We want to be smart and rational, but emotions are the biggest drivers for every decision we make — both in B2B and B2C. Today our guest is the amazing Talia Wolf, a conversion optimization specialist, trainer, and speaker. You'll learn why people buy things, how to figure out the pains and emotions of your website visitors, and boost conversions using her famous "emotional targeting" method. Download the MP3 audio file: right-click here and choose Save As. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes GetUplift — Talia's company Emotional Targeting 101 — Talia's article at ConversionXL What I Learned Analyzing 13 Years of Basecamp Home Pages — an article by Will Hoekenga Forget Everything You Know About Color Psychology and Read This Guide — Talia's article on colors GetUplift blog Get your free conversion optimization resources at GetUpflift Follow Talia on Twitter: @TaliaGw Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io. This new tool helps SaaS founders get a better understanding of each individual user journey, and send users relevant behavior-based email. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Before designing anything, how do you figure out what your users need in the first place? Today we're diving into Top Tasks Management framework developed by Gerry McGovern, a famous UI/UX expert and author of six books on customer experience. You'll learn why addressing the top tasks is a key to customer success, and how to define and manage them for your project. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Gerry's website — customer experience insights published since 1996 (don't forget to subscribe) Gerry's books Identifying Customer Top Tasks — Gerry's article on Medium Episode 111: Effective Website Navigation with Els Aerts SurveyMonkey — a popular survey tool Jared Spool, Jacob Nielsen — UX thought leaders that influenced Gerry's work Optimal Workshop — great user research tools MeasuringU by Jeff Sauro, This is HCD by Gerry Scullion — recommended UI/UX resources Customer Carewords — Gerry's consulting website Follow Gerry on Twitter: @gerrymcgovern Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Balsamiq, the super-simple wireframing tool that can help you focus your design on what really matters to your customers. Try it free for 30 days at balsamiq.cloud. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Deciding how much to charge for your SaaS is hard, but presenting these decisions on your pricing page is an art in itself. Today our guest is Rob Turlinckx, a digital product designer and co-founder of SaaS Resources. We talk about best design practices for SaaS pricing pages, how to communicate value, overcome objections, and optimize your pricing page for conversions. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Rob's consulting website SaaS Resources — a project co-founded by Rob The Effects of Highlighting a “Recommended” Pricing Plan — an article by Ben Labay at ConversionXL Basecamp, HubSpot, Zendesk, Intercom, MailChimp — some of the SaaS pricing pages we talk about Price Intelligently — a blog by Patrick Campbell Episode 96: Building a Global Customer Base with Ed Freyfogle The Anatomy of SaaS Pricing Strategy — a free book by Price Intelligently The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Resources Guide — a guide by Kyle Poyar at OpenView Labs Follow Rob on Twitter: @robturlinckx Drop Rob a line and ask him for pricing advice at rob@robturlinckx.com Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io. This new tool helps SaaS founders get a better understanding of each individual user journey, and send users relevant behavior-based email. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Every user is unique, yet we need reliable ways to group them into segments — so that we can understand them better and personalize their experience. Today our guest again is the lovely Val Geisler, an email onboarding copywriter and strategist. You'll learn why segmentation is so important for SaaS companies, how to implement it, and how to target your segments via email and other channels. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Episode 102: SaaS Email Onboarding with Val Geisler — previous episode with Val ConvertKit (now Seva) — Val's previous place of work Userlist.io — Jane's SaaS product together with Benedikt Deicke and Claire Suellentrop RightMessage — a popular personalization tool by Brennan Dunn and Shai Schechter Episode 105: Website Personalization with Brennan Dunn Intercom, Drip — pre-acquisition email automation tools Drip, ActiveCampaign, Drift, Customer.io, Vero — post-acquisition email automation tools Kissmetrics — a popular analytics tool Val's website (make sure you subscribe for her famous onboarding teardowns) Follow Val on Twitter: @lovevalgeisler Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by The UI Audit. Want to design web applications that are actually useful to people? This book will help you adopt a smarter approach to UI/UX — from product strategy to each individual screen. To get you copy, head over to uibreakfast.com/audit and use your special promocode SUMMERTIME20 to get 20% off any book package. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

We should make products useful, no doubt. But what if we could also make them addictive — so that the customers keep coming back? Our guest today is Jeff Davidson, a solo product designer and writer. You'll learn key psychological principles behind popular apps, why making a product addictive should never be a goal by itself, and how to design product features that satisfy the user's seeking system. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes How to Design an Addictive Product — Jeff's article Ivan Pavlov, Sigmund Freud, Harry Harlow, Abraham Maslow — some of the famous psychologists Jeff mentions Thinking, Fast and Slow — a book by Daniel Kahneman Intrinsic motivation, Maslow's hierarchy of needs — Wikipedia definitions The Power of Habit — a book by Charles Duhigg Reddit, Product Hunt, Hacker News, Designer News — popular websites with a content voting system Jeff's consulting website Follow Jeff on Medium Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffdavidsond Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io. This new tool helps SaaS founders get a better understanding of each individual user journey, and send users relevant behavior-based email. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

What makes a perfect product demo? How do you engage and convert a potential customer instead of boring them to death with a monotonous screenshare? Today our guest is Aaron Krall, a SaaS enterprise sales coach. You'll learn when SaaS demos are a good fit, how to organize and structure your call, and how to move the sale forward by making it all about the user. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes SaaS Growth Hacks — Aaron's famous Facebook group Breakthrough Advertising — a book by Eugene M. Schwartz 24sessions — Aaron's favorite no-download tool for scheduling and conducting video calls Zoom, GoToMeeting — other popular tools for video calls Calendly, Book Like A Boss, YouCanBook.me — popular scheduling tools Userlist.io — Jane's SaaS product with Benedikt Deicke and Claire Suellentrop Aaron's blog Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaron_krall Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io. This new tool helps SaaS founders get a better understanding of each individual user journey, and send users relevant behavior-based email. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Chats and messengers represent a huge design challenge: there's always room for innovation, but the users are deeply attached to existing UX patterns (think of the latest Skype update). Our guest today is Kostya Gorskiy, Design Lead at Intercom. We talk about their recent messenger redesign, peculiarities of popular chat platforms, and how to design a messaging interface for your own product. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Intercom — Kostya's current place of work Yandex — Kostya's previous place of work as a design director Product thinking: behind our new Messenger home screen — an article by Brian Donohue Design for the Real World — a book by Victor Papanek Inside Intercom — Intercom's blog & educational resources Follow Kostya on Twitter: @k00 Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by The UI Audit. Want to design web applications that are actually useful to people? This book will help you adopt a smarter approach to UI/UX — from product strategy to each individual screen. To get you copy, head over to uibreakfast.com/audit and use your special promocode SUMMERTIME20 to get 20% off any book package. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

Optimizing the trial-to-paid conversion rate is one the most effective ways to improve any SaaS business. Our guest today is Alli Blum, a SaaS onboarding optimization consultant. You'll learn how to define the user's path to success (and their common roadblocks), write onboarding emails based on research data, segment your users, and A/B test every step in your onboarding funnel. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Alli's consulting website NomNom — Alli's favorite tool for aggregating customer feedback and user research Episode 30: Describing Customer Motivation (Jobs to Be Done) with Eric White Putting the (Onboarding) Cart Before the (Product) Horse — slides from Alli's talk at MicroConf 2018 The Sustainable SaaS: What Permaculture Can Teach Us About Building Software — Marie Poulin's talk recap from MicroConf 2018 Inside Growth at Wistia: The Process Behind Our A/B Tests — an article by Andrew Capland how they've ran over 150 A/B tests to improve their conversion rates Recommender system (recommendation engine) — a Wikipedia article Get Alli's free course on SaaS trial optimization Follow Alli on Twitter: @AlliBlum Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by The UI Audit. Want to design web applications that are actually useful to people? This book will help you adopt a smarter approach to UI/UX — from product strategy to each individual screen. To get you copy, head over to uibreakfast.com/audit and use your special promocode SUMMERTIME20 to get 20% off any book package. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

We've been building websites for decades, yet each project imposes new challenges when it comes to navigation. Our guest today is Els Aerts — a famous usability expert, speaker, and co-founder of AGConsult. We talk about the core principles behind effective navigation, how to figure out what information deserves the spotlight, and how to avoid common pitfalls. You'll also learn how to deal with navigation challenges in different industries: government websites, ecommerce, and SaaS. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes AGConsult — Els' agency Identifying Customer Top Tasks — an article by Gerry McGovern Treejack, OptimalSort — tools by Optimal Workshop for tree testing and card sorting Balsamiq, Axure, InVision — prototyping tools Information Scent — a definition at Optimizely Glossary Navigation versus search — Els' article GOV.UK — a good website example without top navigation Jakob Nielsen, Jared Spool, Gerry McGovern — usability authorities to follow CTAConf 2018 — one of the upcoming conferences where Els will give a talk (August 27-29, 2018 in Vancouver, Canada) Follow Els on Twitter: @els_aerts Get €200 off user research training by AGConsult Academy using promocode UIBREAKFAST (valid until June 31, 2018) Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Balsamiq. This super easy-to-use wireframing tool can help you and your team get user interface ideas down before you start coding or sweating the details on fancier tools. Try it free for 30 days at balsamiq.cloud. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.

What is a product strategy? More importantly, what makes a good one? Our guest today is Zack Naylor, co-founder and CEO at Aurelius. We talk about product strategy vs tactics, the objectives and key results framework, the elusive product-market fit, and customer research as the foundation for all of the above. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music. Show Notes Aurelius — Zack's product, user research and insights platform Aurelius Podcast — their podcast The Nerdery — Zack's previous place of work Why The Best Design and Product Teams Decide What, Then How — Zack's article on strategy vs tactics Objectives and key results (OKR) — a popular framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes The Exact Customer Research Process We Used for Userlist.io — an article by Claire Suellentrop, Jane's co-founder Aurelius Podcast: Episode 18 with Patrick Campbell — an episode on customer development, user research for pricing and using data for better decisions Product/market fit — a term that defines the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand Ask 37signals: How do you say no? — an article by Jason Fried Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results — a book by Christina Wodtke Just Enough Research — a book by Erica Hall Indi Young — a famous data scientist and researcher How to Win Friends & Influence People — a book by Dale Carnegie Follow Aurelius Blog Follow Zack on Twitter: @zacknaylor Today's Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Userlist.io. This new tool helps SaaS founders get a better understanding of each individual user journey, and send users relevant behavior-based email. To learn more, join the waiting list at userlist.io. Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.