How to Reduce Churn by Doing Your "One Thing"

Trello is a kanban board with lists and tasks.

There's very little unique about it. The appeal was its simplicity.

As a product builder, you've got an innate desire to promote new features (that you've worked hard on) and to encourage things like referrals. 

Over time this clouds a team's collective judgement. It makes for a less satisfying experience and creates churn.

So, let me introduce you to a remedy I've used to great effect, many times.

It's not a silver bullet or a "hack". But an exercise to challenge what's really important.

Let's find your "one thing".

It can be challenging to actually identify your "one thing".

But it can help to consider this concept less as a single destination, and more as a direction.

It reminds me of a popular analogy: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time".

(The fantasy element is important, as their brand awareness changes your perception.)

You could argue that their "one thing" is to get the user to watch a show.

But, before they can watch something, they need to find something to watch, right?

But people have never heard of your app, and so first they need to be confident that it's worth them investing their time to browse your library.

i.e., to know that there's a good chance they'll be able to find something they like.

Or, very niche appeal, if you know what they're interested in.

They shouldn't funnel you straight into watching the first show you see—you might hate it.

You're not trying to get them to watch a show (well, not right now), you're trying to convince them that you have shows that they might be interested in.

It's a much lower commitment objective. 

If you were trying to get someone to watch something, you'd limit the number of options because of 😳 Hicks Law. You'd show about 5.

But with this new framing, you'd want to increase the exposure of your titles. You'd show lots more. Maybe an entire feed of them.

Once you've identified your "one thing", what do you do with everything else?

Consider the difference between encouraging focus and restricting actions.

Let's use an example.

Trello pre-populates a search query (that you didn't make), and then predictably fails to find anything.

You've got no tasks to find.

You could simply block the user from making any searches until they've created a board.

But a more balanced approach is to use this distraction as a teaching opportunity. 

Think about it like this; if someone has taken an action that's not in your ideal journey, you don't kill their curiosity.

On the first screen, I'd show an empty state explaining why there are no cards to search, and encouraging the action that'll remedy that (i.e., create your first board).

And if they choose to make a search regardless, I'd educate the user on how to use these search queries in the future. I'd be explaining a future benefit.

Focusing the user isn't always about limiting their actions.

In this instance, I've used both stages to recognise an intent, and educate (in context), why it's not working now, but will be beneficial when you've done your "one thing".

You've rewarded them for straying off the footpath with education, and given them even more motivation to get started.

I've spent a huge amount of time testing how to efficiently onboard users, on a variety of products, using templates.

First, let's cover the two main benefits of a template.

I don't see many examples where something is actually efficient at both.

Normally when a service tries to do that, users end up having to delete so much unwanted junk that it would have been easier to just start again.

They're different intents, and are designed accordingly.

Not to mention the dummy cards that are pure upsells, or links to other templates.

Inside the cards themselves are a mixture of instructions, fake conversations and irrelevant activity data.

Trello are in this awkward middle ground, where to functionally use the tutorials you need to inherit the cards into a real board.

So my biggest piece of advice for templates is this: does it serve your "one thing".