Secrets to a Successful App Redesign

In this episode of “Masters of MAX,” host Tom Butta is joined by Alexis Baird, Head of Product Experience at Thumbtack. She shares how Thumbtack’s app experience made it the go-to home maintenance solution and expresses the critical need for personalization to serve today’s customers’ ever-evolving needs. 

Short on time? Here are five key takeaways from the conversation.

Bridge Knowledge Gaps & Uncertainty Through Personalization 

Personalization is key to bridging uncertainty and the reactive needs of your customers. A successful app redesign follows this principle to improve the app experience. Thumbtack’s app is built for two groups of people: customers and pros. 

Given the uncertainty of homeownership, Thumbtack’s app onboarding guides customers through personalized, bite-sized educational content to create more meaningful user experiences and boost homeowner confidence. The more you understand your customer’s goals, the more you can use mobile personalization to position your app as the go-to source for their needs. 

Collecting User Feedback Is a Cross-Functional Effort 

Alexis stresses a common misconception about launches: You build the product, release it with a big splash and celebrate with a high-five. In reality, a launch is an ongoing, iterative process of testing and gathering customer feedback. 

Thumbtack’s app redesign involved a cross-functional effort across design, engineering, content design and data science teams. To refine the user experience, they tested a small segment of their customer base called the “sandbox.” 

Focus on Your Long-Term Vision With Tactical Flexibility 

Effective app marketing requires a clear, broad vision and room for experimentation. Alexis shares how Thumbtack removed short-term revenue pressure to perform A/B testing with a small, targeted audience. The result was more flexible tactics for creating personalized experiences and increasing customer engagement. 

Prove Your Hypotheses With Data & Testing 

Developing hypotheses is easy. The real challenge is proving them to work. Finding the right balance between innovation and a smooth mobile app experience requires testing and refinement. To succeed, brands must track the right metrics to ensure their apps meet quality standards and align with their long-term story.

App Redesigns Are Continuous, Not One-Time Events

Many brands view app redesign as one-and-done, but it’s an ongoing process of testing and refining the mobile app experience. Alexis shares, “I’ve been a part of redesigns in other lives, and you almost never get it right the first time or the second time or the third time. It takes a lot of iteration to get to that bar that you want for a broader launch.” Brands must test, refine and audit the app experience until they can consider their app redesign a success.