4 ms·

Startups - Get To Know Your Users

60 points by destraynor 14y ago

sparknlaunch12 14y ago
I have heard lots of speak around this sort of user monitoring recently. Sure, sounds great but how important is it? Is it a priority for a startup? Sure it may help in converting some new customers. May help existing customers. But is this where you want to spend your time and effort?
- destraynor 14y ago
  Hey SparknLaunch12, "How important is it" Learning from your users is really important for start-ups. It's how you know when you hit MVP, it's how you know what your key values are. But your userbase isn't one big mesh of people. There are active users, premium users, people who signed up once after clicking a HN link and never returned. Being able to break your users down into groups (such as "ActiveMonthly") or "Enterprise" helps you get targetted feedback. On a single user level, if you intend to talk with customers, it's massively useful to know exactly who you're talking to. You'll give a different pitch or response if you know the user has never created an invoice (filed a bug / uploaded a photo/ whatever). As always, the best way is to give it a try. We find it incredibly useful.
jnorthrop 14y ago
The site doesn't provide much technical details but I'd be worried that aggregating data from disperate sources (potentially external) in order to identify and track users could run afoul of privacy laws and regulations. Particularly for companies operating in the EU or those in the US that have access to student, medical, financial or government data. Also, I'm suspicious of a product that promises a seamless integration of disparate data sources. Anyone who has tried to do that within a company, and I imagine many of us have, knows just how tricky that can be. I guess some additional details would be nice to have before I'm sold on the promise.
- destraynor 14y ago
  Hey Jeff, I understand where you're coming from. Your recent post on Privacy was very good. It's up to each customer to choose what information they're comfortable sharing. On top of that business data we include communications, and usage data and we source publicly available profile data (though you can disable this if you wish). In terms of seamless, the screenshots aren't faked. It's all there. It all works. Send me a mail (des at intercom dot io) and I'll happily provide any extra details you want. You might find answers in the docs alternatively. http://docs.intercom.io/ http://docs.intercom.io/ Regards, Des
  - jnorthrop 14y ago
    Hey thanks for the links to the docs. There's a lot of answers in there. I'll do my do my part and go through them before I email. BTW, you should link that privacy policy from all your pages...
kenrikm 14y ago
Great post, by the end I was looking for the "buy button" you did a great job defining the problem and a nail that sticks out always gets hammered. ;)
chrisdroukas 14y ago
Des, where is Intercom based out of?
- destraynor 14y ago
  Hey Chris, San Francisco and Dublin (Ireland) Des
developer9 14y ago
"Your customer data shouldn't be in silos." True, but as someone affected by having to conform to PCI, FERPA, HIPAA, etc., they don't make it easy on you if you do it the way you are supposed to. Proper summarization of data and setup of reporting DB is non-trivial. Outsourcing this is tempting, but outsourcing customer data analysis is also fairly risky. It is one of the greatest frequently untapped resources a business has. Why give it to someone else?
vincentchan 14y ago
Have been using Intercom for our products for a few months already. It's fantastic! And our users love it a lot.

60 points by destraynor 14y ago

I have heard lots of speak around this sort of user monitoring recently. Sure, sounds great but how important is it? Is it a priority for a startup? Sure it may help in converting some new customers. May help existing customers. But is this where you want to spend your time and effort?

destraynor 14y ago
Hey SparknLaunch12, "How important is it" Learning from your users is really important for start-ups. It's how you know when you hit MVP, it's how you know what your key values are. But your userbase isn't one big mesh of people. There are active users, premium users, people who signed up once after clicking a HN link and never returned. Being able to break your users down into groups (such as "ActiveMonthly") or "Enterprise" helps you get targetted feedback. On a single user level, if you intend to talk with customers, it's massively useful to know exactly who you're talking to. You'll give a different pitch or response if you know the user has never created an invoice (filed a bug / uploaded a photo/ whatever). As always, the best way is to give it a try. We find it incredibly useful.

jnorthrop 14y ago

The site doesn't provide much technical details but I'd be worried that aggregating data from disperate sources (potentially external) in order to identify and track users could run afoul of privacy laws and regulations. Particularly for companies operating in the EU or those in the US that have access to student, medical, financial or government data. Also, I'm suspicious of a product that promises a seamless integration of disparate data sources. Anyone who has tried to do that within a company, and I imagine many of us have, knows just how tricky that can be. I guess some additional details would be nice to have before I'm sold on the promise.

destraynor 14y ago
Hey Jeff, I understand where you're coming from. Your recent post on Privacy was very good. It's up to each customer to choose what information they're comfortable sharing. On top of that business data we include communications, and usage data and we source publicly available profile data (though you can disable this if you wish). In terms of seamless, the screenshots aren't faked. It's all there. It all works. Send me a mail (des at intercom dot io) and I'll happily provide any extra details you want. You might find answers in the docs alternatively. http://docs.intercom.io/ http://docs.intercom.io/ Regards, Des
- jnorthrop 14y ago
  Hey thanks for the links to the docs. There's a lot of answers in there. I'll do my do my part and go through them before I email. BTW, you should link that privacy policy from all your pages...

kenrikm 14y ago

Great post, by the end I was looking for the "buy button" you did a great job defining the problem and a nail that sticks out always gets hammered. ;)

chrisdroukas 14y ago

Des, where is Intercom based out of?

destraynor 14y ago
Hey Chris, San Francisco and Dublin (Ireland) Des

developer9 14y ago

"Your customer data shouldn't be in silos." True, but as someone affected by having to conform to PCI, FERPA, HIPAA, etc., they don't make it easy on you if you do it the way you are supposed to. Proper summarization of data and setup of reporting DB is non-trivial. Outsourcing this is tempting, but outsourcing customer data analysis is also fairly risky. It is one of the greatest frequently untapped resources a business has. Why give it to someone else?

vincentchan 14y ago

Have been using Intercom for our products for a few months already. It's fantastic! And our users love it a lot.