Time to value (TTV) is a metric that measures the time taken for a new customer to experience the value from your product. In the world of free to paid SaaS business model, It is important to reduce the TTV, so customers will find the value faster and upgrade to a paid subscription.
Shorter TTV = Faster value realisation = Higher chance of customer retention.
A longer TTV would lead to customers churn out, so how do we reduce the TTV ?
AHA! Moment:
Aha moment happens when a customer first realise the value of your product. For Google users, the aha moment comes when users find an answer to their question. Similarly, you’ll need to define the value of your product.
Remember, what you think as a value of your product and what customer perceive as the value from your product should be the same.
Once you identify the value of your product, the next step is find the path to the value.
Creating the path
Simplify the onboarding process
Onboarding a customer is a crucial step as in most cases it would be the first step for a user to experience a product. In case of AirBnb, listing the available stays is the path to showcase the value before the user is even onboarded. Either you follow immediate sign up or gradual engagement, removing any friction in the path should be the goal here.
Reduce cognitive overload
Less is more!
Any factors that are affecting users to achieve their goal needs to be eliminated. Factors such as presenting too many choices or complex user interface will cause cognitive overload to customers. Product should employ proper design principles and highlight only the essential features.
In-App tutorials
Another best way to direct users to the path to the aha moment is to use in-app product guides. This helps users to focus on the obvious and take specific actions on the product.
Tools such as Appcues, Pendo helps in creating product tutorials.
Leverage product analytics
Observing how users use your products helps you spot the obstacles that comes in their way to achieve their goal. Making use of product analytics provides data such as heat maps and session recordings that are necessary to understand user behaviour. The tools that come in my mind for product analytics are Heap, Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity.
These are few of the factors that’s helps customer identify the value of a product in a short span of time.
Thinking Alley 