In this issue, I cover:

• “A ha” moments hack behavior change by being a quick win for your user

• “A ha” moment examples from Spotify, Waze, and Returns on Demand

• 4 Steps to Design an "A ha” moment in your product experience

• Why founders must design a “A ha” moment and work backwards from there to build the product.

For users or customers to have a higher likelihood of adopting your startup product in their workflow, they need a quick win in the product experience.

An “a ha” moment is that quick win. 

The “A Ha” Moments of Spotify, Waze, and Returns on Demand

To give a sense of how the “a ha” moment happens in real life, here are three examples.

Spotify’s “A ha” Moment

This audio clip is from “Daniel Ek: How Spotify Revolutionized The Music Business” from the Starting Greatness podcast, an interview with Mike Maples, Jr. and Daniel Ek, Co-Founder and CEO of Spotify. The clip timestamp is from 13:41-14:04.

Waze’s Two “A ha” Moments

This audio clip is from “The Insider Story of Waze” from the NFX podcast, an interview with Gigi Levy-Weiss and former CEO of Waze, Noah Bardin. The clip timestamp is from 12:36 to 13:44.

Returns on Demand’s “A ha” Moment

Returns on Demand, one of the Tundra Angels’ portfolio companies, has a very compelling product for the tuxedo rental industry. The co-founders are Dustin Conrad and Scott Allen.

If someone has rented a tuxedo before, they know the frustration of renting a tuxedo. The person goes into the store to get fitted. Then the person goes in a second time to pick up the tux, then goes into the store a third time to drop it off after the event.

Returns on Demand’s last-mile drivers can pick up rented tuxedos from the store and deliver them to the groomsmen who rented their tuxedos, as well as pick them up after the event. Returns on Demand partners with formalwear stores B2B2C to offer this product and the stores activate the consumers to opt-in for the no-brainer service.

While we (Tundra Angels) were doing due diligence on Returns on Demand, I spoke to three Returns on Demand customers who were owners of formalwear stores. In those three conversations, one of Returns on Demand’s “a ha” moment became clear….

Returns on Demand’s first “a ha” moment happens right when the rental stores pitch the service to each customer. 

For the consumer, a tuxedo delivery and returns option is first, unexpected for the consumer. It catches the tux rental customer off guard, but hits them with incredible value especially if they have ever rented a tuxedo before. This is also evidence in the high opt-in rate for customers using the Returns on Demand’s product.

You can see the power of the “a ha” moment from a customer’s own words in a Google Review after he used Returns on Demand’s service while renting a tux. 👇

Three Ways to Design Product “A Ha” Moments

1. Determine who the “A ha” moment is for

As we discussed in this issue, products have different actors. For example, in the case of one of our portfolio companies, DropCap, their main actor is an independent publisher. There are other actors and people in the book publishing ecosystem that could use the DropCap rights product, but the independent publisher is the most critical role that uses the product. Design the “a ha” moment for your startup’s most critical actor. Ideally, each actor has an “a ha” moment but start with the most critical actor.

2. Associate a Loss with a Win

As an “A ha” moment is a quick win, identify a loss that the user currently experiences. For inspiration, use the Value Payoff framework to determine the major losses the user experiences.

A strong “a ha” moment associates a quick win in the product experience with a loss that the user feels or thinks.

For Daniel Ek at Spotify, the he identified the loss that it was then not possible to have access to any song in the world. (Note that this “A ha” moment is less relevant now due to the distribution of music. But at the time, this “a ha” moment was revolutionary for the user).

As a bonus observation, notice also how Daniel found the right context for his product “a ha” moment - at a party when people were already playing music. 

For Waze, the first identified loss was the difficulty Noah’s commute and how using Waze shaved off 15 minutes. His wife’s loss was an insecure feeling of feeling alone while driving, and now with Waze, she didn’t feel alone.

For Returns on Demand, the loss identified is the hours of lost, unnecessary time that each groomsman spends on managing the tux. When the stores pitch the Returns on Demand service, the conversion rate is insanely high because of the loss involved.

3. Design the “A Ha” Moment

With the loss and win identified, designing the actual moment of how the user experiences it becomes a creative exercise. Two major categories:

Functional: What does your product need to be able to accomplish for the user, often in the background, to disarm this loss?

Visual: How can your product deliver this or visualize that this win has taken place? 

You should imagine that this moment is one that the user figuratively “trips” over in the product experience. In other words, it’s impossible to miss and they know it happened. Additionally, it’s not something that a fraction of the users experience. Ideally, 100% of users experience the “a ha” moment.

For great products, and for great “a ha” moments in those products, the “trip” never leaves the user the same. 

4. Place the “A ha” moment as close to the front of the workflow as possible

An “A ha” moment does not have to exist internal to the product itself. Rather, it happens somewhere on the surface area of the entire product experience. 

Place the “a ha” moment as close to the front of the new workflow as possible. Some guidelines for certain types of products are:

1. In a product where the user voluntarily opts in himself or herself, the “a ha” moment must be placed < 20 seconds into the experience.

2. With a product where the startup grants the user access to a portal, or the startups needs to install the product, the “a ha” moment MUST occur on the demo.

How “A Ha” Moments Work Best

✅ Product “a ha” moments, fundamentally, are a product design decision.

Products then must be designed around the placement of their “a ha” moments. Don’t wedge an “A ha” moment into an existing product flow.

Thus, identify where the product “A ha” moments will be in the workflow, and then work backwards. Build the rest of the product around those “A ha” moments. ✅

I’d love to hear your feedback on what you’re struggling with on workflow adoption, “a ha” moments, and changing customer behavior to adopt your product!