Retention Intervention @ CompanyCam
Role: Lead UX Researcher | Timeline: 4 weeks

Context & Problem

CompanyCam’s retention team noticed a worrying uptick in customers canceling after just a month of use. As the UX Research lead on the Retention Intervention squad, I was tasked to uncover why customers churn, and, more importantly, what we could build or tweak to keep them around.

Research Goals

• Understand the lived experience of churned customers across company sizes (Micro, Small, Medium)

• Identify key feature gaps and pricing pain points driving cancellations

• Surface actionable recommendations to improve stickiness and unlock growth

Methodology

• Recruitment: Emailed everyone who’d churned in the last 30 days, offering a 30-minute interview + $50 gift card

• Participants:

  • 10 live interviews (2 Micro, 5 Small, 3 Medium)

  • 13 additional written responses from those who skipped the gift card

• Interview Focus Areas: Daily workflows in the field, cost vs. value perception, feature wishlists, competitive tool use

Key Findings

Feature Friction

1. Offline Mode Gaps

   • Worked in low-connectivity zones; offline uploads sometimes failed or were hard to locate

2. Task Scheduling & Reminders

   • Field teams juggle dozens of jobs; missing in-app reminders meant forgotten site walk-throughs

3. Document Zoom & Annotation

   • Couldn’t zoom into plans or link conversations to specific photos, leading to follow-up emails outside CoCam

4. Integration Needs

   • Customers use specific tools daily and a lack of native plugs forced manual imports

5. AI Walkthrough Limitations

   • Bugs in a hyped area of the product don’t deliver on the promise

Pricing Pain Points

• Per-User Model Is Painful for growing teams; seasonal businesses cancel during downtimes

• One-Size-Fits-All Tiers force Micros to pay for features they never use

• No Pause Option means businesses can’t “suspend” when they have bills to pay

Strategic Recommendations

1. Fix the Basics First

   • Prioritize robust offline mode, zoomable plans, and improve AI walkthrough accuracy (geo-tag + measurement)

2. Introduce a Modular “Core” Tier

   • Micros get unlimited camera + photo tagging at a low flat fee

   • Upsell task reminders, AI tools, and integrations as add-ons

3. Subscription Flexibility

   • Pause/Resume subscriptions month-to-month to accommodate seasonal cash flow

4. Tiered Function Bundles

   • SMBs: All-in-one suite with built-in PLG tutorials

   • Mid-Market/Enterprise: Pick & pay only for modules they need

Hypothesis:
Micros convert to higher tiers when they see immediate ROI from core features plus one add-on. Meanwhile, mid-market buyers will flock to a “pick-and-choose” model that guarantees they only pay for what they use—boosting average revenue per logged-in user (ARPL) across segments.

Impact & Next Steps

• Roadmap Alignment: Shared findings with Product and Engineering; offline mode & pause feature slated Q3

• A/B Test Plan: Pilot modular pricing in one region; measure upgrade rate, churn reduction, and ARPL lift

• Ongoing Research: Plan follow-up interviews post-launch to validate assumptions and iterate

What I Learned

• Segmented Insights Uncover Hidden Needs: Micro businesses often have very different workflows. Treating everyone the same meant we missed critical friction.

• Flexibility Drives Loyalty: A “pause” button isn’t just a feature, it’s a signal that we trust and support our users through their busiest (and leanest) months.

• Research+PLG Must Coexist: Embedding micro-tutorials in-app can nudge users from free/core tiers into high-value modules.

Tools & Techniques:
• User interviews
• Dovetail for thematic coding
• Figma for journey mapping & wireframe spec
• Collaboration sessions with Product to align on feasibility