YesHello wasn’t just my first startup, it was an adventure, a classroom, and a chance to create something different. I’m fortunate to have been part of the journey from the very beginning, alongside co-founders who shared my passion.
My love for crafting user experiences, solving problems, and making things work efficiently fueled everything I did at YesHello. Whether it was making onboarding feel like a breeze or turning dry technical details into engaging content, I wanted our users to feel empowered by our product.
Navigating the intricate labyrinth of the WhatsApp API was a definite challenge, but hearing success stories from users who doubled or tripled their sales thanks to YesHello. That’s the kind of satisfaction that keeps you going.
Here’s a glimpse into some of the areas I poured my energy into:
Product Development
User Journey
From day one, I’ve had the privilege of leading the charge in understanding how our users experience YesHello. We’ve made it a habit to have regular conversations with our users, digging into their challenges, aspirations, and how they make decisions within our platform. Through interviews, surveys, and poring over data, we’ve built these detailed customer journey maps. These maps aren’t just pretty pictures; they’re our compass, revealing where we can smooth out rough spots, make things easier to understand, and ultimately make our users happier. We share these maps with the whole team, so everyone understands the user’s perspective. This shared vision is what helps us create a product that truly meets their needs and drives success – more leads, happier customers, and higher conversions.
Roadmap and Changelog
Our roadmap started humbly on Trello, but as YesHello grew, we realized we needed a more robust way to manage feature requests and user feedback. So, we made the switch to Canny.io, a platform that streamlined our development process and made it easier to prioritize what mattered most to our users. I made sure to keep a detailed changelog, so everyone knew exactly what was happening with each update. This transparency not only built trust but also created a sense of excitement around new features and improvements for our users. To ensure everyone was on the same page, we brought together all the different teams – product, tech, marketing – to make sure our roadmap was aligned with our big-picture goals. Collaboration is key, after all.
Website
Our original website wasn’t exactly a shining beacon of user-friendliness. It was a bit cluttered, a tad slow, and definitely not helping us grow. So, I rolled up my sleeves and led a total website makeover. We tackled everything from the layout and visual appeal to the nuts-and-bolts technical stuff. By 2022, we had a sleek, speedy new website that was 87% faster than before. The result? More visitors, happier users, and a website that finally felt like a true reflection of the YesHello brand.
Customer Success
As one of the co-founders of YesHello, my main priority is making sure that our users have the best possible experience with our platform. I’m truly passionate about helping people leverage technology to achieve their goals, and I believe that technology should be intuitive and empowering. That is why I lead the Customer Success Department at YesHello and adopt a hands-on approach to listened to feedback, proactively tackled challenges, and did everything possible to ensure our users had the tools and support they needed to truly thrive. This meant:
Onboarding Transformation: A significant highlight of my work has been transforming our onboarding process. Recognizing that the initial experience was a bit bumpy, we set out to transform it into something smooth. We collaborated across teams to create a seamless, enjoyable experience that felt more like a welcome party than a chore. The result? Free trial conversions jumped from 33% in 2021 to 73% in 2023, and we slashed onboarding time by a whopping 80%. I also developed user-friendly onboarding guides and continuously refined them based on data and feedback.
Data-Driven Improvement: We didn’t just rely on gut feelings; we let the numbers guide us. Metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) were our north star, pointing us toward areas where we could improve. Churn data helped us develop proactive strategies, resulting in a significant decrease in our churn rate – from 5.7% in 2021 to just 1.65% in 2023.
Support That Cares: Building a comprehensive knowledge base and a reliable ticketing system was just the beginning. We went above and beyond, fostering a culture where everyone on the team was passionate about helping our users succeed. I personally connected with high-value customers, building relationships that went beyond simple transactions. This genuine care translated into a stellar 4.8 rating on G2 and countless glowing reviews.
Content Creation
I absolutely love helping people tackle their challenges, and that’s exactly what I get to do for YesHello’s users! Crafting content for our knowledge base, blog, YouTube channel, and social media is my jam. I thrive on showing people the incredible things they can achieve with our platform.
Early on, I dove headfirst into building and organizing our knowledge base (docs.yeshello.chat). My mission was to make it super user-friendly and easy to navigate. I researched the best ways to present information, using a mix of text, screenshots, and even Loom videos for maximum engagement. I was constantly looking for feedback from our users and support channels, ensuring the knowledge base stayed up-to-date and relevant with each new product release. Before my exit, I set up a system for seamless content updates to make things easier for the team.
As our user base grew, I was curious about how our users used YesHello in their day-to-day lives and how it benefited them. So, I took the initiative to connect with users, conduct interviews, and share their experiences in case studies. Even though I’d already chatted with some users during onboarding sessions (my calendar was always open!), I was genuinely excited to dive deeper and help them overcome challenges or hear their stories.
I had a blast crafting case studies highlighting the incredible impact YesHello had on our users, showcasing tangible results and how the platform helped generate leads and boost sales. You can check out some of the video interviews and articles I put together – they’re packed with valuable insights!
With the thrill of welcoming a wave of new users, our support team was swamped with chats and sessions. To lend a hand, I dug into user inquiries and support tickets, spotting common themes and areas where people needed more guidance. We then created a handy FAQ section and detailed how-to articles to tackle those common pain points head-on. The goal was to empower our users with self-service tools and reduce the burden on our support team. Plus, by highlighting some of the lesser-known features in these articles, we hoped to boost engagement and help users get the most out of YesHello.
System & Planning
As mentioned on About Me page, I’ve always had a knack for finding ways to make things run smoothly. At YesHello, that meant setting up the systems and structures to keep our team humming along like a well-oiled machine. We started with Miro boards, covered in virtual sticky notes (can you tell I have a slight obsession with Post-its, both digital and analog). But as we grew, it became clear we needed a more powerful tool to keep track of everything and collaborate effectively. So, I got to work and spent a good chunk of time creating detailed spreadsheets, which eventually evolved into a full-fledged Notion workspace. It was our new digital HQ, giving us the power and flexibility to manage our growing team and ever-ambitious goals.
Since I love building things, I didn’t stop there. We ditched our external CRM and built a custom one right into the YesHello platform. This allowed us to track everything from customer interactions to sales pipelines, giving us valuable insights to nurture our customer relationships. We even found ways to use YesHello’s own features for our CRM, proving that we practiced what we preached.
Of course, staying ahead of the competition is crucial in the fast-paced SaaS world. That’s why I dove into market research, building a competitor database to track their every move – from pricing and features to marketing tactics. This intel helped us identify gaps in the market and refine our own strategies, ensuring YesHello stayed ahead of the curve. I even led a team-wide SWOT analysis to brainstorm ways to make our product even stronger.
Marketing
We embraced the SaaS tradition of yearly promotions, using events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday as our launchpad. To maximize our reach, we launched multi-channel campaigns across email, social media, partnerships, and even paid advertising. This not only boosted user retention but also brought in a wave of new sign-ups.
Building on that momentum, the team and I initiated a strategic marketing calendar include early-bird discounts, limited-time offers, and a referral program to our promotional toolbox. This created a buzz that brought in even more enthusiastic new users.
We also knew that keeping our existing customers engaged was crucial. So, we started a monthly newsletter packed with valuable content – product updates, inspiring customer stories, and industry insights. We constantly analyzed reader engagement, tweaking the content to ensure it was always valuable and relevant.
Operations & Billing
As YesHello grew, so did our operational costs. To keep things sustainable, we knew we needed to make some adjustments. This meant increasing prices for new plans, but we did so carefully, making sure our loyal users weren’t impacted and clearly communicating the reasons behind the change. I took in charge in developing a new pricing strategy, collaborating with sales, marketing, and tech teams, we analyzed competitor pricing, weighed our costs and desired profit margins, and considered the immense value we provided to our customers. Using this data, we designed a flexible, tiered pricing structure that offers different feature sets. This structure appeals to both budget-conscious and feature-rich clients. This optimized revenue generation and customer satisfaction.
To keep the gears turning smoothly, I also managed the nitty-gritty details of subscriptions and billing. We carefully chose the right tools, ensuring they were cost-effective, functional, and secure. We also streamlined the whole invoicing and billing process, so payments were accurate and on time. By keeping our accounting and finance team in the loop, we made sure we had our fingers on the pulse of our financial health, making data-driven decisions to steer YesHello towards continued success.
Closing Thought
YesHello was a wild ride, packed with highs and lows, and I’m damn proud of what we built together. This story is just a highlight reel of the good stuff; the full retrospective, warts and all, is over here. It’s a deep dive into the lessons learned, the screw-ups, and the milestones we hit along the way.
Now, I’m excited to jump into new adventure, channeling my energy and expertise to fresh challenges. After three years in the founder/leader seat, I’m in the mood to join up with someone else’s thing. I’m still all about innovation, creativity, tech, and products designed to help others. Feel free to get in touch if you have any short- or long-term opportunities that you think are relevant to my skills.