Growth experiments at prototype speed
AI prototyping shortened the wait between an idea and a test, while gamified missions gave merchants on the free plan a path through setup.
Industry
SaaS / E-commerce
Scope of work
Growth
Challenge
Growth ideas for Joy Loyalty were never in short supply. I couldn’t test them fast enough.
I had more hypotheses than I could get in front of a merchant, and an idea argued about in the abstract never gets a clean answer.
Approach
AI prototyping tools let me build a clickable version of an idea myself. Reviews happened over something people could open.
Weak ideas didn’t survive a click-through. That was the point. Setup asks the most of a merchant on day one, so I built gamified missions into the free plan. Small tasks, a reward at the end of each. Mixpanel tracked every step, so a drop-off told me which mission to rewrite.
Outcome
Trial rate up 12% while this was running.
A merchant who finished the missions had already finished setup. The prototyping habit outlived the experiment. I still build the thing before I take it into a room.
