Case Study: How Product Consulting & User Research Delivered 23% Conversion Growth

When a promising fintech startup asked me to help with their product strategy, I was pretty surprised we'd unlock such massive product impact in just three weeks.

The Startup That Had Everything... Except Conversions

Linx is one of those startups that just makes sense. They've built a cashback platform where businesses reward customers for social shares. It's brilliant economics—businesses get organic social traffic, customers get cheaper purchases. Everyone wins.

The team is incredible, the user base is growing fast, and the business fundamentals are solid. But when I joined as their Product Consultant, we discovered something that was alarming for me.

The Data That Changed Everything

First things first—we had to build proper data foundations. When I arrived, they had almost no instrumentation (a common startup problem). We decided on metics, KPIs, goals and built the taxonomy. We then worked with engineering to implement tracking, created daily and monthly dashboards, and built comprehensive business intelligence.

Once we had clear visibility, the problem jumped out immediately. A huge portion of users were downloading the app, getting free money credited to their account, and then... nothing. Zero purchases.

This was puzzling. Why would someone ignore free money?

User Research Reveals the Hidden Truth

Here's the thing about data—it shows you what's happening, but it can't tell you why. That's where user research becomes absolutely critical for product impact.

Working closely with the CPO and their designer, we decided to go straight to the source. Our goal was simple: interview 20 customers across three distinct user segments:

1. Brand new users who just installed the app

2. Existing users who tried it once and never returned

3. Power users who engage weekly

We developed a comprehensive questionnaire covering user backgrounds, download motivations, expectations, and daily routines. Our mission was uncovering the real motives behind app installation and usage patterns.

It did take us some iterations to really nail it, but once we did - we rolled.

The "Aha" Moment

What we discovered changed our major parts of our product strategy.

A massive chunk of our users simply didn't understand how Linx worked. But here's the kicker—the users who did figure it out became our most engaged customers. They used it frequently and shared it with friends.

This was our breakthrough moment. If we could solve this comprehension problem, the product impact on both conversion and retention would be enormous.

Two Paths, One Smart Choice

We had two potential solutions, each with clear trade-offs:

1. Redesign the core app experience - This would address the fundamental issue, but identifying the exact fix would be incredibly challenging and time-consuming.

2. Create an onboarding experience - This wouldn't solve the core problem, but it would test whether better messaging could bridge the gap.

   
   

Product Consulting 101: Smart Prioritization

In product consulting, prioritization is everything. For startups with limited resources, every decision has ripple effects across the entire organization.

I used a straightforward Effort vs Impact framework—no need for complex processes when you're small and moving fast. After team discussions, the math was clear: redesigning the core flow would take 2+ months, while building a simple (but high quality) onboarding would take just 2 weeks.

Given our focus on speed and learning, we chose onboarding. Worst case scenario? We'd waste two weeks. Best case? We'd unlock massive growth.

Execution at Startup Speed

Week 1: Initial design concepts and messages we want to convey

Week 2: Design iterations and refinements

Week 3: Development and testing

Week 4: Launch!

The team was so excited when we launched. Everyone knew we were onto something big.

The Results That Blew Our Minds

The product impact was immediate and dramatic. Same-day conversions—from app install to first purchase—jumped 23% overnight. And it kept climbing.

We were honestly shocked by how effective this simple solution was. The business impact was beyond our wildest expectations.

The Secret Sauce

How did we achieve such remarkable product impact so quickly?

Deep customer understanding through data and real user research, identifying their mental models and pain points, and executing solutions with startup-level speed.

For the Linx team, this is just the beginning. They're continuing to iterate and optimize, pushing that conversion number even higher.

The Bigger Picture

This experience reinforced something I see in product consulting again and again: the most impactful solutions often come from truly understanding your users, not from complex technical innovations.

When you combine solid user research with smart prioritization and fast execution, you can achieve incredible product impact in record time.

Working on a product challenge that needs fresh perspective? I'd love to help you uncover similar breakthrough opportunities. Let's start with a free 30-minute discovery call to explore your product's potential >