Disciple · Chapter 01
Prospects were leaving before they saw the product. We needed to reduce commitment for the user and embrace learnings over perfectionism.
The scene
Michael Harrower
Head of Product Design · Disciple
In 2025, every new prospect still had to attend a sales call and pay before they could try the product. I watched our conversion data every week and it was clear we were missing out on a huge amount of potential learnings and sales.
Fewer than three people in a thousand were making it from our homepage to a real conversation with us. The rest were slipping away, probably to a competitor who just let them sign up.
The problem
Our primary CTA had a 1.39% click rate. Of those who clicked, barely 0.29% went on to book a call. We were asking people to schedule a meeting, watch a demo and pay before they could try the product for themselves.
1.39%
CTA click rate
0.29%
Calls booked
< 3 in 1,000
Visitors converting
Weekly average paid and organic traffic
Is demoed the product by sales
Starts using the product
The work
I decided to work chronologically through the prospect experience, starting with website conversion rate optimisation.
Phase 01
I ran a series of A/B tests back to back to improve the conversion rates on the marketing site ahead of the first self-serve test: hero animations, CTA copy, content order, form design, and headline variants. “Get started” consistently beat “Book a demo”, despite us not having a self-service product yet. We were telling people what they wanted to hear before we could deliver it. That created pressure to move faster.
The method I used to improve CRO incrementally
Collate conversion optimisation ideas
Prioritise the test ideas
Run regular tests (1 per week is ideal)
Track conversion performance
After several successful tests, the homepage included an animation of the product, “Get started” CTA, “Take a tour” secondary CTA, marquee of customer logos to boost social proof
Over 2 months, bookings increased 2x despite a drop in traffic
Phase 02
The second phase was the pivot. We switched our primary CTA from call booking to a direct sign-up flow. Demo booking became a secondary option. The results were unexpected. People were engaging with the product in meaningful ways despite almost zero onboarding optimisation. The product was doing work we hadn't even planned for.
The homepage, including all the winning changes from the CRO tests
On pressing “Get started”, users see a signup screen with: product visual intended to make the dashboard+app setup of the platform clear; Form title using Disciple’s total member count to boost brand confidence; only the necessary fields to create an account; and clear CTA “Start my free trial”.
Naming the app was a necessary step for the backend to begin building. Since this step could make users stall due to perceived commitment, the CTA is titled “Save for now” with the note “Change any time”, to make it clear they won’t be stuck with what they choose.
Testimonial images are included on this screen and the following screens, to boost social proof and brand confidence.
This step was added to allow for better qualification of leads.
The option to upload a logo was included to increase the potential for effort justification and a sense of personalisation. If the user uploads a logo, they’ll feel more invested in the app because they’ve committed some effort to it and it feels more tied to their brand.
The same principles apply here; choosing a theme increases effort justification and a sense of personalisation. Getting the user to fully customise the app theme is the end goal, but it’s too much effort to include in the signup process so some basic themes are available here. “Save for now”, “Customise fully later” are intended to highlight this.
Once the signup steps are completed, the user is faced with a loading screen. It’s not ideal, but unavoidable for this first version due to tech limitations. Given the loading time is short (30 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on how long the user took to complete signup), I opted to keep this screen clear of any clutter and focus the user’s attention on the loading bar, so that they don’t get distracted or confused.
Once the app is built, the user lands on The Disciple Console’s home screen, The “Action centre”. This screen was pre-existing and focused on serving existing customers actions/notifications. We added a widget with welcome/tutorial videos as a basic improvement for self-serve users in this first version.
The funnel analytics looked very different after self-serve had been launched.
Before
After
Phase 03
With the funnel now running self-service and performing considerably better than expected, I decided to continue testing and switch focus to activation inside the product. My goal was to increase use of crucial features in the user’s first 24 hours of access.
The method used to improve activation followed a similar pattern to the one I used for CRO.
Start collating activation ideas
Prioritise the test ideas
Run regular tests (1 per week is ideal)
Track actions and time spent in Console
The launch checklist idea increased customisation by the user by 44% and increased member account creation by 62.23%.
We implemented a basic email workflow that directs the trial user to the right part of the product, introduces them to ways they can get human help and reminds them about their trial status.
The introduction of a subscriptions page allow trial users to see a detailed breakdown of the pricing tiers and subscribe, giving them immediate access without going through sales.
The outcome
+50%
Sales through self-serve
5×
Leads captured
£2,590
Monthly revenue increase
The improvements seen to the marketing funnel and the amount of leads trying the product vastly exceeded our expectations. Self-serve went from an outside experiment to a central part of the sales process within 2 months.
What I learned
Prioritise learnings over perfectionism.
The team had valid reservations about the first impressions of the product without sales support. Testing it showed us that stopping them use the product was doing more harm than good.
Self-serve customers demand more support.
Because self-serve customers pay more quickly, usually pay on a monthly basis and they tend to have more drive for quick results with the product, they are generally more demanding of customer success and support. Almost the opposite of the NGO type customer who is grant funded and not in a rush.
Be prepared to have more success than you expect.
The first version of our subscription page was not built to automatically upgrade the user's plan upon payment. This meant scrambling to manually upgrade users when they paid. It was sustainable for the first couple of users, but then became a bottle neck and affected the user experience negatively.
Next chapter
The dashboard had a very large number of features with very little thought applied to architecture or pattern design.