Empathy with the user creates a better Day 0 experience

 

GOAL

Improve the Day 0 experience to increase Week 1 engagement, which triggers the North Star metric

 
 

STRATEGY

Empathize with the user. Understanding users’ career goals will allow us to serve users valuable content.

 
 

TEAM

Large team of cross-functional partners working in a flexible and collaborative agile environment.

 
 

How I collaborated

I strategized with the team and wrote text. I brought up issues, responded to concerns, and balanced priorities. Four specific ways that played out in this project:

  • Incorporating the principles of Trust design with privacy messaging

  • Crafting effective Error messages

  • Keeping the tone on point

  • Employing the behavioral science principle of the Peak-end rule

 
 

PRIVACY Messages

Transparency about privacy is a pillar of Trust Design. The team knew users cared about privacy, and my work reflected that concern. This screen shot is a window into my process — just three of dozens of variations I wrote.

 
 

Error messages

By asking questions and understanding the user, the designer and I realized the problem is that the user isn’t invested yet. They don’t fully understand that providing their job title will trigger valuable personal recommendations. So I used that insight and re-worked this error message.

 
 

Tone

This is the entry screen. At the top, you’ll notice there isn’t an exclamation mark after “Welcome, Bianca” — A lot of thought about tone went into leaving it off.

This copy involved thoughtful and deliberate work and went through countless iterations; the copy is doing a lot. From a user’s perspective while it’s nice to be welcomed, the excitement of being on LinkedIn Learning isn’t apparent yet. The tone does not support an exclamation point.

 
 
 
 

Behavioral Science

This is the last screen in the flow. It’s a perfectly fine endplate, but whether something is good or bad is not about whether I like it. It doesn’t matter if I like it. What matters is whether or not it’s effective, meets the users’ needs, and helps the project reach its goals.

To reach the users’ goals, the team developed an endplate that emphasizes the importance of a good ending for a lasting positive impression. We’re not just providing an endplate to indicate that this complex flow is over. We’re opening the door to what’s next.

 
 

RESULTS

By one measure, this project was a tremendous success! it increased career goal-setting by more than 200%.

The whole story is more complicated. Shoot me an email and I’ll explain the project results more fully.