Discovery Research @ Noom
Improving Noom’s Buyflow Experience
Overview
Noom is a program that focuses on improving overall well-being by using psychology and behavior change. It originally started with weight loss but now offers other programs for mental wellness and sleep. Before users can see their final results and make a purchase, they are asked a series of questions to understand their background and goals. This survey experience is called the buyflow.
Research Goal
The questions potential users have to answer before signing up are not organized well. It takes about 23 minutes for users to finish them. These questions cover various topics like psychology, health, habits, preferences, and motivation. However, the structure and purpose of these questions are not clear. Additionally, the length of the survey is causing fatigue, which might be leading to users dropping off during the sign-up process.
We conducted a research to find out what people consider important or unnecessary information before buying a weight loss program. We also wanted to see if there was a preferred order in which participants responded to these questions. We selected topics for this study by reviewing our current questions for purchasing a weight loss program, but our aim was not to evaluate Noom's current buying process. During the sessions, we made an effort to not disclose the company we work with in order to minimize bias.
To better understand what potential users want before signing up, we will focus research resources. This will give us insights to reorganize the buyflow and achieve other business goals. These goals include increasing eLTV13/CAC (Customer Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost ratio) and improving collaboration between teams to speed up development and minimize errors caused by rapid experimentation.
Link to beginning state of buyflow.
Process
What questions were we trying to get answered?
What do potential users want to see and be asked in a pre-signup experience for a weight loss program? What information do they think is needed to create a personalized and effective program?
Since weight and weight loss is a very personal matter, is there certain information they feel is too personal to share this early on in the experience?
Who did we spoke to?
12 participants
Screened for:
Having interest in weight loss
What they have tried previously to work towards this goal
Main reason for wanting to lose weight
What method of research did we propose?
We asked participants to sort each topic/question (eating habits, age, physical limitations, etc) into one of three categories (important to ask, useful to ask, not necessary to ask). We also invited them to suggest any categories that we may have overlooked but that they found important. Then, we had them prioritize the important and useful topics in the order that made the most sense to them.
How were the sessions structured?
Conducted moderated user sessions where we review a card sort exercise and then have the participants organize their choices in the sequence that best fits their expectations
Identified a list of questions we would present in the card sort activity. Worked with PMs and Designers to finalize list, whether it is questions we currently have (e.g. diet, environment, etc) and/or adding others we did not currently have that we might identify as beneficial to review with participants
Using a white-boarding tool, we present a list of topics for the participants to review. We ask them to move the topics between three categories: must have, nice to have and not needed
Once the participants move the topics in the appropriate category, we have them organize the ‘must haves’ and ‘good to haves’ in the order that makes the most sense to them
Probing along the way for why they made these specific choices and also to see if there was anything they expected to see that we may have missed
Top Insights
Potential users are bringing in their own preconceived beliefs of weight loss and what elements they find most important to losing weight. This as a result, affected their overall expectation of the program, what it should consist of, as well as how they went about the exercise in the study.
Participants' existing beliefs about weight loss and what they think is necessary to lose weight influenced their focus and priorities during the exercise. This could result in a mismatched expectation when they see their plan, if we don't properly explain what users can expect and why we are asking certain questions. To avoid this, it is important to clearly communicate the purpose of the questions, how the information will be used, and its impact on their overall plan.
This approach contradicts Noom's previous strategy of using questions to create a sense of personalization. Unless a question serves a business objective and doesn't genuinely personalize the plan or in-app experience, we should consider whether it is necessary to include it in the buying process. Otherwise, it may only contribute to misaligned expectations for those who encounter it.
Without knowing exactly what their plan would entail, the participants saw understanding the person’s schedule as an important part of a weight loss program. Many of the questions we ask tiptoe around this but participants expressed that their is little point in asking about nutrition, exercise, etc without understanding what their schedule looks like and how it all fits within it.
Participants in the categorization process found that the importance of certain questions varied depending on the components of the weight loss program. Questions about the users' daily/weekly schedule were considered vital for creating a personalized plan, while inquiries about marital or employment status were deemed less significant.
Participants wanted to gather information about their schedule's impact on their weight loss journey and ensure that the program would fit their lifestyle. To ensure a suitable match, they needed to know if they worked during the day or night, if their job involved physical activity or sitting, and if they cooked for others in their household. They also needed to understand the time they could allocate to activities like meal planning and exercising.
Sequencing Pattern
Participants expected information about the program would be surfaced throughout the buyflow in order to build an understanding of what they can get out of the program, how it’s different than others they’ve tried, and show legitimacy in what we offer.
A point worth mentioning, behavioral and psychology-based questions were expected to be asked last in the pre-signup survey. That is because these questions are the most personal and require a level of trust and validity to the program to want to share this information. As heard in the sessions, the hope here is that by this point, participants know enough about how the program will benefit them that they would feel more open to sharing.
Ultimately, questions like these need further explanation on why they are being asked and how answering these questions will affect the plan they see at the end.
Output
The updated experience of the buyflow is currently baselined. To review, go to Noom.com.
Some changes worth noting:
Sequencing of questions follow order mentioned above, the order that made most sense to participant users (though this continues to be tested quantitatively through A/B testing platforms for larger sample size)
Explanation as to why these questions are being asked and how their responses are being utilized in the program
Empathic copy to create a safer space for sharing personal information
Design tweaks to clearly indicate what point they are in the pre-signup survey and what they can expect next in the series of questions