Victims of Our Own Success: Chasing Product-Market Fit
Victims of Our Own Success: Chasing Product-Market Fit
Every product team dreams of finding that sweet spot where the product clicks with users. But here’s the irony: the moment you nail it, user behavior starts shifting. And if you don’t adapt fast, yesterday’s success becomes today’s roadblock.
Every product team dreams of finding that sweet spot where the product clicks with users. But here’s the irony: the moment you nail it, user behavior starts shifting. And if you don’t adapt fast, yesterday’s success becomes today’s roadblock.
The Early Days: Fast and Focused Players
When our Shop was hovering around 30K monthly active customers, the data told a clear story. Most visitors weren’t wandering around filling up carts. They came for one thing, a single bundle, one top-up, one purchase. Their goal wasn’t to browse. It was to buy quickly and jump back into their game.
The problem? Our flow didn’t match their behavior. The checkout path assumed customers wanted to buy multiple products at once. Five screens. Multiple clicks. Average time on task: two minutes. For players eager to get back to the action, that was an eternity.
So we asked ourselves: how do we reduce friction and get users to value faster?
The Early Days: Fast and Focused Players
When our Shop was hovering around 30K monthly active customers, the data told a clear story. Most visitors weren’t wandering around filling up carts. They came for one thing, a single bundle, one top-up, one purchase. Their goal wasn’t to browse. It was to buy quickly and jump back into their game.
The problem? Our flow didn’t match their behavior. The checkout path assumed customers wanted to buy multiple products at once. Five screens. Multiple clicks. Average time on task: two minutes. For players eager to get back to the action, that was an eternity.
So we asked ourselves: how do we reduce friction and get users to value faster?
Reinventing Checkout: The One-Page Bet
After benchmarking competitors and testing prototypes, we designed a one-page checkout. Two screens instead of five. Half the clicks. In prototype tests, time on task dropped by 50 percent. It looked promising.
To back it up with hard data, we ran a survey and gathered statistically significant quantitative results. The numbers gave us confidence to test live. We flipped on the new checkout for a smaller market — safely behind feature flags — while keeping the old flow for everyone else.
The results were stunning:
01
Checkout time dropped by half.
01
Checkout time dropped by half.
02
Conversion rate jumped by 4 percent.
02
Conversion rate jumped by 4 percent.
03
Average days to second purchase reduced by 15%.
03
Average days to second purchase reduced by 15%.
It was a clear win. We rolled it out everywhere. Over the next year, our monthly active customers grew steadily, eventually hitting 130K. Success, right?
Reinventing Checkout: The One-Page Bet
After benchmarking competitors and testing prototypes, we designed a one-page checkout. Two screens instead of five. Half the clicks. In prototype tests, time on task dropped by 50 percent. It looked promising.
To back it up with hard data, we ran a survey and gathered statistically significant quantitative results. The numbers gave us confidence to test live. We flipped on the new checkout for a smaller market — safely behind feature flags — while keeping the old flow for everyone else.
The results were stunning:
01
Checkout time dropped by half.
02
Conversion rate jumped by 4 percent.
03
Average days to second purchase reduced by 15%.
It was a clear win. We rolled it out everywhere. Over the next year, our monthly active customers grew steadily, eventually hitting 130K. Success, right?
The Twist: Success Becomes a New Problem
Then the shock came. User behavior shifted.
Players started making multi-bundle purchases in quick succession. But without a cart, they could only buy one bundle at a time. That meant repeating the same checkout process again and again. What once felt smooth now felt tedious. More steps meant higher drop-offs, and tedious loops don’t exactly inspire repeat purchases.
In short, the very optimization that once unlocked growth had become a new friction point. We’d been victims of our own success.
The Twist: Success Becomes a New Problem
Then the shock came. User behavior shifted.
Players started making multi-bundle purchases in quick succession. But without a cart, they could only buy one bundle at a time. That meant repeating the same checkout process again and again. What once felt smooth now felt tedious. More steps meant higher drop-offs, and tedious loops don’t exactly inspire repeat purchases.
In short, the very optimization that once unlocked growth had become a new friction point. We’d been victims of our own success.
Lessons in Flexibility
Jaime Levy nailed it in his book UX Strategy:
“When producing digital products, we must continuously research, redesign, and remarket to keep up with the rapidly evolving online marketplace, customer values, and value chains that are required to keep our products in production.”
Our story proves the point. Winning in a fast-moving market isn’t about locking in one perfect flow. It’s about staying flexible, listening to users, and evolving as their behavior evolves.
So once again, we’re back to the basics:
01
Research to understand the new behavior.
01
Research to understand the new behavior.
02
Prototype to explore solutions.
02
Prototype to explore solutions.
03
Gather statistically significant data to validate.
03
Gather statistically significant data to validate.
04
Test live with a small subset.
04
Test live with a small subset.
05
Scale or scrap based on results.
05
Scale or scrap based on results.
Feature flags are already in place, so toggling flows on or off is easy. The challenge is deciding which experience users truly need now.
Lessons in Flexibility
Jaime Levy nailed it in his book UX Strategy:
“When producing digital products, we must continuously research, redesign, and remarket to keep up with the rapidly evolving online marketplace, customer values, and value chains that are required to keep our products in production.”
Our story proves the point. Winning in a fast-moving market isn’t about locking in one perfect flow. It’s about staying flexible, listening to users, and evolving as their behavior evolves.
So once again, we’re back to the basics:
01
Research to understand the new behavior.
02
Prototype to explore solutions.
03
Gather statistically significant data to validate.
04
Test live with a small subset.
05
Scale or scrap based on results.
Feature flags are already in place, so toggling flows on or off is easy. The challenge is deciding which experience users truly need now.
Closing Thought
Chasing product-market fit isn’t a straight line. It’s more like surfing. You catch one wave, ride it well, then suddenly the ocean shifts and you need to paddle fast to catch the next.
For us, the cart may be making a comeback — but not because we failed. Because our users have evolved. And if we keep evolving with them, we’ll keep riding the waves of growth.
Closing Thought
Chasing product-market fit isn’t a straight line. It’s more like surfing. You catch one wave, ride it well, then suddenly the ocean shifts and you need to paddle fast to catch the next.
For us, the cart may be making a comeback — but not because we failed. Because our users have evolved. And if we keep evolving with them, we’ll keep riding the waves of growth.