Insights from User Interviews

The team interviewed around 40 users, of which 38% were paid and 62% other users. From these around 9 users churned.
 
Here are some insights from churned users:
🔍
Key Insights:
  • Hotjar is an incomplete solution and needs integration with other tools for a complete picture.
  • Hotjar does not show if their hypothesis is validated or invalidated
  • Some users prefer CleverTap, Mixpanel, or other direct/indirect competitors as they provide better analysis
  • The free plan has very limited features which are available on the free plan of competitors or at a lower cost
  • Need consolidated automated/AI-generated analysis, so that teams don’t have to go through individual sessions
  • The support team has a delayed response. Even on Business plans, they do not handle customer requests on priority
  • Users have found Crazy Egg to be easier to use as compared to Hotjar
  • Users need a tool that can consolidate the findings from screen recordings instead of investing time in watching each video

Problem Statement

Hotjar’s Perspective

1️⃣
Free users do not have all details of what can be done via a paid account. Even though a ton of content is available, the information is somehow not reaching the right audience
(Hypothesis- Free to paid conversion can be improved by providing a way for users to discover how some of the use cases can be solved in paid version)
2️⃣
Some of the paid users expect better customer support and are not happy with the current support that’s there
(Hypothesis - User retention can be improved by providing better customer support)
3️⃣
Some competitors are offering a lot of features for free
(Hypothesis- User retention can be improved if we can showcase how those with free plans leverage user data)

User’s Perspective

1️⃣
There is no way to serve mobile CRO needs via Hotjar as of now. Users want mobile support also - a single tool for all their needs
(Hypothesis- More users can be acquired and converted to paid users by adding mobile support)
2️⃣
Users have to spend a lot of time going through recordings and heatmaps for generating actionable insights.
(Hypothesis- Paid users can pay more if there is an insight tool available that automatically generates insights)
3️⃣
Users have to spend a lot of time going through FAQ sections in case they want to check how some new things can be implemented.
(Hypothesis- Free to paid conversion and retention can be improved by providing a way for users to discover how some of the use cases can be solved in paid version)

Competitive Landscape

Consider the problems described above, we see these core areas for a competition analysis
  • Support for mobile apps
  • Feature discovery
  • AI-based insights
  • Support
Let’s review how is the competition doing in these areas:
Name
Microsoft Clarity
Hotjar
Mix Panel
Full Story
Customer Support
Email
Email, Form Submission
Email, Form Submission
Email, Form Submission, Session
Feature discovery (Score out of 10)
8
5
7
7
AI Insights (Score out of 10)
8
5
7
5
Mobile App
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
It seems Hotjar when compared to competitors lacks in most areas where users had concerns.

Which problem to solve - RICE Analysis

Feature
User Problem
Reach (Existing Users)
Impact (out of 10)
Confidence (out of 10)
Effort (man months)
RICE Score Rank
Discover - AI based insights from recordings and heatmaps
Ease of Use, Save Time
2336 (7%)
6
7
8
2
Assist - GPT based bot for support and help
Feature discovery, Support
2336 (7%)
8
10
8
1
Hotjar for mobile
Omnichannel Support
6674 (20%)
7
7
36
3
To maintain its market leader position in the long term, Hotjar should enhance its offerings by leveraging AI to automatically generate insights (Discover) from heatmap and recording data, thereby strengthening its competitive edge.
 
Additionally, developing Assist feature will be useful for feature discovery and conversions.
Hotjar had in past tried developing a mobile app and failed. Developing an SDK will help user acquisition and competitor parity in the long term. As of now, Hotjar is not targeting users who have mobile app solution requirements so this can be deprioritized.
 

🔹 New Features: Discover and Assist


 

Overall Impact

🎯
Overall Impact
We have included collective impact in the growth model. Adding the product hook will contribute to the larger goal of increased revenue through different channels - acquisition, retention and monetization.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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