User Retention and Engagement Strategies

3 Pillars of Duolingo's community-led growth strategy and how you can implement those! Duolingo is known for its "unhinged" personality, dry humor, obsessive notifications and reminders. From celebrating streaks with duo bird cake, asking for help from other native speakers and seeking customer support, their app, Reddit, Inc. community and social presence all have a consistent theme. What did they do right? 1. Brand Personality  👉 Consistent brand personality across all the channels  👉 Crafted their own style and doubled down on what people liked 👉  Engaging with memes, tweets and reels created by users and going all out on that "unhinged" personality 2. User Generated Content 👉 Crowdsourced most of the course content in multiple languages from hundreds of volunteers 👉 Encouraged UGC. People love to share their duo streaks 👉 Used social proof (testimonials) to encourage users to continue learning 👉 Enabled learners to report errors on the app (200,000+ such reports come daily!) 3. Community Spaces (the biggest one) 👉 Multiple channels for users to interact + gain feedback (there is a monthly product feedback mega thread that you will see pinned on their subreddit) 👉 Built knowledge sharing forum/language clubs for learners to engage in various ways 👉 Hosted hundreds of volunteer-led events per week for improving retention (language learning is a social activity 🗣 ). 👉  Ran leagues on the app where users were able to compete with other learners. Now, how can you implement these for your brand? 🎯 Your brand should be simple and delightful to recall. Understand your audience and what they like. 🎯 Integrate user feedback. Branding without value add is pointless. Ask your community what they want and stay focused on value addition. 🎯 Build social features like knowledge forum, shareable streaks, community reporting, peer to peer chat, etc. to hook users in an engaging way. These strategies are very effective for businesses in any kind of habit building space - EdTech, investing, mental health and fitness (you can build these in a matter of days with LikeMinds - FYI 😎 ) Have you ever used Duolingo? Did I miss anything? Let me know in comments!

Building a Positive Classroom: Management & Engagement Strategies 🌟 Great classroom management and student engagement start with clear routines—and a little creativity! Here are three strategies that consistently help teachers create a supportive and focused learning space: Structured Routines: Start every lesson with a quick agenda and model expectations (“I do, we do, you do”). Predictable routines set students up for success and lower anxiety about what’s next. Student Participation: Use icebreaker questions, group work, and varied response formats to keep everyone involved. A simple thumbs up, poll, or brief discussion can spark more voices, especially in online or quieter classrooms. Handling Challenges: When tough behaviors arise, try using positive redirection and consistent consequences. Reflect briefly with students, offer choices, and circle back to expectations—always focusing on growth rather than the mistake. Every classroom has ups and downs, but with intentional routines and opportunities for participation, students and teachers both have room to learn and grow. How do you build routines or boost participation in your classroom? Share your favorite strategy or success story—let’s support each other’s teaching journeys! #ClassroomManagement #StudentEngagement #TeachingStrategies #EducationCommunity

Do you think personas are useless? They're actually a skyrocket for ARR Let me show you: User personas are the 💩 They are my go-to catalyst for increased ARR and decreased churn. Yes, they are fictitious. But they are based on your actual users. Their real value shines when they're part of a larger toolkit: → Journey Maps → Habit Moments → Use Cases → Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) Understanding HOW and WHERE they show up in your product is crucial. In combination with these, user personas transform from caricatures to the most impactful design artifacts you can leverage. Start with bringing them to life: 📍Journey Maps → Not just a series of actions; they're stories → Trace your user's steps; walk in their shoes → Find critical insights into their experience → End-to-End pain points visualized Build a journey for each persona. Awesome, sounds great! But, wait, what do I journey? Great Question - Digital Activation Stages Sign-Up // Set-Up // Aha // Habit Focus on where your users are the most engaged. We call them: 📍Habit Moments → Key features that keep users coming back → Drivers for retention → Contribute to product stickiness → Increases Customer Lifetime Value Our goal is to drive users into habit loops for strong retention. The more naturally users integrate your product into their routine, the lower your churn. Create a blueprint for user retention and satisfaction by mapping these habit moments. Ok, cool. But what if I don't know the habit moments? Find your personas in the data through: 📍Use Cases → Most used interactions by personas → Shows natural frequency of scenarios Collaborate with your Data Team and go through the journeys and use cases. Together, find the use cases in the data to pinpoint habit moments. Habit moments should show you a flattened retention curve over time. This is how you know you're on the right track. Perfect. With habit moments locked in, let's find out why the users hired your product. 📍JTBD → Focuses on the 'Why' of user interaction → Helps identity solutions over features Personas focus on the WHO, while JTBD focuses on the WHY behind user actions. This combination gives a fuller picture of both the user and their motivations. 👇 Let's put it together How to get impact from personas: 💡 Create and/or collect your user personas 💡 Identify the primary use cases for each 💡 Collab with data - find habit moments 💡 Journey map their primary habits 💡 Identify the JTBD in each journey map 💡 Ideate solutions over features 💡 Partner with PM to align roadmap with habits TADA! You just used personas as a secret weapon. 💥 --- How have you successfully used personas in your work? #ProductDesign #ProductStrategy #Personas

We should be treating learning programs like a product. Here are 🔟 product management concepts for your L&D tool kit: Product and L&D leaders have a lot in common. They're both trying to a provide a valuable solution to user pains. The only problem? Their end users are busy, overwhelmed with offerings, and not sure where to begin. There's a treasure trove of insights that product people can teach learning designers. Here are some helpful Product concepts to know👇 💡 Aha-Moment: The moment a user realizes your program’s promised value. Figure out your program's lightbulb moment and get learners to this point fast. ✅ Backlog: This is the list of tasks that need to be dealt with to execute a larger plan. L&D folks have to ruthlessly prioritize. Add items to the backlog and stack-rank your todos to know what to tackle first! 👋 Discovery Calls: Research calls to gather insights that will aid the development process. Hop on calls with your learners before you build. ♻️ Customer Retention: Retaining customers and getting them to return to your program. There are gems in here that can drive continuous practice. 📊 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Quantifiable measure used to better evaluate the program’s success. Define what success looks like early on! 🎯 Lean Product Dev: Method that focuses on speedy delivery, less waste, and user value. Focus on iteration and progress, rather than motion. 💭 Minimum Viable Product (MVP): The smallest program you can build, put out there and get feedback from. Don't wait for the program to be 100% finished before you start gathering essential feedback. 📶 Net Promoter Score: Rates the likelihood of recommending the program to someone else. This is becoming more common for measuring success! 🙋🏽 User Stories: Captures a description of a program module or feature from the user POV. Map out your learners' journey and how elements add to it. 🎁 Value Prop: The measurable benefits users can expect from your program. Make your value props clear and you'll make it 10x easier to attract users. If you're looking to learn more about the intersection of Product and PX, check out Luke O'Mahoney and his awesome newsletter, The PX Espresso Hour. He dives deep into these topics and inspired today's post! What Product concepts for L&D did I miss? Let me know in the comments. #hr #peopleops #learninganddevelopment #peopleexperience #leadership