User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
1–10 of 32 posts
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#2The fact that registration is required for no obvious reason kinda makes the site a no-go zone for me. I only occasionally land there via Google Image search. Maybe I'm just not the right target audience, since I'm not a social media guy. For my specialized interests there are better aggregators such as specific subreddits / HN. Forcing registration is part of the user retention strategy, but for me it makes using the site a non-starter.
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#3It's interesting that at no point in the process is any mention made of communicating with the users. I appreciate that detailed useful feedback is hard to get, especially from people who are disengaging already, but surely it has to be in there somewhere?
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#4The fact that registration is required for no obvious reason kinda makes the site a no-go zone for me. I only occasionally land there via Google Image search. Maybe I'm just not the right target audience, since I'm not a social media guy. For my specialized interests there are better aggregators such as specific subreddits / HN. Forcing registration is part of the user retention strategy, but for me it makes using th…
the site disgusts me because it pollutes google image searches so thoroughly and combined with the mentioned required registration just makes it poison overall.
when I have to filter a site to get results I can use there is a problem and there needs to be an easy method to permanent filter such sites.
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#5It's interesting that at no point in the process is any mention made of communicating with the users. I appreciate that detailed useful feedback is hard to get, especially from people who are disengaging already, but surely it has to be in there somewhere?
> While we were building the model we also wanted to figure out what to do for these Pinners once we could target them. We thought it would be best to ask them, as they surely would know why they were using Pinterest less. So we did an in-product survey for a sample set, and found the most common reason for not using Pinterest was that they got busy.
They did mention contacting users and, as is usual, got only the symptom, not the underlying cause. Talking to users is great to understand why something happens is great, but it has to be translated through deep product insight to be useful.
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#6I can forgive the forced login but i cant forgive the extra steps and buggy login process - I cant count how many times I've ended up trying to register rather than login.
also the recommendations get old quick its just my previous searches aggregated gets boring quick. The instagram explore page has my valuable time these days - it uses my searches plus things related to those to find new things on many topics and ability to say "not relevant" is awesome - all i need now is the ability to block anything "#lifehack"!
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#7It's interesting that at no point in the process is any mention made of communicating with the users. I appreciate that detailed useful feedback is hard to get, especially from people who are disengaging already, but surely it has to be in there somewhere?
> While we were building the model we also wanted to figure out what to do for these Pinners once we could target them. We thought it would be best to ask them, as they surely would know why they were using Pinterest less. So we did an in-product survey for a sample set, and found the most common reason for not using Pinterest was that they got busy. They did mention contacting users and, as is usual, got only the sy…
Why would "being busy" be the symptom and not the cause?
I used similar platforms in the past. When I have time I'd spend a lot of it on there, and when I didn't have time anymore (new job, etc) I didn't use the platform much. This is perfectly normal and no amount of "retentions" or "re-engagement" bullshit will make me spend more time on there unless they pay me enough where spending time on the platform becomes more lucrative than my day job.
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#8The fact that registration is required for no obvious reason kinda makes the site a no-go zone for me. I only occasionally land there via Google Image search. Maybe I'm just not the right target audience, since I'm not a social media guy. For my specialized interests there are better aggregators such as specific subreddits / HN. Forcing registration is part of the user retention strategy, but for me it makes using th…
the site disgusts me because it pollutes google image searches so thoroughly and combined with the mentioned required registration just makes it poison overall. when I have to filter a site to get results I can use there is a problem and there needs to be an easy method to permanent filter such sites.
I don't even click on google image search results that point to pinterest. They can find another sucker to register on their site.
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#9> When I joined the growth team at Pinterest
There it is, right there. 'Growth team' - a team dedicated to using every dirty trick in the book to retain users. Facebook has one too, and that team was responsible for all the shady cross-app data sharing on peoples phones.
Instead of treating your users as 'assets' simply to be owned and controlled, why not actually ask them about their experience of using your service? Sure, you'll only get a few percent of responders but it's a start.
Also, these sites need to factor in that a significant number of people are reducing their social media usage, and this includes sites like Pinterest. Sometimes a service just reaches the end of it's life, and that's ok.
Personally I really dislike Pinterest, I do not see the purpose it serves, and as a non Pinterest user, I have issue with Google searches throwing up Pinterest links that are of no use to me whatsoever.
Re: User retention at Pinterest: tackling an ambiguous problem
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> While we were building the model we also wanted to figure out what to do for these Pinners once we could target them. We thought it would be best to ask them, as they surely would know why they were using Pinterest less. So we did an in-product survey for a sample set, and found the most common reason for not using Pinterest was that they got busy. They did mention contacting users and, as is usual, got only the sy…
Why would "being busy" be the symptom and not the cause? I used similar platforms in the past. When I have time I'd spend a lot of it on there, and when I didn't have time anymore (new job, etc) I didn't use the platform much. This is perfectly normal and no amount of "retentions" or "re-engagement" bullshit will make me spend more time on there unless they pay me enough where spending time on the platform becomes mo…
Because everyone is busy, and the users probably always were busy. The thing to figure out is why they were using pinterest before but now they aren't.
That means what's changed is now it's not enough of a priority to use vs other things in their busy lives. The next interesting "why" question is not "Why are you busy?" but something like "Why isn't pinterest valuable enough for you to use, given that you are busy?"
If you want people to use your product, you need to focus on things you control (making the product more valuable to users) rather than shrug your shoulders and give up at things you can't control (the fact that your users are busy).