Jodel is a hyperlocal social media app that boasts millions of active users in 11+ countries across Europe and the Middle East.
As the Design Lead I worked with a team of talented Product Designers and Engineers to introduce a new monetization strategy for Jodel's social experience.
To successfully implement a new monetization model, we established important values that would guide product ideation and design with a focus on both user and business needs.
To develop a set of values that would be beneficial to the business, we conducted extensive business analytics and analyzed our existing monetization offers.
We established three key business values: a more stable revenue stream, an expanded target audience, and the unlocking of spending limits.
To identify values that would enhance the user experience, we conducted user research and held a product workshop based on our findings.
We identified three important user values: highlighting content that was valuable to our users, enabling new forms of self-expression, and encouraging community participation through incentives.
By having defined clear values, we were able to stay focused on the mission, prioritize our efforts, and make informed design decisions throughout the project.
To develop ideas for our monetization strategy, we conducted a competitor analysis focused on consumables in social apps and held several brainstorming sessions with a diverse set of employees.
From our competition we learned which solutions users are already used to and how they are implemented.
In our sessions we learned about inspiring user stories from our community and design team, as well as data insights from our data scientists and product managers, and gathered a large number of potential ideas for monetizing our audience.
Using our established values and the expertise we gathered in the process, we selected six ideas and created design prototypes for all of them. In parallel, we conducted mock payment flow tests (or fake door tests) with a selected audience within our app to assess which solutions users were most likely to pay for. This early testing helped us to prioritize our user testing efforts and make informed business calculations.
Based on the results of our efforts, we narrowed down the list to the top three ideas that had the strongest potential for monetization while providing value to our users.
To bring our selected monetization solutions to life, we built Minimum Lovable Products (MLPs) for each of the three ideas. These allowed us to implement the solutions with lean efforts and get fast results.
Our solutions included a range of consumables, such as boosting content, rewarding other users with reactions, and highlighting posts through special colored posts.
To ensure a coherent user experience, we designed an In-App-Purchase Modal that could be used to buy consumables for each new functionality. The modal enabled a consistent purchase flow, regardless of which consumable was being purchased.
For our premium subscribers, we topped up their premium subscriptions to provide them with a set amount of consumables for each function every month.
To ensure that we were launching the features successfully, we launched them separately in different countries while closely monitoring user feedback, engagement, and profits. This allowed us to quickly make improvements and optimize each solution for our global user base.
Throughout the project, my team and I worked collaboratively to achieve our shared goal of creating a successful monetization model that met the needs of both our users and our business. To ensure that everyone's input and expertise was leveraged in the process I worked closely with stakeholders, including our CEO, product managers, data scientists, and community managers.
Our combined efforts led to the achievement of our three key business values: a more stable revenue stream, an expanded target audience, and the unlocking of spending limits.
By establishing clear values at the beginning of the project, we were able to stay focused and prioritize our efforts throughout the process. As the Design Lead, I was responsible for guiding the team, leading workshops, and ensuring that our design decisions aligned with our established values.
By working collaboratively with stakeholders and utilizing design thinking methodologies, we were able to create a profitable and enjoyable experience for our users. I am proud of the hard work and dedication that my team and I put into this project and am excited to see the continued success of our monetization model.
