How to Release Features to drive Adoption and Minimize Risk

Aakash | June 8, 2022

Introduction

Imagine this; your team has built up a game-changing feature loaded with value and provides an excellent user experience. But what if your customers are unaware of its potential? What if it goes unused? Then the update goes straight to the ‘wasted potential’ zone. And you miss out on your goals due to a poor feature adoption plan! If that was your case, then it’s time to chill out! Because we will share a world-class feature release strategy that drives adoption and minimizes the risk.

But wait, why should you care about feature adoption?

Feature adoption is when the customers ‘adopt’ /integrate a new feature into their daily workflow. So, having a feature adoption plan can help your customer(s) understand the feature better and clear out confusion (if there’s any) on the update.
Secondly, we can all agree on the fear of churn rate during a feature release; It can go up if the feature harms the customer’s experience. This usually happens when there’s a gap in communicating the updates to the customers. This gap can be bridged by using a feature adoption plan involving onboarding, training, feature tours, etc.
A practical feature adoption plan involves a step-by-step guide listing its usefulness, making it easier for the sales team to pitch the feature to new prospects. This makes for a convenient expansion of sales. Bonus: If the adoption plan gets successful, your customers will turn into your advocates, which means you get word-of-mouth marketing for that feature. After knowing the ‘why’ part of the adoption plan, let’s look at the ‘how part?’

5-step guide to releasing a SaaS Feature while minimizing risk;

Build and Beta Test The first step in the feature release/adoption process is to create a robust feature. Then, to get ideas for a feature update, ask your customers what they think is missing from your present feature or how you could make it more valuable.Beta testing is a vital step in a feature release process; you can get valuable insights through beta release. Remember, the percentage release of features is the key to a bug-free, customer-focused feature. We have discussed beta releases and a successful beta release strategy on one of our blogs; click here (hyperlink).
Identify your audience Let’s assume that your company serves people from different job profiles, such as designers, marketers, copywriters, etc. Given this diverse pool of people, you need to identify and cater to the target audience for a new feature.For example, Consider your new update can create banners of different sizes (for website pages, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) from a single creative; this update will make an effortless and faster campaign release for marketers. So, here your target audience is marketers. Targeting your ideal audience, let the feature function to its full potential.
Update your help desk The one must-have of a SaaS company is the help desk/ knowledge base center; it is a repository of all the software services. In addition, help desks are loaded with content specially produced to introduce, explain, and answer everything related to the services provided by the company. A help desk can have different forms of content, such as videos, articles, blogs, pictures, etc., to explain the What, Why, and How of a feature. A help desk is a go-to place for your customers when they face any problems with the feature. Hence, it is essential to have a separate help desk page for any new feature that explains its nuance.
Feature Announcement After building, identifying the audience, and creating a help desk, let the world know about your feature update! Feature announcement is crucial as it prepares your customers for the changes they may face with the existing feature; this way, you can remove the element of surprise, which is not ideal in the SaaS industry. The best feature announcements practices are email campaigns, push notifications, social media campaigns, etc.
Percentage Roll Out Releasing the feature to everyone at first might be a risky task; it can cause glitches due to high traffic. In percentage rollout, initially, only a small number of customers get the updated feature. The small number of users makes it easier to work on the feature, fixing bugs and compatibility issues.
Get those Feedback Congratulation! Your game-changing feature is now live. But wait, the work is not yet over.At this stage, you may have the following questions; 1. Is the feature working smoothly for everyone? Is there any other problem that you are not aware of? 2. How’s the adoption rate? (psst, we’ll help you out on this too!) 3. What about the UI/UX? Is it better than the previous version in practice?Your customers can answer all your questions; ask them; get your feedback! Work on the feedback and let them know you care about user experience more than rolling out new features. As we said (or whispered) earlier, we will help you drive feature adoption; and the following section is all about a road map strategy on how you can measure adoption and a road map to drive adoption.

How to measure Adoption and a Road-map to Drive Adoption

Measuring adoption is an essential part; it gives you the progress report of your feature, how well your customers are using it, and whether they are using it to its full potential or not. You can look into the following three metrics to measure the adoption rate.

Service Utilization Your customers are paying for some of your services, but are they leveraging them to their full potential? Are they able to extract value from it? To understand that, look into the service utilization data; know the parts of the feature used the most and the left out parts.
Feature Depth To understand the depth of feature usage; look into the following data:
1. How much time do they spend on the feature?
2. Are they logging in daily? Are they using a particular part of the feature or its whole?
Feature Width It’s hard to expand your sales (and business) if your customers are only using one of your essential services; feature width gives insights into the engagement of all your services. Is your customer exploring all sectors of your feature/ product? Or are they using just one feature?This way, you can work on the lagging features which may cause high churn.

That was how-to monitor adoption, now let’s see how to drive adoption:

Monitor the Feature’s Usage The feature is now live, but you notice that some of your customers are not using the feature as they should.Using metrics analysis, you can list the users who are not actively engaging with the feature; these can be customers with 1. Low log-in rates 2. Low license utilizationOr perhaps the new customers, customers from a specific region, are not using the feature to its fullest. Segment these customers into different categories and make them a priority, communicate with them, and understand the reason behind this behavior. Remember, these customers are at a higher level of churn.
Promote the UVP of Feature Let customers know the feature’s unique value proposition (UVP). If there’s a low adoption rate, it might be due to behavioral causes. If so, you have to change their behavior towards the feature; you can do that by making a feature introduction or an orientation campaign highlighting the value proposition of the feature. If the low usage rate persists, get feedback from these customers.
Tell Them The Success Stories If you have been in the SaaS industry for a while, you have probably had customers that have had great success with your feature/ or product. These stories can serve as prospects for your new or existing customers; by giving them a possible success route. Such stories can help them achieve their future goal by motivating, or inspiring them to use the feature more, i.e., increasing its adoption.