Designed and ran three no-code experiments (Module Marketplace, Board Templates, and an Onboarding Module) to validate the viability of a product-led growth (PLG) self-serve model.
The Self-Serve team at Rose Rocket was tasked with validating a product-led growth (PLG) strategy targeted at small carrier and broker companies—independent operators looking for a simple, lightweight tool to run their day-to-day trucking operations. These users typically don’t have time for lengthy sales cycles or complex setups, so our goal was to deliver immediate value through a self-serve experience.
DETAILS
Project Type: Lead designer / experimenter
Team: Self-serve (1 PM, 1 designer)
Timeline: Jan - May 2024
SERVICES
TECH STACK
📈 BUSINESS GOAL
Leverage no/low code solutions to increase engagement and number of upgrades in the self serve product without any human intervention
⭐️ DESIGN / EXPERIENCE GOAL
Design a self-serve experience that shortens time to value by educating users on core concepts and empowering them to onboard and upgrade themselves
EXPERIMENT 1
Module Marketplace
Hypothesis
Users in the self serve product are churning due to perceived product limitations, unaware of the full capabilities offered in paid plans. This lack of visibility into core functionality prevents them from seeing how the platform can meet their needs and deliver long-term value.
Solution
Enable self-serve users to discover and purchase paid modules through a module marketplace, making it easier to explore Rocket’s full capabilities and purchase solutions without engaging Sales / Support.
Experiment
Build a Module Marketplace and allow that allows users to view and request upgrades for paid modules using a Pendo Guide and Zapier workflow.
Results
Proved hypothesis
This experiment led to a 35 % increase in upgrades MoM, unlocking $20,000 ARR month MoM and reducing the number of questions to Support about feature gaps
Built using Pendo
EXPERIMENT 2
Board Templates
Hypothesis
New users in the self serve product struggle to understand how they can use the board customization capabilities to support their unique workflows. This lack of guidance and advanced feature set up prevents them from creating boards tailored to their use cases, leading to lower data entry into the system and lack of sharing boards internally and externally.
Solution
Offer a set of five pre-built board templates with tailored columns and views designed around common micro-carrier use cases, reducing complexity and helping users get started faster.
Experiment
Build a lightweight Board Template library allows users to preview and install any of five pre-configured board templates aligned to common use cases, using a Pendo Guide and a Zapier workflow.
Results
Disproved hypothesis
This experiment has no impact on # of boards created or shared
Built using Pendo
Built using Pendo
Key learning
This feature was more valuable internally for quicker org configuration for SMB & enterprise customers. Post presenting the feature at a release review, there were several requests from Sales & Support to access this feature to increase the speed of organization configuration.
EXPERIMENT 3
Onboarding Module
Hypothesis
New users in the self serve product struggle to get started with Rose Rocket due to the platform’s complexity and lack of accessible guidance. Without in-context guidance and human support, users are not accomplishing initial milestones that help them see value in the product.
Solution
Introduce an Onboarding Module that acts as a guided checklist, helping users complete key setup tasks—like account configuration, first order creation, and understanding customization options—to accelerate time to value.
Experiment
Co-created an onboarding checklist with GTM that educates users on key milestones and encourages hands-on engagement with the product by using Rose Rocket’s existing board builder and custom field functionality
Results
Proved hypothesis
This experiment led to an 27% increase in users completing their first order and a 5% increase in activation rates
Built using Rose Rocket
Key learning
This feature was more valuable for onboarding for SMB & enterprise customer segments to reduce training needed for simple tasks to get data into the system. When co-creating this feature with the GTM team, there was demand to leverage this on the support side to be able to spend training time on more complex, unique workflows of larger customer segments.
