Patterns in UX and Engineering are reusable elements that provide inspiration for solving common problems. Product Patterns extend this concept by looking at the various mechanisms at a more abstract level then lines of code or those drawn on wireframes. The following are examples of common patterns used in some of the best web products and are organised according to Dave McClure's pirate metrics (http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/06/internet-market.html). Use this as a way to inspire conversation. Ask if any of these patterns could be used in the context of your product?

1. patterns for better products

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Pirate Metric Mechanisms
V1.0 – 28 May 2013
Anh Han
anh@savantdegrees.com

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• Patterns in UX and Engineering are reusable elements
that provide inspiration for solving common problems
• Product Patterns extend this concept by looking at the
various mechanisms at a more abstract level then lines
of code or wires
• The following are examples of common patterns used in
some of the best web products.
• Use these to inspire conversation. Ask if any of these
patterns could be used in the context of your product?

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AARRR

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• Pirate metrics provide a framework for analysing
performance of product. There are 5 areas:
– Acquisition – How you get users to visit
– Activation – How you get them to sign up
– Retention – How you get them to come back
– Referral – How you get them to spread the word
– Revenue – How you’ll make money
• Find more info on google!

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Acquisition Activation Retention
Referral
Revenue

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ACQUISITION
How do users get to your site?

8. SEO (Search EngineOptimisation)is a wayto get you at
the top of Googlesearch engines usingvarious on and
off producttactics.
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9. SEM (Search Engine Marketing)is a wayto get a paid for
advert seen by peoplewhosearch certain keywords
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10. AdWords displays your ads on relevant sites.
Relevancy is based on page contentas wellas past
browsingdata.
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11. Ads on Social Networksoffer targetingbased on
affiliationand interest. These ads are often more
relevant but provide a lowerconversion then Google
Ads as user’s are “not activley lookingfor a solution”
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Media Buying is the process of buying dedicatedad
space on a websitethat is relevant to your target
audience

13. Articles in relevant media (on and offline)provide a way
to introduceyour productto a relevant audience.
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14. Leveraging a mailinglist (yours or someone else’s)
provides a channel to distributecontent about your app.
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15. SocialBookmarkingSites (e.g. Hacker News,Reddit,
StumbleUpon,etc) allow the communityto decide
what’shot
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16. Viral Content can be used to raise awarenessof your
productto mass audiences.
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17. Mailboxon iOS used scarcity to drive massive amounts
of hype for their product.
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ACTIVATION
What will get users to create an account?

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500px lets the user try the product with a temporary
account that can be upgraded

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Houzz forces a user to login or sign up before
allowing access to more features

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Basecamp articulates their user proposition as soon
as the user lands on their homepage.

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Mailchimp offers a free sign up and a video of their
product in action

23. SSO (singlesign on) makes logina breeze
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24. Padiactoffers a fullyfeatured free trial withoutthe need
for a credit card, removing a large barrier for sign up.
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25. Feedlypromises seamless integrationwithGoogle
reader to reduce switchingcosts.
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26. Trellouses a video to show examples of how the
productcan be used. It’s about conveying the contexts
and use cases of the product.
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Kissmetrics uses different versions of their landingpage
accordingto the channeland persona that visits the site.

28. Wooprauses a single field to startthe sign up process.
Because of consistency, peopleare likelycontinuefilling
out a more detailedform on the next page.
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RETENTION
What keeps users coming back?

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Gmail offers a tour of new features

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Quora uses notifications to show users what new
value the product can provide since

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Facebook will send a user an email prompt if they
haven’t logged in for a while

33. Evernote makes it hard for users to leave. As users put
more effort into a product,the cost to switchincreases.
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34. Facebookprovides the user withmore value whenthe
user increases their number of in-appconnections
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35. Hunchgets better for the individual and the community
the more it is used. The user gets better personalisation
and from that, the overall algorithmimproves.
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36. The communityat Reddit willusually provide as much
value for users as the contentitself.
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37. Superbetteruses elements of gamificationto increase
user engagement.
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Asana uses a blog to announce new product features.
A flash message is displayed to the user to notify
them of updates when they log in.

39. Eventbrite uses email to provide a personalised
recommendationon future events
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40. Tripitwillkeep workingfor the user withouthaving to
visit the product. Auto-magic email integrationkeeps
the product valuable whilstallowingpassive behaviour.
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41. REFERRAL
How will your users spread the word?
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Dropbox incentivises users to spread the word with
extra space (utility)

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Soundcloud provides easy access to popular social
sharing site

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User actions within Soundcloud are automatically
posted on a user’s wall

45. Pinterestwillask users as soon as they connect to share
the product withtheir Facebook friends
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REVENUE
How will people pay you?

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card.io uses a mobile camera to easily insert credit
card details. This enables others to remove the
friction in mobile payment.

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Evernote offers a free and premium service. The
premium service provides more features

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Dropbox gives a full featured free service. Pro
accounts give you more utility of the same feature set

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Mailchimp provides multiple payment tiers including
Free, monthly and pay as you go

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Facebook provides an advertising platform. They
charge advertisers per click (ppc) or per impression
(ppm) to distribute their message to their user base

52. Dedicatedad space allowsmedia partners to buy a
distributionchannel to your users.
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53. GoogleAdSense allowsyou to serve ads from the
Googlenetworkon your site. Ads are targeted based on
your site content and the browsinghistoryof your
visitor.
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META PATTERNS
Other good stuff that’s not related to the pirate metrics

55. Cohortanalysis means lookingat analytics from users
groupedby date signed up. This gives you a wayto see
if you are gettingbetter at Productvs Marketing
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56. FunnelAnalysis lets you track analyse and diagnose
whereusers are having difficultieswithyour task flows.
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57. A/B Testinglets you run live experiments withyour user
base. Compare a new approachwiththe old,and if you
get better steps, move forward.
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58. API’s offer a wayfor others to make your productmore
valuable. Platformsoffer more value then products.
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