Terra Digital
Defining Product Direction
Through Research
Research Initiative
Founded in 2020, Terra Digital is looking to change the landscape of the short-form video creation industry. Their mobile application aims to reduce the friction and complexity in the video storytelling process through innovative technology, automation, and pre-made templates to create agency-quality videos for the non-video editor.
A few months prior to coming on board, Terra released their beta and had less than ideal feedback from their users. My team and I were tasked with identifying their target personas and an MVP to provide a foundation on which they can build upon for future designs and help guide them towards making impactful business decisions.
At the end of the project, I delivered user personas, journey maps, a feature prioritization plan, annotated wireframes, and a design system to ensure Terra had a clear path forward.
Check out the presentation deck here to see how I delivered our findings and recommendations.
Methods | User interviews, Competitive Analysis, User Personas, Affinity Maps, User Flows, Journey Maps, Feature Prioritization Charts, and, Revised Hi-Fi Wireframes, and Wireframe Annotations
Role | UX Researcher, UI Designer
Duration | 3 weeks
Tools | Figma, Miro, Google Drive, Otter, Slack
Project Timeline
Origins
Onboarding with Co-Founders
Origin Story / Purpose
Current State of Project
Research
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Usability Tests
Synthesize
Affinity Mapping
User Persona Building
Journey Mapping
Prioritization Matrix
Extras
Annotated Wireframes
Design System
Presentation of Findings
The Problem
Terra is the brainchild of two impassioned founders, who spent the year prior to this project building a revolutionary app to simplify video editing and production - to magnify stories worth telling. While building the first iterations of the Terra application, the founders relied heavily on feedback from a small number of potential users, seasoned members within the film industry, and friends & family. After raising overwhelmingly positive feedback from this group, they quickly raised funds and headed straight to development.
One year later, the beta was released and the feedback was not what they expected — at all.
83% OF NEW USERS DROPPED OFF
DROPOUT RATES REACHED 98%
USERS STOPPED USING IT COMPLETELY
Within 7 days of installation7 days laterWithin 21 days of installationThe Research
Competitive Analysis
To understand where things went wrong, we had to understand how it could have gone right. In order to do this, my team and I analyzed 8 companies with both a mobile and/or desktop presence, including direct, indirect, and model competitors.
Findings
Though the competition greatly varied, 2 things remained consistent:
They all offered freemium services
They all generated revenue the same way
Tier-based subscription
The higher the price, the more features you get
Frequency of payments
The longer the term, the less you pay
A la carte purchases
Independent features render enough user value to justify a one-time purchase
Key Insights
Users expect to sample a free version to determine an application’s full potential before committing to a paid account
An MVP should offer the same fundamental features as its competitors to even get in the game
USER INTERVIEWS + USABILITY TESTS
Next, I conducted 17 interviews to gain a first-hand understanding of the tools participant's used in the content creation/editing space. While the co-founders provided us with an initial list of existing users, I recognized that this user group was comprised of friends & family of the cofounders and former Terra contractors.
Knowing the pool was unlikely to provide impartial feedback, my team aimed to source out unbiased participants. I began with a survey followed by reaching out to individuals within our personal networks who met the criteria of a potential user -- all with video-editing experience running the gamut.
From there, we affinity mapped our findings in the search for common trends.
Key User Quotes from Interviews
Synthesize & Define
Who Are The Users?
It was clear how people felt about Terra, but were there specific individuals who could genuinely benefit from their service?
As we began synthesizing the data, we noticed 3 trends that echoed amongst the majority of participants:
Efficiency
Customization
Collaboration
Only those employed at under-resourced organizations needed a collaborative effort to lighten their workload. From there, we were able to clearly identify our personas -- 2 users and 1 anti-user.
Though not standard to include a persona whom the company may never target, in order for us to provide an honest, holistic perspective, we felt this held equal weight to the target demographic themselves.
Primary Persona
Core need is greater efficiency in her content creation process
Terra would be most useful to her by providing tools for easy collaboration & reducing steps in her process.
Secondary Persona
Core need is greater customization in the video editing process
Terra will only be useful to her if it includes robust video editing features to help her create unique and on brand content for herself and her brand partnerships
‘Anti-User’ Persona
Core need is high-end professional quality video content
We created this persona to help Terra identify the users that don’t want or need their product at this time. That way, they can stop chasing these users and focus on the features that will make the most difference for the right consumer.
Defining the Problem
After speaking with numerous participants and analyzing their perspectives, we concluded:
The Social Media Unicorn needs to create video content for their social media platforms in a fast and streamlined way, particularly when working with external vendors, so they can consistently engage with their consumers.
With this primary persona & their needs in mind we began the process of identifying necessary changes to suggest to the Terra team.
Feature Prioritization
At the beginning of the project, the Terra team gave us a ‘master list’ of future features that they hoped to build into a future MVP. One of the key asks for this project was to deliver suggestions for which features might have the most impact.
Based on th research, there were common trends that emerged across almost all users. To illustrate our findings, I used two feature prioritization techniques -- The MoSCow Method and an Effort/Value Matrix. The former identifies the foundations of an MVP while the latter helps identify key features to bring to market, given various constraints.
Key Insights
The ‘MUST HAVE’ quadrant exemplifies what a successful MVP would look like for Terra.
The majority of these features are currently being offered for free by competitors
Given its current state, Terra does not provide sufficient value for users to justify switching over
Key Insights
The 'Yes' quadrant is another form of an MVP, taking into account features the core user would need to justify using Terra
It’s not a choice to offer the minimum, it’s an expectation
Consider Should Have’s/Could have’s for future releases
MoSCow Chart
Effort / Value Matrix
The Solution
Once we were able to identify the most impactful features for our 2 personas, we were then able to determine our solution statement:
We believe that by equipping the user with collaborative and high customization tools, we will achieve increased user retention, satisfaction, and efficiency rates amongst Terra’s current and prospective users.
Helping Terra See the Path Forward
Given the less than positive feedback, I wanted Terra to view the insights, not as criticism, but as an area of opportunity to learn and grow; to uncover the potential of designing a platform for the target market. My team created the following assets and included them in our presentation to the Terra team to help illustrate the best next steps.
User Flow
To bring Maria, the primary persona, to life, I assembled an idealistic user flow showcasing the benefits of a collaborative version of Terra.
TASK: Maria has been asked to produce promotional video content by creating 6 panelist profile videos
RESULTS: From project commencement to completion, Maria has collaborated with the panelists in 3 unique ways:
Inviting a new user to join a project
Uploading notes/files as a reference guide
Sending messages for in-app communication
Journey Maps
We applied the same idealistic flow to a Journey Map, this time showcasing Maria's emotional journey while using Terra in both its current state (retrospective) as well as the collaborative state (prospective).
As evidenced from the Retrospective map, Maria:
Is frustrated by the high level of limitations/lack of collaboration
Feels compelled to fall back on editing programs she’s familiar with
Contemplates if her money could be better spent elsewhere
However, in the Prospective Map, Maria's attitude begins to shift:
Much happier due to streamlined collaboration
Improved efficiency has reduced time spent on menial tasks
Sees Terra as a one-stop-shop; therefore, no longer feels the need to spend money on multiple subscriptions
Setting Terra Up for Success
As the project came to a close, my team and I wanted to further steer Terra towards a path of success and provide them with material goods that, if they so choose, could be implemented imminently.
Based on our user interviews, we compiled a list of the most commonly voiced frustrations. We then revised several frames — all of which stemmed from user feedback that warranted improved usability and enjoyment.
Learnings & Next Steps
Challenges:
This project was challenging for a few reasons. Primarily because my team and I were brought on to do the first user research that had been done on a product that was already well underway.
It also came into fruition during a time where there were strong sentiments of civil unrest. Social media was the vehicle to relay current events in real-time narrated from the perspective of the individual. Everyone had an opinion and they certainly wanted to make it known.
We worked with passionate founders who were very adamant about a very specific vision and the more research we did, the more we uncovered the inconvenient truth -- that users were not interested in that vision. We struggled, at times, to communicate these findings and the founders struggled to see the user's perspective and let go of their vision for the product.
Moving Forward:
I believe that there is a bright future ahead for Terra. I am confident that by equipping the user with collaborative and high customization tools, Terra can achieve increased user retention, satisfaction, and efficiency rates amongst Terra’s current and prospective users.