Designing Workflows that Customers Want to Adopt

In last issue, I shared that, “When Tundra Angels invests, we often analyze startups betting on the workflow that will prevail.” (In case you missed it, the last issue is here.)

So…what determines if the startup’s new proposed workflow will win, or if the existing status quo workflow will prevail?

I want to introduce my mental model on workflows that I think through when evaluating startups for investment. I evaluate companies through the lens of five variables.

The Five Workflow Variables:

1. The Trigger Moment

2. The “A ha” Moment

3. The Line of Ambivalence

4. The Drop-off Point

5. The Value Payoff

Specifically, game changing workflows have the following characteristics:

1. A clear Trigger Moment

2. Many “A ha” Moments

3. Stay far away from the Line of Ambivalence

4. Almost never fall into the Drop Off Point

5. Unleash a spectacular Value Payoff

Let’s address each of these variables:

1. The Trigger Moment

The trigger moment is the customer or user’s context that causes the workflow, old or new, to be kicked off.

Understanding the trigger moment that kicks off the workflow helps me as an investor understand how often this product will get used.

Sometimes the user or customer doesn’t understand the trigger point clearly. They don’t understand the use case that your product can help them with.

2. The “A ha” Moment of Value

The “A ha” moment is a feeling in the middle of a workflow when the customer gets a quick glimpse to the Value Payoff at the end of the new, proposed workflow. If it occurs, such moments tend to be when a user hits a milestone in the workflow.

Strong product experiences have at least one “a ha” moment and ideally many “a ha” moments.

Poor product experiences do not have any “a ha” moments. 

I have acutely observed the dynamics of what happens in an “a ha” moment. Simply put, “a ha” moments are moments of comparison.

In an “a ha” moment, the user does a delta evaluation of the waste that used to be involved in the process compared to the waste now (if any) to accomplish the same milestone. But that comparison happens in a split second. The user mentally concludes something like, “Whoa! Did that just happen? Before it took me _(waste)__,” or, “I never experienced ________ before! That was awesome.” 

✅ From a user perspective, “A ha” moments are critical moments of progress. They are like emotional fuel that keep the user moving sequentially to the next milestone of the workflow.