Ketharaman Swaminathan

Using The Loss Aversion Principle To Forge Partnerships In New Markets

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When an offshore IT services provider enters a new market, it’s (relatively) unknown in that geography. Many companies in this situation eschew end users and try to drive their go to market strategy by partnering with local IT companies. Ideal partner candidates are boutique shops and systems integrators that are well known in the target … Read more

Six Best Practices To Convert Freemium To Premium – Part 2

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In Part 1 of this blog post, we’d seen three best practices for converting Freemium to Premium viz. Ask For Money, Create Pinch Points, and Drive Enhanced Usage. In this second part, I’ll cover three more best practices for SAAS vendors to upgrade their freemium users to paying customers. #4. INTRODUCE VALUE ADDED FEATURES You … Read more

Six Best Practices To Convert Freemium To Premium – Part 1

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To generate rapid traction for their products, many SAAS providers offer a Freemium plan, which is free access to a truncated version of their full blown software. By doing so, they expect users to sign up for their software without any risk, play around with it for a month or two, and upgrade to the … Read more

Dunzo Gets The Job Done

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My friend who works in a leading IT multinational corporation tells me that an email sent from the second floor to the third floor of his office building in Bangalore actually goes via the company’s regional mail server in Sydney, Australia. When they hear this, many people gasp “Whaaaat?” But, apart from that momentary reaction, … Read more

Three Ways To Boost The Appeal Of Targeted Offers

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Targeted offers have become famous. That’s not to say they’ve become popular – brand managers report low conversion rates of offers made to offers redeemed. There are many reasons for this problem such as the ones I covered in Walking The Tightrope Between Driving Repeat Purchase And Rewarding Loyalty and How To Fulfill Targeted Offers To … Read more

Technology Platform – Go Wide Or Go Deep?

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We come across the “Go Wide or Go Deep?” question regularly in our outsourced product management engagements. (Should the term “outsourced product management” intrigue you, see Who The Heck Outsources Product Management?). Let’s take a typical scenario: An IT company has developed a technology platform without reference to any specific segment. The going in position of … Read more

Pixie Dust Sampling – Or How To Commit Harakiri By Lying With Big Data

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I recently saw the following post on LinkedIn: “95% of banks in the study have created innovation labs.” This figure seemed extremely high to me. I did a quick-and-dirty survey of three banks in my circle. Not one of them has an innovation lab. Nevertheless, I didn’t conclude that the author of the post was … Read more

How Blockchain Can Crack The Holy Grail Of Loyalty Programs

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Loyalty programs give reward points to consumers for making purchases and let consumers redeem their reward points for gifts. By their very nature, reward points look like an alternative currency and quack like an alternative currency. Blockchain lets them pass the Duck Test and become a alternative currency aka alt-coin. I’ve heard of platforms that help … Read more

AI In UI – Low Hanging Fruit For Slashing SAAS Churn Rate

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SAAS users experience frequent UI changes. The sales order button suddenly moves from top left to bottom right of the screen. The funnel report disappears from the splash screen. I could go on and on but the point is, frequent changes in UI drain productivity and escalate training costs. Beyond a certain extent, they might … Read more

Open Banking Needs A Blockchain Boost

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Ever since Open Banking was launched in January, the media has gone on an overdrive, warning bank customers about data breaches and urging them to be cautious about sharing their data with TPPs (Third Party Providers). Fintech thought leader Chris Skinner accused the media of kissing “the banks’ backsides”. But it’s not as though the media … Read more