A user’s goals 1 week into using your app and 6 months are rarely the same. “Elder users” often won’t even retain the goals that they had at the start of their experience. Apps with continued user involvement enable the user to accomplish multiple goalsApps with continued user involvement enable the user to accomplish multiple goals
If an app enables the user to accomplish only one goal, then the user will be lost as soon as the one goal disappears or is accomplished better by using some other product. Accomplishing multiple goals makes for a sturdier foundation of usage that is more resilient to changing life circumstances, as User goals change over time.
Imagine if all LinkedIn was good for was finding a job. If this were the case, then people would stop using it as soon as they found a job. However, they can also be ... to maintain users through full goal transitions.
New users do not yet have the vocabulary to understand the appNew users do not yet have the vocabulary to understand the app
Imagine that you are in a foreign country where you don't speak the language. You're hungry and you need to ask someone on the street where to buy some food. You don’t have the words to say it, but you can probably rub your stomach and people will know where to point you.
If the app has sufficiently unique features or design, then encountering those will be like hearing words from a foreign language. If the features or design are familiar carryovers from other products that people are used t.... User skill level increases over timeUser skill level increases over time
Imagine that you have just started to use Excel or Photoshop. Both of those apps have an insane amount of functionality, and it would be unreasonable to expect the user to understand what is possible and how to do it immediately. Over time, with continued User Involvement, they will simply grow more comfortable with the app.
The most successful app adoptions come from a project, because they give the user a reason to increase their skills. As they work on their projects, they'll bump up agai..., giving the user new vocabulary to conceptualization and express desires that they didn’t have before.
Additionally, people’s life circumstances will change over periods of time, so it’s unreasonable to expect that they will have the exact same needs over time.
Apps with continued user involvement respond to changing user goals over timeApps with continued user involvement respond to changing user goals over time
New users do not yet have the vocabulary to understand the app, but as User skill level increases over time, so does their vocabulary. They are able to conceptualize and express desires that they couldn’t express before, so User goals change over time. If the app can only handle the user's goals 2 weeks in but not 2 months in, then it can't expect the user's continued involvement.
This points to the importance of Continuous onboarding for Difficulty Matching. If the user's skill level doesn'....