After defining your market and beachhead market segment, the next step is to understand how your persona will interact with your product through the Full Life Cycle Use Case, also known as the Customer Journey.
The Full Life Cycle Use Case is the mapping of all the steps that the customer will go through, from the moment he realizes he has a need until becoming a promoter and promoting the product to other people. It will help in two very important points:
Knowledge of the main barriers to be overcome between each stage of the Customer Journey;
Greater understanding of the value proposition of the product or service.
There are 10 steps that make up the Full Life Cycle Use Case:
How does the user discover they have a need or an opportunity for improvement?
How does the user discover the company's product?
How does the user analyze if the product is the most suitable?
How does the user purchase the product?
How does the user install the product?
How does the user use the product?
How does the user evaluate the value gained from the product?
How will the user pay for the product?
How will the user be supported for the product?
How will the user repurchase or comment on the product with others?
Realize that these steps very well synthesize the main factors along the journey that motivate or not someone to buy the product. To clarify each one of them, let's see what Nubank's Full Life Cycle Use Case could look like as an example:
1. How does the user discover they have a need or an opportunity for improvement? João was outraged to find out that his bank had been charging meaningless maintenance fees without his knowledge for months. In addition to your money being stuck in your account without earning a penny and having a lot of difficulty using your application;
2. How does the user discover the company's product? João, while being with a group of college colleagues, heard a comment from one of them about how much better Nubank was than the previous bank. The money even stopped in your account, not to mention that you didn't pay any fees for the maintenance of your card. For this reason, when he got home, he accessed the computer to look for more information;
3. How does the user analyze if the product is the most suitable? Upon entering Nubank's website, he realized that everything his colleague said was true. When comparing with other digital banks, he realized that few could add the same value, in addition to Nubank having more positive comments on the websites and social networks it visited;
4. and 5. How does the user purchase and install the product? João then installs the app through the Play Store and creates a Nubank account;
6. How does the user use the product? João transfers his assets from his old bank to Nubank and requests the card. Basically, you continue using the application to track your expenses, income and make purchases online;
7. How does the user evaluate the value gained from the product? João verified that his money is yielding 100% of the CDI and still saving on fees, so he is managing to increase his equity more quickly. In addition, he saw a lot of value in the Nubank Rewards program and in the usability of the application, he found the application very intuitive and very practical to carry out credit card payment in addition to carrying out transactions;
8. How will the user pay for the product? João pays to Nubank through the fee paid to participate in Nubank Rewards, a benefits program with points that never expire and that for every R$1 spent is equivalent to 1 accumulated point. John also sometimes delays some credit card payments and needs to pay interest;
9. How will the user be supported for the product? João can get in touch via the app's chat, phone or by email in case of any problem;
10. How will the user repurchase or comment on the product with others? João can easily refer Nubank through the app in different ways, such as by email, facebook messanger and whatsapp.
In this example we can see the importance of knowing each of these steps. Would it make sense for a person to listen to a friend commenting well on Nubank or receive an invitation to open an account before feeling the pain mentioned in step 1, which are directly related to how the user sees value in step 7? Thus, one of the main focuses of the company must be to signal these problems to users, especially for those who do not feel this yet.
Another key point is understanding the features most used by customers in step 6 and understanding how they can request support in step 9. Having knowledge of this, we were able to increase or maintain the company's NPS (Net Promoter Score) at a good level.
We hope this post has shown the importance and helped you build your Full Life Cycle Use Case. This post is based on the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet, professor at MIT, which has a clear step-by-step guide on how to get an idea off paper and launch your startup.