Why? (Objective)

1. For business

   Currently, there are less than 10% users who are paid subscribers despite some users using the app for more than 6 months or a year. There is a huge potential to increase revenue by increasing number of paid users. Our research had identified two causes for low subscriptions: low awareness and low adoption. Our goal is to improve awareness and encourage users to adopt the paid version without affecting the current user experience.

2. For users

   Our goal is to create a feature that will allow users to search items from their scan history. Sometimes users don’t remember if they have already scanned a product and they need a way to find it in their scan history. Additionally, many users aren’t aware of the features offered in premium subscriptions since the visibility of subscription details is low. So this feature will also serve as a tool to increase awareness in users.

How do we measure success?

1. Associated OKR/Goal

   1. 25% increase in awareness measured through visits to the premium subscription page
   2. 10% increase in adoption measured through direct subscriptions

2. Success Metrics

   1. Subscription conversion rate - % of users who subscribe to premium version after using search feature. Directly measures if users find the search feature useful and subscribing to premium version.

   2. Unlock Premium button click-through rate (from search results) - % of users who click on unlock premium button after seeing search results. Indicates if users are interested in exploring premium features.

   3. Number of Search query per week per user - # of search queries made in a week per user. If a user subscribes to premium then search queries would increase.

3. Guardrail/Do not disturb metrics (These metrics shouldn’t be negatively affected)

   1. Subscription cancellation rate - % of users who cancel the subscription before 30 days to receive full refund. Indicates that users are not finding value in the premium subscription.

Who are the users:

1. Primary Persona is Free User

   1. Prakriti is a 29 year old Customer Success Manager who lives in Toronto, Canada. She is a foodie and loves exploring and cooking new recipes at home. She watches cooking videos on Youtube and researches how to cook recipes to get authentic taste and is always on lookout for ingredients that provide authentic taste. She is also believes in healthy eating and healthy living. Hence she exercises regularly in gym and monitors her diet closely. She ensure to take in correct portion of macro-nutrients with her meals and also takes protein supplements after workout sessions. She shops grocery every weekend in local grocery stores near by. Ever since she started using Yuka, she has been mindful of what she eats. So she ensures to check any new product and its ingredients in Yuka before making a purchase decision. She is a quick decision maker and uses Yuka as a guide to compare different products. She often doesn’t remember what she scanned previously so she scans the products again whenever she shops in store. When comparing products she often feel that she needs to scroll through a long list to find a product that she scanned previously because it is not available in the store now. She also would like to able to use it at home when watching cooking videos to immediately verify if the item recommended by chef is healthy/safe or not. She isn’t aware of the features (search) offered in the premium subscription.

2. Problems we are solving [Needs, Problems, Jobs to be done]

   1. Needs
      • When shopping, users compare products and make decisions based on score and ingredients risk. Often they compare products with previously purchased product/ scanned product to decide which one to buy.
      • When shopping users make final purchase decision based on their personal criteria. These criteria are based on 1) personal preferences such as avoid seed oils, 2) allergies such as nuts allergy, and 3) medical necessity such as diabetes, chronic kidney function disease. Users need a simpler way to quickly identify if the product meets their requirement or not.
   2. Problems
      • Users generally scan a product if it is available in the store. In case they are in a different, then they look for the score from scan history. To compare with previously scanned product, users have to manually scroll through a long list of scanned products and find the one they are looking for. This could become a frustrating experience if the list is too long.
      • After scanning the product, users often read through the product report to further investigate if it meets their criteria or not. Since, Yuka doesn’t explicitly highlights those criteria, some users (especially with dietary restrictions or other allergies) need to verify information manually. This breaks the shopping flow because users sometimes have to rely on google to find more information. Additionally, when evaluating recommendations, users need to further ensure that the item suits there needs because Yuka doesn’t take that into consideration while making recommendation. Furthermore, it could be frustrating repeating the same analysis for multiple products when shopping in store.
   3. Jobs to be done
      • When shopping in store, I want to quickly compare new item on the shelf with an old product I purchased from a different store some time ago, so that i can decide if i should buy the new one or not.
      • When shopping in store, I want to quickly identify if the product meets my requirements so that I can decide if I should buy it or not.

3. How do we know these problems exist (research)

   1. 5/5 users interviewed said that they buy products only with good / excellent ratings and sometimes those products are not sold in their regular stores and have to purchase them from a specialty store that sells organic products. Many users in the reviews have mentioned the need to be able to search for a product from scan history to easily find it from the list instead of scrolling through it.
   2. 5/5 users mentioned that they have specific process and criteria for evaluating products and 1/5 said that they check everything in Yuka’s report. 4/5 users surveyed answered that they also check packaging and ingredients after reading Yuka’s report. Additionally, many users mentioned in the reviews the need for a way to know if a product contains ingredients that is unfavorable to them.

Solution:

1. Brief of the solution. Search scan history

   This feature serves the dual purpose. It solves users’ direct problem and at the same time it also helps raise awareness about premium subscription among free users. This feature allows users to search products from scan history using product names, brand names or product category. It will display results in two categories. First category will be scan history and second category will be similar products. Scan history will display results from user’s direct scan history and second category will display results from Yuka database. For free users, similar products will be locked and they can directly go to subscription page to unlock the results. Premium users will be able to view results as before along with results from scan history.

   Additionally, the search history is also stored along with scan history for premium users so that they can easily find the products they have searched for previously.

   This feature directly improves awareness of premium subscription and improves user experience for the free users without taking away existing features.

2. Other alternatives are considered with prioritization metrics.

   1. Personalized profile Instead of users having to filter the recommendations every time they scan a product and check the recommendations, user can create a profile where they can add their personal preferences. So, when they scan a product and see its ratings, they will get to know if it contains any flagged ingredients. So, they can make a quick decision to not buy the product even if it has high score.

   Additionally, the recommendations will be filtered based on their personal preferences and hence, they don’t need to manually set it every single time.

   2. Dedicated “Premium” section Add an entry into options menu named “Premium” which will clearly indicate to the user. It will take users to subscription page with information on features, pricing and benefits.

   ---

Product flow (Details of the feature/product):

1. Wireframes and Prototypes
   1. Figma wireframes
   2. Prototype