Designing the End-to-End Monetization Strategy

Brainly, an ed-tech market leader, needs to constantly optimize the premium conversion funnel to stay competitive: quick-wins, model restructurings, seasonal promotions, and more. All strategically interconnected and using the same internal design system. Below is a summary of my work for Brainly's Monetization Team.

Company

Brainly

Years

2020-2023

Categories

Product Strategy
UI and UX Design
Leadership

My role

Both hands-on work and leadership support on most monetization-related projects. Heading and managing design processes, research, and cross-team collaboration.

Background

This long-term initiative encompassed several projects unified by a common goal: increasing revenue by improving the monetization flow; four interconnected stages: entry, conversion, retention, and churn prevention. Optimizing one meant optimizing all, necessitating forward-looking strategic thinking behind product design decisions.

Iterative experimentation was a key aspect of the design process, with many concepts undergoing several iterations, rollbacks, or optimizations.

Data analytics served as a fundamental component of my decision-making process as my role partly required conceptualizing the broader strategy.

Routine user-testing helped fine-tune particular aspects of the UX, greatly contributing to the success of many experiments.

The Process

Setting objectives based on the business context. Understanding the strategic background behind monetization-related projects was crucial in delivering value beneficial for both the user and the business. Stakeholder interviews were a vital part of this process.

Estimating the project scope and planning work. With an understanding of the business context related to monetization, the other team members and I could identify fundamental UX issues and possible approaches.

User testing, benchmarks, data analytics, background research. Strong research was the basis for many decisions made for various projects under the monetization banner, from finer UX decisions to overarching strategic choices.

Summarizing research, ideating, and workshopping solutions. Collaborative work based on largely completed research helped create a unified understanding of the main objective and other smaller contributing goals.

Strategic thinking and planning validating experiments. With the initiative being a long-term strategy, proposed changes and designs had to have been planned ahead to ensure only the most promising opportunities are tackled.

Wireframing, user testing, and gathering stakeholder feedback. Creating simplified designs typically followed all "theoretical" work. With those, I could swiftly align with stakeholders and developers on fundamental basics.

Designing the final product UI and consulting with developers. While specifics depended on the project, all of them were created under the same scrutiny and followed the best possible practices – RWD, accessibility, and design system alignment, among other aspects.

Launch and learning from experiment results. "Continuous growth" was the guiding approach throughout the initiative, meaning everything was made with room with improvement in mind. Quantitative A/B testing helped validate specific hypotheses and quantify opportunities' potential.

MVT of the subscription cancellation process provided precise performance data, opening the doors to refine the step-by-step order in the upcoming experiments.

A fake-door experiment explored the conversion rate potential of different distinct features.

The payment form, a high-priority part of monetization, saw many user tests in an early low-fidelity stage to help settle the UX direction.

Discussions were plenty. As monetization is central to the product, all parties must be on board before taking a single step in any direction. Clear communication with stakeholders and individual contributors was critical in choosing the right course.

The Outcomes

Altogether, the changes significantly improved the revenue flow and solved several technical, design system-related, and strategic issues. While I worked on several distinct projects under the initiative, below is a slice of this overarching strategy.

Huge increase of several hundred percent in revenue was achieved thanks to growth across all related metrics.

Me and my team examined and implemented many collaboration methods during the initiative. Complex problems required exploring novel design process approaches.

A mix of simpler experimental optimizations with fundamental redesigns of established structures. This includes a reorganization of the Brainly premium trial, the subscription payment and cancellation flows, and others.

Improvements in the cancellation process severely increased the flow's dropout rate, reducing churn.

Enhancing the internal design system with monetization-related elements.

A completely redesigned payment process introduced cross-market consistency while solving unique UX issues.

The Paywall’s (a key entry point) customizable, 3-step structure severely improved several critical metrics. It also allowed for further optimization with relatively simple quick-win experiments on communication.

Newer payment form redesigns follow successful experiments by introducing new subscription models and changing the step-by-step process into a seamless flow.

Restructuring premium trial mechanics required a complete overhaul of the monetization model at the crossroads of technology, strategy, business, and design.

Showcase 2

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Creating advanced prototypes to effectively communicate complex technical concepts

Designing for multi-language localization

As usual, there is still so much more to cover but only so little time. Feel free to check out my social media links or drop me a message to learn more about my work, skills or availability.