Iterating on Developer Marketing ... with Metrics!
summary
Three case studies show concrete fixes and results: an email promo giving $100 credit gets 60% open rate and 20% CTR but only ~50 actual signups from thousands of clicks, so adding real‑time form feedback, cutting ~30 required questions and clarifying account types raises conversion by 50%; a shipped hardware kit has a 15% success rate, so surveys, 101 tutorials, visuals and preconfigured OS images double project completion; simplifying jargon, better social visuals and an “email us feedback” CTA lift brand preference +40%.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (12)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:11MLH MAJOR LEAGUE HACKING
- 5:53Bad Verification Flow Failed verification notices came hours after they filled out the signup form with ambiguous explanations.
- 7:06Arduous Signup Process The new signup form had almost 30 questions on it. People, quite simply. were getting bored halfway through.
- 7:58Confusing Account Types People who made it through the form often churned immediately because they selected the wrong account type and couldn't do what they intended.
- 8:57How did we fix it? Provide clear signup paths for different account types with explanations of exactly what each account is for.
- 9:38Documentation Goal: Promote a new hardware platform to developers.
- 11:32New System New systems shouldn't just launch to the world with nonexistent documentation.
- 12:51Seems Simple, But Isn't A lot of feedback had to do with self doubt. This implies that the marketing makes it sound simpler than it is, when more hand holding is actually required.
- 14:10Software Was Not Hard Developers often wrote complex software that ran perfectly but couldn't get the hardware to work with it.
- 14:43Why is this a problem? Often problems with developer platforms are hard to investigate because there are so many points of failure.
- 18:47How did we fix it? "Build a better database into your application."
related talks
25mCreating Great Developer Experiences with Metrics and Automation.
25mMaking Metrics User-centric
45mThe Developer’s Guide to Promoting Your Work
09mMaking Money with Metrics
57mHow conversion optimization made me a better interface designer
17mMarketing that makes sense for you/your project
48mHow Selfish Are You?
40mUser experience , what matters