Right nudge, right moment, right person

Signal-Driven Nudges deliver more customer value.

Pendo / In-app, external messaging (B2B SaaS)

Problem: Teams had signals but no unified way to act on them—generic, single-channel blasts missed timing and relevance.

What we shipped: A 0→1 product in Pendo that lets product & adjacent teams use behavioral + profile data to trigger the right nudge, right moment, right channel (in-app by default, email fallback), with rules, guardrails, and live editing—all in the same platform.

Impact: 2× shift from dormant → active users; first-try success 58% → 86%; median time on task 2:40 → 1:05; leading indicator TTFJ ~40%↓.

Context

As Research Lead with shared PM responsibilities, I partnered with PMM, Eng, and Design to productize orchestration—so any team could act on live usage signals (not CSVs) and move users forward with confidence.

Users & Jobs-to-Be-Done

  • PM / Growth: Trigger role-aware nudges at the exact moment a key behavior happens (or doesn’t) to lift activation/adoption.

  • CS: See journey health, intervene on stuck cohorts, and reduce dismissals with trust-preserving controls.

  • PMM: Own voice/tone and variants by role/plan without re-deploying code; keep messages human and timely.

What we shipped

Research → Product → Business Outcomes
Methodologies → Interviews, Focus groups, Co-design workshops, Usability testing, Usage Analytics

Signal-driven triggers & rules engine (behavioral triggers):
Feature: Behavioral + profile triggers with a shared rule catalog, suppression, and frequency caps.
User value: Nudges fire at the moment of need; more targeted.
Business effect: Dismissals ↓ ~31%; first-try success ↑ 58% → 86%; faster decisions.

Multi-channel orchestration (right channel, right moment):
Feature: In-app first; email fallback when no recent session/.
User value: Reaches users where they are without noise fatigue. Business effect: CTR→completion +13 pts; adoption up.

Personalization & variants (metadata drigger):
Feature: Role-, plan-, and tenure-aware variants with PMM-owned copy/tone and reusable components.
User value: Messages feel relevant and human.
Business effect: 2× shift from dormant → active users; sustained adoption gains.

Live editing with governance (trust & safety):
Feature: Edit rules/journeys without redeploy.
User value: Faster iteration with clear ownership and compliance.
Business effect: Time-to-test/learn down; median task time ↓ 2:40 → 1:05; broader team adoption.

Template library & “one-step/one-CTA” standards:
Feature: Prebuilt, plain-language nudge templates and copy patterns with tone guardrails.
User value: Easier to build effective nudges; consistent quality.
Business effect: Time-to-launch down; first-try success up.

Outcomes

Noise down, relevance up: Dismissals −31% after a single reassurance line and rule caps; CTR→completion +13 pts with “1 nudge per session.”

Faster progress: First-try success 58% → 86%; median time on task 2:40 → 1:05.

Momentum compounds: TTFJ ~40%↓ (leading), with a 2× shift from dormant → active users.

How I Drove Alignment

  • Decision-ready briefs + weekly 15-min readouts kept PM/PMM/Eng moving.

  • Clear ownership: PMM → voice/variants; Eng → delivery & caps; Research → plans, synthesis, testing.

  • AI-assist where it helps: Faster theming; humans make the final calls.