a snowball impact; as soon as one workforce started to see the worth, one other workforce picked up the ball and ran with it—and all of us started to note some thrilling adjustments.
Difficult assumptions with information
Our mission as an organization is to create significant connections between shoppers and brokers. To assist that mission, we provide shoppers the choice to ask questions, request excursions, save a search, or save a selected itemizing. We initially theorized that buyers would start to construct a connection by saving searches so they may return to them repeatedly.
We have been unsuitable. As soon as we deployed Analytics, we realized that clients have been extra more likely to save a search, a lot later of their journey. We found different options that have been extra correlated with improved retention and chance of connecting with an agent. With that perception, we returned to the drafting board and began specializing in different factors within the buyer journey prioritizing deeper engagement previous to specializing in retention.
Utilizing Analytics additionally modified how we approached our viewers. Our product has all the time had a twin person base (brokers and shoppers), and we tried to account for this accordingly when making product choices. Our sister firm eXp Realty launched in 2009 as the primary cloud-based actual property brokerage. eXp World Holdings CEO Glenn Sanford grew that from dozens of brokers to now over 85,000 brokers globally—and noticed a corresponding soar in brokers using and requesting new cloud-based instruments to develop their companies.
The corporate wished to increase the Agent Expertise product line to carry brokers into our shopper ecosystem and assist them (and shoppers) discover different brokers for help, referrals or mentorship. However we have been blind to the precise product utilization all through the agent group till we dug into the information in Analytics and realized that utilization amongst actual property brokers was 2–3X increased than we first thought. We discovered that one of many greatest issues brokers valued was having a group and connecting with different brokers.
With that data in thoughts, our workforce is difficult at work creating, refining, and rolling out instruments for our unbelievable agent group. We’re investing in precedence tasks that make their lives simpler and produce them nearer to shoppers.
Measuring the outcomes of data-driven adjustments
Analytics doesn’t simply assist us measure the outcomes of our adjustments. It helps us spot issues with our selections, too. Our prior UI had a search bar, filter buttons, and a “save search” button in a row. We modified the colour of that button and moved it to a special place as a part of a UI redesign, and we observed a large drop within the variety of customers saving searches. We have been at a loss. What occurred throughout the launch?
In Analytics, we found that not everybody who beforehand clicked “save search” wished to avoid wasting the search. Customers typed one thing within the search bar after which hit the “save search” button, pondering they have been simply performing a search, not saving it. Shifting the button solved that downside. Nonetheless, we noticed that individuals who wished to avoid wasting a search have been having a tough time doing that as a result of they couldn’t discover the button anymore. We modified the colour to one thing extra seen and saved searches returned to earlier ranges. In truth, conversions greater than doubled, as a result of now, it’s largely individuals with a excessive intention of clicking that button that may observe by means of and end that motion.
As we gained extra insights, we additionally began to adapt our design philosophies. As evidenced by our Analytics, cellular dominates our utilization and continues to develop. Each time we’ve a brand new product or a characteristic, we method every thing as a mobile-first design. We wish to know the very first thing a first-time person does. From there, we think about fast, affordable actions to get them by means of the funnel with out getting slowed down in a multi-step, high-pressure expertise that requires them to enter a whole lot of data.
We used the insights from Analytics to revamp our UI and noticed a 20-25% enchancment in retention.
We used the insights from Analytics to revamp our UI, then tracked how our retention charges modified. We noticed a 20-25% enchancment in retention, and while you scale that by way of a whole bunch and 1000’s or hundreds of thousands of customers, we begin to see the advantages of enhancing retention when creating a product-led progress flywheel.
Analytics allows our entire workforce to unravel issues, uncover new ones, and remedy these too—all utilizing information that adjusts to our wants.
Prioritizing right now for a prioritized future
I don’t should push as arduous to drive information as of late. It’s each heartwarming and humbling to step again and see individuals proceed to come back to the desk with their very own evaluation. Knowledge has change into an enormous a part of conversations and decision-making at Showcase IDX, and analytics play an enormous function in our product growth course of. Analytics allows our entire workforce to unravel issues, uncover new ones, and remedy these too—all utilizing information that adjusts to our wants.
The info we floor from Analytics permits us to focus our efforts and enhance our product whereas contributing to the expansion of eXp Realty. Now we have the boldness to check smaller experiments, and ideate inside extra thrilling, nascent areas equivalent to Machine Studying.
It’s not straightforward to construct a data-driven tradition, however when it occurs, life as a product supervisor will get loads simpler. I can confidently say “no” to lower-priority concepts and “sure” to tasks that may keep true to our tradition of “Outcomes over Exercise”.
