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AnchorFree, user research and data analysis
Navigating a company to exit through the power of human data
Challenge: Creating new business functions to influence marketing strategies
Marketing was a completely new department for the company, and we had to band together to build a strategy to deliver results.
After two weeks into my new role, I sat down with the President and GM of Marketing and told him about all the opportunities I felt our department could lean in to. User research was one of them. The company had never done it before.
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"Yeah, you drive it," he said. I was a bit stunned. My background was in content and copywriting. But sometimes the best opportunities are those that you might not expect.
Project
Research and analysis work to discover and then deliver for an underserved subscriber segment.
Scope
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Focus group and survey creation
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Data analysis
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Strategic product and feature recommendations
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Company rebranding initiative
Phase 1: Building and running a user research program from scratch
It was a scrappy process, I'll admit it, and I was taking on the role of a researcher with no formalized anthropology background. But I was the company’s first and only content designer, and understood the importance of building user empathy and advocating for customers.
Luckily, I had a network of seasoned research professionals who pointed me to the right resources, namely Nielsen Norman Group and UX Planet.
After meeting with stakeholders to set a precedent for the schedule and format, I built the process for conducting the program on a bi-weekly basis.​​​​​​​​
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After many months of conducting sessions, a few tropes revealed themselves, some that might have seemed obvious:​​​
1. People who use digital privacy and security products were interested in additional security products and features.
​2. Different user demographics use our products for different reasons.
Phase 2: Surveying our user base for the first time ever
Our first cross-platform survey was game changing.
The customer success team was constantly inundated with questions and concerns from current users, so we determined that a survey was the perfect option for them to express themselves.
We decided to draft a survey with no more than ten questions. Once we finalized survey questions with leadership, I built out the survey in SurveyMonkey, sent it for testing, and worked with our engineering teams to get it live across platforms.
Over the period of about a month, we received over 11,000 submissions.
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The results? We discovered that our marketing communications weren’t focusing on a large subset of our user base who were paying subscribers (about 25% of our total user base).
Additionally, these users were interested in additional security products and services (over 80% in some instances). Unanimously, they were eager for spam call blockers, identity theft protection services, and password managers.
Phase 3: Creating a new company north star and brand overhaul
Our research was so popular with investors, they decided to take the company in a completely new direction.
After months of building new products and partnering with other companies, we now offered a suite of security products based on our research.
The company hired a brand and communications VP to drive a comprehensive company rebrand.
I worked directly under the VP to manage a variety of new brand and content initiatives and managing internal and external stakeholders, including a PR firm and brand agency.
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Based on the user research and data analysis spanning a total of 18 months, AnchorFree went from offering users access and privacy, to Pango, a bundled subscription offering security and "peace of mind."​​
AnchorFree (before):
Pango (after):
