Grover created a new model for accessing technology – a subscription platform. The challenge of the 1 year old startup was to find out who their users are, what are their needs, expectations, values as well as online behaviour.
Grover marketing team was aware of the barriers that users may have towards the rental model and needed a more thorough analysis of the market and the user base.
The scope
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Client: Grover, sharing economy startup, consumer goods
- Timeframe: 12 months (full-time)
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My Role: User Researcher
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Methods: Generative research, Workshop facilitation, Journey maps, Personas
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Tools: Hotjar, Google Analytics, Google Meet, Excel, Typeform, Optimazely, Smartly.io
Research Context
Single researcher in a startup
When I joined, then 30 people team, at Grover, I was the only researcher on the team. That meant my work had to start informing the marketing department, brand team, and product team. My work also informed the sales pitches.
Who are the users?
Since the idea of implementing the sharing economy model to consumer goods and primary electronics in the case of Grover was very novel, the primary research goal when joining was to dig deeper into understanding who the users, what are their motivations and needs, and what is their current experience with using the product.
Personas Research
Hotjar surveys
As a method of qualitative interview recruitment, I implemented ad hoc pop-up surveys with the goal of evaluating specific elements of the service or the product.
User interviews
As an ongoing initiative, I have conducted more than 15 qualitative in-depth interviews aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of Grover users, their motivations, their background, and their experience. The interview findings informed the process of creating personas.
Typeform surveys
I have designed and implemented email Quantitative Surveys powered by Typeform. The surveys aimed at testing the findings from qualitative interviews and providing the percentage estimation of the personas segments.
Journey Mapping
The process
I run two 90-minutes journey mapping workshops with the internal stakeholders from the customer service team, design team, product teams and marketing team. During the Customer Journey Mapping process, the team managed to get the holistic view on what the customer is doing and thinking when experiencing the service.
Synthesis
After the workshop, which also had a empathy building role, I engaged in sythesis of the findings into a version of the journey map that was displayed as a large print in the Grover office. The identified opportunities were further used in the ideation sessions both by the product and the marketing team.
Impact
The customer journey mapping workshops provided valuable insights into the needs, motivations, and pain points of Grover’s users. The resulting journey map served as a powerful tool for the marketing and product teams to identify opportunities for improving the user experience and address key pain points. The insights from the mapping process directly informed the ideation sessions and resulted in tangible improvements to the service, including a streamlined checkout process and a more intuitive user interface.
Other types of research at Grover
User Experience Research
The UX & Usability Research aimed at understanding user behaviour online. I have used Google Analytics, Hotjar Heatmaps, Live Recordings and Feedback for monitoring the user behaviour and experience with Grover e-commerce platform. Using the Optimizely tool, I have conducted several A/B tests. During the research process I worked closely with the Product team, collaborated on developing hypotheses for testing and KPIs to evaluate. The UX data gathered informed re-design of the website.
Service Evaluation
I have designed and implemented email Quantitative Surveys powered by Typeform. The surveys aimed at testing the findings from qualitative interviews and providing the percentage estimation of the personas segments. Along with email surveys, I also implemented ad hoc pop-up surveys with the goal of evaluating specific elements of the service or the product.
Brand Evaluation
In collaboration with Dalia Research – a mobile surveys service – we designed and launched ongoing programme of short brand awareness and brand attributes tracking surveys. This research helped Grover in evaluating the PR efforts and measuring the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns.
Product Categories Research
I have also been involved in research on Product Categories which informed both the shop manager and marketing decisions. Product Categories research focused on discovering demand, trends and developments on the market, new technologies and product launches. The product categories because part of the persona profiles.
Competitive Research
I have also been responsible for systematic Competitive Research – identifying the indirect and direct, local and global competitors, monitoring their marketing activities, website and platform developments and PR efforts.
A/B testing
I have assisted both the designers as well as marketing campaign managers in creating A/B testing for the effectiveness of certain platform design elements. These tests allowed us to test design ideas for products and campaigns. It helped tailor the user experience to our actual users, ultimately leading to increased revenue.