Protecting ARR and driving expansion

Solid customer and user discovery ensured revenue and points to new revenue opportunities

A major client decided to reduce the number of seats upon renewal due to cost concerns for a secondary user type. This secondary user type had not been adequately catered for within the proposition despite this being a major expansion strategy. 

Primary users have access to everything

Revenue and Product teams collaborated to ensure the target for expansion wold be met, in a context where Annual Reoccurring Revenue was at risk.

 I led the product collaboration, conducted customer and user interviews and coached the product squad through the product iteration. The revenue team set up 30 minute interviews with different roles and users within the organisation. The product squad (PM, PD, Eng) observed and I coached them through the analysis.

We discovered that internal dynamics and limited customisation hindered the product's adoption. The primary user needed control and the secondary user needed autonomy. The client need a cost effective solution and the business needed to maintain profitability. The product team needed to meet everyone’s needs.

The team chose to empower the primary persona as gatekeeper, mimicking internal politics, while offering flexibility to the secondary user, allowing them controlled freedom within the confines of their organisation’s regulatory and political environment. 

No customisation

Ring-fenced customisation enabled

Over a period of 4 weeks, I coached the team by empowering the Product Designer through the analysis, ideation, prototyping and validation using remote unmoderated methods.

This resulted in maintaining a six-figure renewal and expansion that greatly exceeded the original contract value. In addition, we identified a medium term strategy to meet our expansion goals with this secondary persona, which could be rolled out by revenue to other clients in this customer segment.