An Underrated Growth Lever: Don’t Delegate to Your Users
An Underrated Growth Lever: Don’t Delegate to Your Users
Some say it's "only" a UX principle, but in reality it's a dedicated growth lever. In today's piece, we break down everything you need to know about how to use UX first principles to drive growth
Growth leaders and practitioners are well-acquainted with growth levers like activation, expansion, and pricing.
But “don’t delegate to your users?”
It sounds more like a UX principle than a growth lever. But it’d be a mistake to underestimate the saying as just a UX principle.
In fact, it’s much more.
Defining it
The "Don't Make Me Think" Growth Lever is about minimizing cognitive load for users and prioritizing UX from a first-principles approach. It involves:
Eliminating friction in user journeys
Anticipating user needs before they arise
Simplifying complex processes without losing functionality
Guiding users intuitively through your product
This lever is based on the understanding that every moment of confusion or hesitation in your product is an opportunity for users to disengage or churn.
What makes a growth lever a lever?
A lever is something that a growth product leader can be a sustainable program around.
They can staff a team - PM, designer, some engineers - around the topic and expect consistent improvements in the area. Improvements that will be:
Help the business
Help the user
And have a high likelihood of succeeding
The worst growth levers miss one of those 3 key elements. This one nails all 3.
How it fits in with the metrics
Implementing this lever can have far-reaching effects outside of your direct key performance indicators.
The tree of impact looks like this:
Higher feature completion (directly measurable in product analytics)
Lower time-to-Value - Users realize your product's value faster when cognitive barriers are removed (easily measured in product analytics)
This drives 3 types of output metrics:
Higher Activation to Habit and Higher Feature Adoption
These drive:
Retention: Easier product experiences lead to habitual usage and lower churn.
NPS/CSAT Scores: Intuitive experiences naturally lead to higher satisfaction.
Customer Support Costs: Fewer confused users mean fewer support tickets.
Viral Coefficient: Users are more likely to recommend products that don't make them think.
This creates a self-reinforcing growth loop with more top of funnel
It’s clearly one of the most impactful growth levers out there. So to dissect, I turned to one of the world’s experts in implementing it…
Introducing Kunal
Kunal Thadani is the Director of Product & Growth at Houzz:
He also runs a Maven course on revenue growth, does growth advisory for early stage startups, and writes a newsletter with Gaurav Hardikar who is the VP of Product, Growth, and Ops at HomeLight (and contributed a case study).
Today’s Post
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Today’s Post in a Video
1. Dissecting 6 best-in-class examples
We’re going to break down 6 totally different case studies of this principle in action, so you can understand exactly what it’s all about.
B2B: Mailchimp, Grammarly, Mural
B2C: Homelight, TikTok, Blinkist
B2B
Case Study 1 - Mailchimp
Context
Mailchimp is a popular marketing platform that helps you create, send, and analyze email newsletters.
Problem
Users were hesitant to start a free trial because they weren't immediately sure about the cost, which created unnecessary cognitive load and hesitation.
Old Solution
The price read "$X.XX/mo" While clear, it still required users to think about what a free trial entails and whether there might be hidden costs.
New Solution
Mailchimp changed the main price to "Free" and prominently displayed that the cost is $0 upfront during the trial period.
This made it immediately apparent to users that there were no costs involved, reducing cognitive load and making the decision process effortless.
Impact
This small change led to a double digit increase in paying users.
By removing any ambiguity about the trial cost, Mailchimp made it super easy for users to get started, which encouraged more sign-ups and conversions.
Takeaways
Clarity Reduces Cognitive Load: Clearly communicating that the trial is free eliminates user doubts and simplifies the decision-making process.
Simple changes can help attract a new audience that are more skeptical in trying your software.
In the trial period, it can be more powerful to show users their next best action - what’s free - and emphasize that over the potential cost that comes later.
Case Study 2 - Grammarly
Company Context
Grammarly is the AI writing partner that helps people at every stage of the writing process, from blank page to final draft. It can spark new ideas when you’re getting started or help you refine your tone to deliver the results you need.
Onboarding Wizard Terminology
A common trend in B2B SaaS is a 4-to-7-question onboarding flow or as it’s commonly known, the “get to know your users” flow. It is a series of questions to help qualify your users and group them into targetable segments/personas. This data helps companies personalize downstream user paths like the activation flow, the first session experience, and the upgrade flow.
Opportunity
When the user arrives to your pricing page there are a series of questions that run through the user’s mind:
Which plan should I pick?
Which features are relevant to my use case?
Is this a trusted software?
I don’t know if it will provide value, so is putting my credit card worth it?
What is the commitment level?
How easy is it to get started with this service?
The goal was to figure out how to reduce the cognitive load so deciding where to get started becomes easy.
Old Solution
Grammarly did not use the data collected during the onboarding flow to personalize any downstream flows.
New Solution
The pricing plans recommended to users are then based on their inputs, making the upgrade recommendations feel personalized and aligned with their individual needs. This also ensures you build trust with customers as they start using your product.
The few elements of the pricing page I would recommend are: 1) Updating the H1 to “Based on what you told us we would recommend X plan”; 2) highlight the features that are most relevant to the user; 3) update the SKU description to match how they answered the questionnaire.
Impact
This personalized pricing approach, coupled with the use of a tailored questionnaire, resulted in a 10-20% increase in upgrade rates.
Takeaways
Usually, the questionnaire during onboarding is underutilized in that all users get the same generic experience regardless of their responses. The key psychological insight here is that, after users invest in responding to each of the onboarding questions, they are subconsciously expecting some sort of pay-off. Your thoughtful plan recommendation becomes that pay-off.
Users feel that you have their best interests at heart when recommending a plan catered to their needs. This personalized approach improves engagement and revenue by ensuring a customized journey.
Utilize your onboarding data to personalize the experience for your users and reduce their cognitive load. This is a repeatable playbook that you can use for every segment and product area (activation, onboarding, first session, cancellation and so on).
Case Study 3 - Mural.Co
Company Context
Mural is a digital environment that leverages visual collaboration to help every member of your team unlock ideas and solve problems together. Visual collaboration can level the playing field for distributed teams by ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard.
Problem
Mural faced a problem that their new signups weren't engaging with their platform as expected and they saw a low 1 week retention rate. They needed to create an onboarding experience that would guide users seamlessly into their first session and encourage them to take a “quality” action.
Old Solution
The team had identified that there was too much cognitive load for the end user when landing on the homepage. It consisted of app-cues, banners, chat, and pop-ups, leading to user confusion about where to start.
Each of these modals had a specific action in mind for the user, but their simultaneous presence overwhelmed users, causing them to disregard these prompts since they didn't align with their primary goal on how they wanted to use the platform.
New Solution
The team conducted an experiment in which they turned off the experience above and introduced a singular 5 item checklist, in turn hoping to reduce the cognitive burden. This checklist became the user's guiding light upon landing on the platform for the first time. The focus on simplicity and clarity proved successful as it helped users to focus on one item at a time.
Impact
10% relative increase in 1 week retention
Learnings
Mural took the approach of simplicity to reduce the user’s cognitive load
Providing too many directions can overwhelm users. By focusing on the basics and offering a single, clear starting point, you empower users to explore and learn. Sometimes, less hand-holding allows users to truly grasp how to use your product.
B2C/Marketplaces
Case Study 1 - Homelight
Before: Outbound Phone Calls was made
After:
Company Context
Home Light, a marketplace for buying and selling homes while partnering with Agents, Investors, and Lenders, sought to increase the number of real estate transactions on its platform. It qualifies clients who want to buy/sell a property.
Opportunity
Qualified clients through HomeLight are shared as referrals with real estate agents, who will in turn try to close the transaction. Speed to contact is a leading indicator to the agent getting a meeting with the client, leading to more revenue for everyone. The higher the contact rate and the faster the contact, the better chance it will result in a successful transaction down-the-line.
Old Solution
Prior to this change, HomeLight would introduce clients to agents via a phone call. The agent would call a number to claim, and then it would attempt to connect them with the client on the same line. However, the client may not pick up immediately from just a phone call, especially if they were initially qualified over text. They would not know who the number is from. As is typical for many of us, clients may ignore unknown numbers through spam apps, phone settings, phone focus modes, or just manually send to Voicemail.
Because of this, agents would have trouble getting connected with the client and often would be ignored for hours and only leave a Voicemail (which may or may not be checked). This would have a major impact on speed-to-lead for the agent, and their conversion in connecting and scheduling a meeting with the client to buy/sell a home.
New Solution
The Homelight team facilitated conversations between clients and agents through a text vs waiting for agents to initiate the conversation.
Now when an agent looks to claim a lead from HomeLight and the client is qualified over text, they are asked to send their first text through HomeLight’s system to set the stage for their call with the client (Example FAQ).
The new UX was better for all stakeholders:
Clients have context on agents contacting them and getting answers quickly.
Real Estate Agents have a way of establishing trust with clients before calling, therefore connecting and nurturing clients faster over both text and calling.
Impact
Double-digit increase in revenue for leads that were qualified over text.
Learnings
For marketplaces aiming to connect two parties efficiently, prioritizing the speed to connect can dramatically increase conversion rates.
The steps to contact a client are clear - send them a text and give them a ring. There is no reason to pass an additional task / job to be done to the agent when HomeLight can set it up on behalf of them and increase the success rate. This reduced all the cognitive load for the real estate agent and now they only had one job which was a one button tap/click to accept the lead and send the first text.
Case Study 2 - Tiktok
Company Context
TikTok depends on creator growth to keep their content fresh and competitive with other platforms. Creators also get paid through a revenue-share model.
Problem
TikTok aimed to encourage more creators with a minimal number of followers (ex: 10k+) to produce long-form, high-quality content within its revenue-sharing model. However, the enrollment rate for this program fell short of expectations. Creators had to complete the KYC (Know Your Customer) process, including connecting their bank accounts, to receive revenue from content engagement.
Old Solution
Creators on TikTok were initially required to connect their bank accounts to begin creating content. Collecting this information upfront led to a 40% drop-off in enrollment.
Funnel: receive notification / email / push → go in app → Creator tools → creator program beta → application (ID, payment, etc.) → wait 3 days to get approved → eligible to make content → make content → get paid
New Solution
Creators were now allowed to begin creating content without the need to connect their bank accounts. Revenue was generated based on a variety of factors including qualified video views, and TikTok informed creators of their earnings. To claim their earnings, they had to connect their bank accounts.
New Funnel(skipping 2 steps): receive notification / email / push → go in app → creator tool beta in app → application (ID, payment, etc.) → wait 3 days → eligible to make content → make content → get paid
Impact
This change, allowing content creation before bank account connection, resulted in a remarkable 25% increase in creators enrolling in the program.
Learnings
When there is a big trust-factor in the funnel, showcase the core value items earlier in the funnel before asking for the trust-based items.
Do not ask for too much information up front especially in cases where there is limited trust as this can increase the cognitive load on the end user.
Case Study 3 - Blinkist
Company Context
A subscription service that offers summaries of nonfiction books and podcasts in the form of 15-minute audio or text explainers.
Opportunity
The objective of this experiment was to increase the number of free trial sign-ups, in turn, the # of converted free trials at the end of the trial.
It’s important tor recognize the consumer psychology for free trial experiences:
Users tend to associate asterisks and small text with something suspicious, which can erode trust.
The #1 fear of starting a free trial is forgetting to cancel it - address this upfront helps build user trust.
Will the free trial duration give me enough time to try out the features and get value prior to committing.
Old Solution
In the existing setup, the paywall page had four main components:
Title with a clear value proposition.
A list of bullet points outlining the features available during the free trial.
A clear Call to Action (CTA) to purchase.
Price point information.
An asterisk (*) explaining the terms of the free trial.
New Solution
The updated paywall page introduced the following components:
A timeline explaining how the free trial works and that they will get a reminder that the free trial is ending.
Clarity on when the user will be charged.
A prominent CTA to start the free trial.
Indicator to show the user has already made progress towards the purchase
Impact
+20% relative increase in the number of free trial sign-ups.
Learnings
Get ahead of the user’s worries and be transparent and address them upfront builds trust.
Listing all available features can sometimes overwhelm users and increase the cognitive load vs. helping them make a purchasing decision.
Now let’s go from examples to theories, tactics, and toolkits so you can implement this as a growth program…
2. First principles for implementation
You might think you know what "Don't Make Me Think" is all about after those example. Simple interfaces, right? Clear copy? Sure, those matter. But if you're stopping there, you're missing the real magic.
Let's dive into the principles that separate the pros from the amateurs. The stuff that makes users say, "I don't know why, but I just love using this product."
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