Cricut New Member Journey

Background

Cricut makes design software and cutting machines that crafters and prosumers use to create personalized gifts, decor, apparel and more.

I was hired to oversee onboarding; empowering and motivating these Members to successfully set up their machines and make their first few projects. The company was concerned that our new Member success rate was declining but knew almost nothing about beginners beyond acquisition-related insights. My first project was to better understand our target and their journey getting started with Cricut.


Goals

Primary

Identify and prioritize areas for improvement and opportunity toward a new Member’s onboarding experience.

Map the new Member journey, identifying emotions, actions, pain points and delighters across identified onboarding stages.

Secondary

Develop universal insights and assumptions that can inform future products and targets and their related onboarding journey maps.


Approach

Interviews and Diary

Kickoff - Interview new owners before they’ve opened the box to understand expectations, actions and emotions when first getting started
Diary - Follow their online journals in first 3 weeks of owning cutting machine
Exit - Evaluate actions, emotions and future intent following first 3 projects

Survey

Validate, scale and expand upon insights and data derived from diaries and interviews​

Behavioral Data

Validate and expand upon survey and interviews with actual data regarding new Member behaviors and engagement with design software and cutting machine.


Insights

  • Understanding before getting started that there will be challenges correlates strongly with satisfaction when getting started.

  • A positive attitude toward learning, the journey and making mistakes matter more than prior experience.

  • New Members experience dramatic pendulum swings between excitement and anxiety, often feeling alone in their struggles.

  • When first setting up, new Members experience cognitive overload, heightening the potential for confusion, oversights and errors at every step.

  • The experience of making a first project is critical, either increasing or damaging their level of confidence and motivation to continue.

  • Once set up, new Members are overwhelmed trying to find what to make and understand how to make it, often leading to attempting and failing to make projects beyond their skill set.


Output

  • Onboarding Segments

  • Onboarding Customer Journey

  • Stakeholder Concept Generation Workshop

  • Customer Journey Templates for other Cricut products and services