How we went from an NPS of -20 to +20 in 6 months

Growth is the goal of any startup. But with growth often come growing pains. This was the reality we faced. We confronted a paradox as we surged from an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $1 million to $2.5 million in under 12 months. Our user base was expanding faster than ever, but our Net Promoter Score (NPS) was waning, and churn was at an all-time high. This discrepancy posed not just a challenge but an existential threat.

Such moments demand introspection and a data-driven approach. In navigating our own NPS journey, we discovered a three-step strategy that helped us and can be invaluable to others confronting similar challenges.

Steps #1 Accurately Track NPS

1. If you aren't accurately tracking, then you cannot benchmark against the industry.

   • Survey Design and Question Phrasing:
   • The standard NPS question is: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [Company/Product] to a friend or colleague?"
   • Keep the survey simple and ensure this question stands out.

2. Include a Follow-Up Question:

   • To understand the reason behind the score, include an open-ended question like: "What's the main reason for your score?"

3. Timing is Key:

   • Survey at consistent intervals, e.g., after specific touchpoints or quarterly.
   • Don't over-survey. You want to avoid survey fatigue.
   • A good rule of thumb is to ask all users at least once a year.

4. Response Collection and Storage:

   • Use a reliable tool or platform to collect and store responses. Ensure it's GDPR compliant if you operate within the EU or serve EU citizens.

5. Consistent Tracking:

   • Monitor NPS trends over time. A consistent decline or increase provides insights into overall shifts in customer sentiment.

Step #2 Engage with Users

There are a few ways that you can do this. I'll outline what I did:

1. Segment Users: Segment users by NPS categories (detractors, passives, promoters), user demographics (industry, role), user behavior (usage frequency, feature usage, user lifecycle), and user industry.

   • This is a crucial first step in uncovering any trends in your data.

2. Conduct User Interviews: Set up one-on-one interviews with a mix of promoters, passives, and detractors. Understand their pain points, suggestions, and what they like about your product.

   • Spend 30 minutes talking with users, understand what frustrates them, and go deep into why it frustrates them.
   • Keep asking why until you can't go any deeper.

3. Qualitative Surveys: Launch open-ended surveys to gather anecdotal feedback. Understand their joys, frustrations, and needs.

4. Quantitative Surveys: As you start noticing patterns from qualitative feedback, create structured surveys to validate these trends. This approach solidifies your hypotheses and provides clearer data points.

Step #3 Blow Up Roadmap

1. Categorize Feedback: As previously mentioned, begin by categorizing the feedback you've received into themes, whether they're usability issues, feature requests, performance problems, or areas of new opportunity.

2. Assign User Impact Scores:

   • For each feedback category or specific item, assign a user impact score based on its potential to enhance user satisfaction. This can be done by estimating:
   • The number of users affected by the issue or who would benefit from the feature.
   • The depth of the impact on these users. (E.g., will it significantly reduce a major pain point, or is it a nice-to-have feature?).
   • Feedback frequency: If multiple users highlight the same issue, it likely has a high user impact.

3. Feasibility Analysis:

   • Consult with your technical or product teams to assess how feasible implementing the suggested changes or features is.
   • Identify quick wins – improvements that are both high-impact and easy to implement.

4. Prioritize Based on Combined Scores:

   • Using the user impact score and feasibility analysis, prioritize items on your roadmap. An improvement with both high user impact and high feasibility should be at the top of your list.

5. Iterative Implementation:

   • Begin implementing changes, focusing on those with the highest combined scores first.
   • As you make these changes, continue monitoring NPS and other relevant metrics to validate that these improvements are moving the needle as expected.

6. Re-assess Periodically:

   • The needs of your users will evolve, and new feedback will come in. Periodically re-categorize feedback, re-assign user impact scores, and conduct new feasibility analyses to ensure your roadmap is always geared towards maximizing NPS improvement.

By systematically evaluating feedback using user impact scores and feasibility, you're ensuring that user needs do not just drive your roadmap but is also pragmatically shaped by what's achievable and what will have the most significant effect on improving NPS.

Conclusion

Successfully navigating the challenges of improving NPS requires a suite of reliable tools. Here's a breakdown of the tools we leveraged throughout the process:

1. UserVista.ai: An all-in-one platform for capturing user feedback via micro surveys, segmenting users, ranking their engagement, and tracking user behaviors to pinpoint improvement areas.
2. Google Meets: Our primary medium for user interviews. With transcription and recording features on, it became an indispensable tool, ensuring every piece of feedback was documented and easily re-visitable.
3. Productboard: The backbone of our product management process. It allowed us to construct our roadmap efficiently, evaluate the impact of potential features through the user impact score, and delegate roadmap tasks seamlessly.

Harnessing the power of these tools, we were equipped to systematically understand, plan, and execute strategies to boost our NPS.
With this combination of tools, we had an end-to-end solution for gathering user feedback, synthesizing insights, and translating them into actionable steps. This arsenal allowed us to systematically address user pain points, ensuring our efforts were consistently geared towards maximizing NPS improvement.