Summary:
This is a proposal to create an “Alpha” version of the open-source ShapeShift web app with Analytics.
The Alpha version will be an “opt-in” first look experimental version of ShapeShift where features will be launched in their infancy for testing and feedback from the community. This version will have analytics and guided user journeys, A/B testing, heatmaps and more (via Pendo), so that the product team can discover pain points, validate assumptions, and gather feedback to improve the experience, before releasing changes to the Private version. This will be a truly opt-in Alpha version, that users will agree to participate in upon entering. No PII data will ever be tracked, in fact, part of the agreement with Pendo is that we are not allowed to track any PII, and if we do they can terminate our account.
The Private version will have no analytics or user tracking of any sort and will contain features that have already been tested and analyzed in the Alpha version.
Motivation:
After a lot of feedback from the community about Analytics in the DAO, a new idea was born. As the Product Workstream, our goal is to make the best user experience possible and create the best products for the success of the DAO! As part of our process we rely on analytics & data to track feature adoption, inform new features or feature updates through data-driven decisions, understand areas of product friction and ensure tight product-market fit. The data helps us answer questions like where are our users navigating? What are/aren’t they adopting? Are the users starting a journey and then abandoning at a specific point? What are the points of friction? Does the user have a clear path if something goes wrong?
And more. Therefore, we think that this early, first look Alpha version is critical to our success.
We also feel that by having two versions that are clearly labeled for the users, and the Alpha version being a true “opt-in” experience, there would be no confusion at the user level as to the differences between them.
In centralized ShapeShift, we used a combination of analytical tools to track user data, create user segments, monitor funnels and more. In the DAO, it would save us costs and effort to implement one all-powerful tool like Pendo in the Alpha version. This also makes it more useful for our DAO structure (any team will be able to grab/review data without dependencies on another team). Furthermore, Pendo will give us the ability to create user onboarding journeys, guided feature walk-thrus, a comprehensive user resource section, A/B testing, heatmaps and more—all without any engineering lift.
Specification
Alpha & Private Versions
The Alpha version will simply be a step in the CI/CD pipeline, almost like a staging environment. Once features have been launched, tested, updated and bugs eliminated, it will be pushed to the Private version.
Installation
To install Pendo, it’s a snippet of code added to the website.
Maintenance
The user guides, resource center and tooltip walk-thrus will be created and maintained by the Product Workstream. We also will save considerable development/engineering time, as we won’t be dependent on engineers to develop, update, or analyze these.
Reviewing Data
Analytics will be easily accessible by all workstreams in the DAO, and as a Product Workstream, we’ll share progress and review analytics with the community.
Budget
Pendo is an all-in-one tool that will save us money as we won’t have to implement multiple tools to give us the same benefits. The annual cost for integrating it into the Alpha web app is
$36,520.00 annually + $3,400 QuickStart (this will help us get up and running with the guides quickly) and will be paid to Pendo in FOX Tokens!
Benefits
The Alpha version will give us the analytics and user input we need to make the product awesome before pushing it to the Private version.
By using Pendo, we’ll have an all-in-one platform for tracking, analyzing, and creating guided user journeys (instead of paying for multiple platforms). We expect the initial setup to take several weeks to get all the guides and the resource center up and running. As mentioned above, all of that will be handled as part of the Product Workstream responsibilities. It will not require engineering efforts.
Retention is an important metric, and one that can be improved by utilizing this approach. We’ll be able to take our user experience to the next level, guiding and engaging our users at the right moments, leading to better feature engagement and higher user retention. Without the metrics we would have an extremely difficult time determining where to improve the UX and measuring the success of our product. New feature adoption rates will also be evaluated as a metric to measure success.
Drawbacks
Pendo is not the cheapest solution out there. But, it’s an all-inclusive solution where we feel the benefits outweigh the cost (especially if compared to pricing out several different tools that collectively would provide the same benefits). We’d also be committing to an annual plan to get the best pricing.
Note: MrNerdHair is currently reviewing the Pendo code. If this proposals passes, we will make certain that the Security Workstream signs off on Pendo from a security perspective before implementation on Alpha.
Vote
If you vote “for” this proposal you are voting to create an ALPHA and PRIVATE version of the new ShapeShift web app. Alpha will contain analytics tool Pendo.
If you vote “against” this proposal, you do not think this is the correct approach for the DAO or that you think there might be a better solution
