Kotae

2024 - Present • Product Design

Results

83% Fewer

Abandonments

2.5x Faster

Completion time

"More enjoyable"

Positive feedback

Context

Kotae is an AI chatbot platform designed to help businesses automate customer support and capture leads. While the core product was powerful, the first-time experience failed to make a strong impression. Many users felt unsure what to do, leading to high onboarding drop-off.

Problem

We recruited and observed 17 website owners familiar with customer support but new to Kotae, and asked them to complete onboarding while thinking aloud.

  1. 70% of visitors abandoned the onboarding flow the moment a credit card was required.

  2. Those who continued were unsure of what to do first and found the features unclear.

  3. Average completion time was ~12 minutes, exceeding the <5 minute target.

Oh I have to put my credit card in already? I don’t even know what I can do with [Kotae] yet.

Oh I have to put my credit card in already? I don’t even know what I can do with [Kotae] yet.

What am I supposed to do now? How can I try the product or see how it works?

What am I supposed to do now? How can I try the product or see how it works?

Solution

The inspiration of this solution was inspired by Apple's approach to their retail stores:

  • Get users to touch and personalize the product as soon as possible.

  • Delay any financial commitments such as a credit card until after the free trial has expired.

  • Educate the users on the basic, essential features and capabilities by incorporating them into the onboarding.

Designing each step

After observing major areas of drop-off in the original onboarding flow, we zoomed into each step and reimagined its experience to create an enjoyable, personable, low-commitment first-time experience with Kotae. So we ensured that each step included a degree of interaction, vivid color,

Step 1: Make the process personal by prompting users to train Kotae with their own company website

Step 2: Encourage users to touch the product and make it personal through customization

Kotae customization examples

Step 3: Ask the user how Kotae will compliment their website

Reducing Friction

I moved the website input field directly below the hero to make the first action immediate and more apparent. Asking users to enter their own site early leveraged the commitment effect and made the experience more personal.