Success Paths

Insights

We started with the lowest level content type (task) and worked our way up. We assigned content attributes to each content type to make sure we could design the experience with all the necessary content in mind.

Problem: Customers were struggling to successfully implement our complex IoT and AR products, leading to high churn rates and reduced ARR for the business.

Role: As the lead content and CX strategist on a small team, I wore several hats for this project:

  • Participated in extensive research to thoroughly understand the problem from customer and business perspectives

  • Collaborated with UX and dev from the very beginning to build the design framework and page templates

  • Wrote all the content, from microcopy to long-form help content

  • Contributed to writing the research plan and conducting usability sessions

  • Created a repeatable process to ensure quality content creation beyond this initial team

Our team looked at internal and external sources to get a better understanding of the problem and glean insights to help us build the right solution.

Voice of customer

  • “I don’t know what I need to do”

  • "There's too much information that's not relevant to me"

  • Many start with Google when looking for information

Outcomes

Internal SMEs

  • Biggest reasons customers aren't succeeding today

    • Insufficient planning

    • They don't know how PTC can help

Strategy

Content audit

  • Vast and overwhelming content ecosystem

  • Outdated, inaccurate content

  • Redundant content

  • Minimal or no content around planning activities

Our goal was to create one place for customers to find what they need when getting started with PTC IoT or AR products.

This place needed to:

  • be comprehensive yet easy to use and navigate

  • include cues that users could trust the content

  • feel guided

Content Model

Early wireframe prototypes let us quickly gather input from stakeholders and customers. While our task and outcome content types tested well, users wanted a condensed view of the entire path with all phases, outcomes, and tasks available in a single view for ease of navigating.

Early concepts

Moving phasers and objectives to a single sidebar navigation allows users to more easily see their path at a glance and navigate between objectives in different phases if needed. The original designs and structure we created in 2019 are still used today.

Final product

User testing showed customers responsible for implementation said the resource was invaluable. Not only did the success paths highlight planning steps they were unaware of, but they loved that they didn’t have to spend time searching the knowledge base to find the content they need.

This new content type became the new standard for how we communicate more complex step-by-step content to customers.

Since we build the paths with insight from internal SMEs across the org, the success paths are used by sales, customer success, marketing, and more.