Marco Polo: A Case Study

Making genuine social connection easier

 

"I would hire Anna again in a heartbeat. Anna not only executes research that is crystal clear, unbiased and insightful. She works equally hard to understand a business in a way that creates actionable takeaways.


She brings a clear-headed approach that gives an honest view of what conclusions can be drawn and more importantly calls out the areas where more data is needed to validate a hypothesis. If you want to move from research that sits on the shelves to research that propels your product team forward - I would recommend using Anna."

- Inga Johnson, Chief Growth Officer, Marco Polo

 
 
 

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Background

Marco Polo is a video chat app designed to improve well-being through genuine connection. It is ad-free, designed without dark patterns and does not collect swaths of user data. Refreshingly honest, right? We partnered with the Marco Polo team on 9 projects over the course of 15 months to conduct customer & product research on high-impact topics and augment the team’s research efforts.

Our projects covered broad ground to:

  • Identify barriers to adoption after initial app download

  • Discover why certain user segments have lower retention, while others are responsible for internal and external virality

  • Determine patterns of use - especially habit loops

  • Evaluate concepts with mockups and prototypes to prioritize the product roadmap — what features to build and what NOT to build!

  • Describe behavioural and attitudinal differences across segments, e.g. B2C, B2B, single and multi-product users, social-media detractors, parents, teens, free and paid members etc

Partnership Scope

 

Services:

  • UX Research for Startups

  • In-depth Interviews

  • Focus Groups

  • Participant Screening, Scheduling, Recruitment and Incentive Management

  • Sharing Research Best Practises

Keywords:

  • Concept Testing

  • User Retention Research

  • Product Pricing

  • Habit Loops

  • Diverse User Groups

  • Freemium & Subscription Features

 
 

Conducting Research with Many Different Voices

 

The impact

Our work with Marco Polo helped them to:

  • Identify which user segments are responsible for most member growth and understand their motivations

  • Test new concepts and use concrete data to distinguish between high value & low value business opportunities

  • Understand members’ value anchors and why they choose a freemium vs. paid account

  • Gather feedback on potential new features using prototypes, then decide which features are worth developing

  • Prepare for a large change and create content in-app and across communication channels

 
 

Our work covered broad ground, including research to support the flagship product, Sharecast and Seconds.

We worked on various features including Archive, Close Captioning & Transcript.

 
 
 

Let’s find out if we are the right UX research partner for your team!

We loved partnering with the Marco Polo team! They are genuinely wonderful folks building a conscientious tech product and incorporating iterative research. Say it with us: “Tech for Good!”

Are you working on a social mission-driven app or service and wonder why some people don’t return after onboarding or first use? Do you want to understand why some segments show strong adoption?

Let’s find out if we’re a good fit.