Outwards and Inwards Experiential Transformation - Kaskus Case Study

Outwards and Inwards Experiential Transformation:

Ardy Alam

VP Product Management

KASKUS

Ketut Sulistyawati

Founder, Principal Consultant

Somia Customer Experience

a KASKUS case study

2016 UXSG | A joint lightning talk by KASKUS and SOMIA CX


About KASKUS

●  Founded in 1999

●  The largest social commerce

platform in Indonesia:

○  Online (Mobile Native App,

Mobile Site, Desktop)

○  Offline (Community Events, Gatherings, CSR)


About KASKUS

●  Organic growth

●  Has its own cultures and lingos

●  Hard-core fans

●  Unique brand personality


Despite being one of the pioneers in digital startup in Indonesia, KASKUS keeps improving its UX


User background varies

•  Older hardcore fans are comfortable ‘the way it is’

•  Younger users feels the user experience is no

longer relevant. Expectation on UX is high, wants

the latest and greatest

external considerations

Technology & security standards evolve

•  Mobile adoption grows significantly but readiness

to adapt was slow

•  Variety of devices, OS versions


Organizational vision varies •  Rapid growth of team, new perspectives

•  Gen X vs Gen Y vs Millenials

Internal considerations

Seeking alternative ways to monetize •  Team challenged to grow traffic = grow user base

•  Product experience sacrificed for monetization


How we addressed these issues...



Addressing The Issues

1 internal discovery 2 customer

centricity 3 MOnetization ideas 4 MObile

first


We started with internal discovery

These are done by neutral independent consultants

1 internal discovery

●  Interviews with the Founders and C-levels, key employees (old timers are influencers) to understand their point of views and vision.

●  ‘Organizational Ethnography’

●  Look into historical data

●  Hypothesized direction to be further investigated with users


We involved users along the journey ●  Interviews with existing users, potential users, non-users

●  Informal discussions through community gatherings

●  Usability testing sessions

●  Online surveys

2 USER CEntricity


Users hated the banner ads.

How might we monetize without sacrificing the user experience?

3 monetization ideas

Leveraging existing user behavior to develop creative monetization solutions, example:

●  Native content advertising

●  Kaskus Plus - premium users

●  Sundul, gan!



‘Sundul’ a way that users do to push their contents to appear higher in the listing page

”SUNDUL” explained


SUNDUL, GAN!

1 Gamification for Sundul Give free sundul for users after they have successfully completed transactions on FJB, or other activities

2 Simple to Sundul Simple action to ‘sundul’ instead of manually enter text on the post. This makes the post more elegant too.

3 Monetization Users can buy sundul package if they have run out

1

2

3

CONCEPT



We need to create consistent and continuous experience across platforms

4 MOBILE FIRST

●  63% access from mobile browser

●  30% access from desktop browser

●  5% access from Android app

●  2% access from iOS app


Started from mobile web, translated to the other platforms


But most importantly, all of these will not be successful without...


Cross functional involvement

Collaboration across product team with UX,

sales, marketing, CS, operation, facilitated by

consultants

Key Ingredients for Success


Phased Approach Large scope = big chaos. So we took a

phased approach with clear milestones

instead of trying to solve all at once.



Agreed vision, strategy, and

product positioning

Agreed direction on how the four

products connect to one another

Agreed features, structure, and

content direction

Discovery Research

Master Blueprint

Mobile Web

Website, iOS, Android


Building Team confidence: •  Team members present to Management in milestone review

•  War room with walls filled with the materials

•  Practice sessions the day before

•  All key stakeholders (Founder and C Levels) attended

•  Everyone takes turn walking through the design in the wall

•  Questions and concerns are addressed on the spot

•  Signoff to proceed



...and what is the outcome?


●  Revamped the main pages

●  Launched native apps for

commerce

●  Up-to-date experiences,

yet preserving the unique

personality

On the Product


before after

before after

insert images

before after

insert images

●  Less display banners, more content

marketing

●  Standardized ad positions, easier to sell

●  Data driven decisions

Business Impact

Overall : increase in revenues


●  User research embedded in the development process

●  Multiple iterations, prototyping

●  Monitor, observe, and analyze user behavior after going live

○  Google Analytics Premium

○  Forum KSP (“Critics, Suggestions and Questions”)

impact on the Internal Process


Create a stage for the team to shine

and run the show

Consultant is invisible;

behind the scene

view from Consultant


one last thing...


1.  In order to stay relevant, the product needs to evolve and adjust its experience, but without losing its soul.

2.  Transformation does not simply means changing the UI

3.  Spirit of collaboration, including the BOD and management

4.  Trust but verify

5.  Continuous improvements everyday: monitor, observe, adjust as needed

Lessons Learnt


NOT

Thank you

Ardy Alam

[email protected]

Kaskus ID: aa976

linkedin.com/in/ardyalam

Ketut Sulistyawati

[email protected]

Twitter: @tyawati

linkedin.com/in/sulistyawati


Outwards and Inwards Experiential Transformation - Kaskus Case Study

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