Jing Jing’s Newsletter
Product Discovery Show
Ep1: Counter-Intuitive User Growth Insights with Maria Cuasay (Director of Product @Ancestry)
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Ep1: Counter-Intuitive User Growth Insights with Maria Cuasay (Director of Product @Ancestry)

Maria shares stories of diagnosing why her product wasn't taking off -- spoiler alert, it didn't fit what users were looking for.

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

What do you mean, that adding screens sometimes drives more user growth?

In this episode of the Product Discovery Show, Maria Cuasay, Director of Product at Ancestry, shares how she did product discovery to discover why her growth experiments weren't working.

Maria shares several case studies: one where she optimized the checkout flow at Ancestry and adding more screens actually solved more user pain points. She also shares an immersive way of de-risking physical mail marketing at Opencare. Throughout the episode, she shares practical tips for those looking to launch successful products.

Chapters:

00:00Introduction to Product Discovery

01:10Maria's Evolution as a Product Leader

03:17Defining Moments in Maria's Career

07:44Building vs. Scaling: Maria's Preference

09:47The Role of Product Discovery at Ancestry

10:37Understanding Ancestry's Business Model

11:29Optimizing the Checkout Flow

12:55The Importance of Qualitative Insights

19:14Transforming Insights into Action

27:23Lessons Learned from Experimentation

28:57Reducing Mental Friction for Better Conversion

30:36Building Reputation and Expanding Remit

31:50Innovative User Insights at OpenCare

34:58De-risking Direct Mail Marketing

39:15Rapid Iteration in User Research

42:33The Importance of Clear Copywriting

46:05Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Data

50:59Structuring Insights with Opportunity Solution Tree

54:45The Balance of Discovery and Execution

Where to find Maria:

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