Developer Experience: A Comprehensive Framework (Part 2)
Part 2: Acquiring and retaining the Operator/Business Persona
Part 1 of this series delved into the developer persona exploring strategies to effectively acquire and retain developer customers. This post, part 2, will focus on acquiring and retaining the operator/business persona, pictured in the third and fourth quadrants.
(Hat tip to Shawn Wang for the visualization)
The Operator/Business Persona
Acquisition
The fourth quadrant targets the other persona critical to winning enterprise deals – the business decision maker (operator). The product-led sales (PLS) motion is a top-down strategy ideally suited for this persona, and recognizes the role of product as the primary driver of demand generation. PLS leverages product generated leads and applies traditional sales efforts to support customer acquisition. Product Qualified Leads are converted into a sales opportunity through attaching sales reps. to close large contracts with enterprise customers.
The key elements of a strategy to target this persona are:
An operator-centric landing page with messaging and content targeting this persona, highlighting enterprise features such as compliance, reliability, and security. Here is Atlassian’s Enterprise page targeting this persona and their page targeting developers. The two pages are fundamentally different in a few important ways:
Call to action: The enterprise page leads with an obvious call to action “Contact Sales”, followed by industry recognition, solutions, testimonials and social proof, followed by references to resilience, security and compliance. The developer page leads with a call to action to “Build”, offers four product categories inviting developers to explore their topic of interest, followed by documentation, and ways to connect with their developer community.
Content: The enterprise page emphasizes business solutions and highlights customer stories, touching upon features critical to enterprise needs, such as scalability, security, compliance, and advanced administrative controls. It describes support options available to enterprises, including dedicated account management and enterprise-grade service agreements. The developer page focuses on technical resources, developer marketplace and community.
Messaging: The enterprise page takes a strategic messaging approach emphasizing benefits such as improved productivity and alignment with business objectives. It aims to convince decision-makers of the long-term value of the software. The value proposition highlights the enterprise-level features and support services that cater to large organizations. The developer page on the other hand, focuses on the technical capabilities, ease of integration, and help from developer support channels.
Design: The enterprise page adopts a storytelling format, and features a long scrolling UX pattern that facilitates linear storytelling. It uses visuals and infographics to communicate the value proposition. The developer page by contrast requires minimal scrolling, is streamlined, to-the-point, and prioritizes information relevant to the developer persona.
Transparent pricing structures and price calculators. Enterprise buyers often have different priorities compared to individual consumers or small business buyers when it comes to pricing. While transparent pricing and price calculators are generally appreciated by all buyers, their importance to enterprise buyers stems from a few factors:
Ease of Budget Planning: Transparent pricing helps enterprise buyers accurately plan and allocate budgets. It enables cost forecasting and avoiding unexpected expenses, which is crucial for large-scale deployments.
Financial Justification: Clear pricing structures help justify expenditures to stakeholders and upper management, making it easier to get approval for purchases.
Comparison and Evaluation:
Competitive Analysis: Clear pricing allows enterprises to compare different vendors and their offerings more easily. This aids in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of different solutions.
Value Assessment: Enterprises can better assess the value they are getting for the price, helping them to make informed decisions about the ROI of a product or service.
Trust and relationship building: Transparent pricing fosters trust between vendors and the enterprise clients, which is foundational to long-term business relationships. The knowledge that a vendor is not attempting to hide costs or apply arbitrary charges can be a key factor in deciding to enter or maintain a relationship with a vendor.
While transparent pricing is important, it needs to be complemented by detailed proposals, flexible pricing models, and a clear understanding of all associated costs to meet the specific needs of enterprise buyers. Enterprise deals often involve customized solutions and extensive negotiations. In these cases, pricing calculators might be unable to capture the full complexity of tailored packages and volume discounts. Also, enterprises are often concerned about the overall total cost of ownership (TCO), including aspects like support, training, integration, compliance, and security features, rather than just the initial price. This makes the business persona optimally suited to product led sales.
When a product applies both PLG and PLS motions to reach a broad audience, the content and design of the pricing page is particularly critical. Auth 0’s pricing page is a master class in UX design for such products. The default setting on the page is B2C with a “Start Building” call to action in the free tier, promising the unique benefit of “Community Support”. This is clearly intended for developers, to encourage them to try the product. For the business persona, the published pricing serves as an anchor and the different price tiers signal flexibility. Messaging that emphasizes top tier SLAs, advanced security, and white glove support for enterprise needs reassures larger clients that their unique requirements will be met.
While Auth0’s robust free tier and the lower barrier to entry allows prospective customers to experience the product's value before committing financially in support of the PLG strategy, subtle prompts and upgrade options guide users towards higher tiers as their needs grow, supporting a natural progression in the PLG funnel. Simultaneously, the CTA to “Contact Sales” at strategic points cater to the business persona who require more detailed discussions and negotiations in support of a product led sales strategy.
Use case focused content and case studies. The ability to attract and engage business personas hinges on how well a company can articulate the relevance and benefits of their solutions in the context of the customer's industry and specific use cases. Algolia’s strategy of leading with solutions and industries on their homepage directly supports this goal by enhancing discoverability through SEO and attracting high-quality leads. This level of personalization significantly enhances engagement and conversion rates. Algolia’s navigation strategy is not just a design choice but a deliberate approach to acquisition that aligns closely with the needs and behaviors of enterprise buyers, ultimately supporting more effective and efficient sales processes.
Social proof with customer testimonials and customer case studies. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a great example of a developer-focused product that leverages customer case studies and testimonials to boost its credibility and win new business. In the enterprise business landscape, establishing trust and demonstrating proven success are crucial for acquiring new customers. Case studies and customer testimonials play an essential role in this process by providing tangible evidence of how the product has effectively addressed real-world challenges for other companies. These stories highlight the specific benefits, outcomes, and value derived from the product, allowing potential clients to see how similar solutions could be applied to their own business problems. The customer testimonials add a layer of authenticity and reliability that enhances the company’s reputation as a trusted partner and reduces perceived risk for new customers, making them more confident in their decision to purchase.
Competitor comparison charts highlighting features critical to business decision makers are a strategic asset in enterprise sales that help build credibility, streamline decision-making, highlight unique advantages, and ultimately support sales teams in effectively closing deals. Stytch is an authentication, authorization and fraud prevention vendor directly competing with well known brands such as Auth0, Fingerprint and Amazon Cognito. Their approach to winning new customers is to proactively address questions from prospective customers by publishing a side-by-side comparison against their competitors. This not only demonstrates transparency but also helps potential clients quickly identify how Stytch's offerings align with their specific needs and requirements. Stytch effectively positions itself as a trustworthy and knowledgeable partner by clearly articulating their unique value proposition and addressing potential concerns upfront.
Customer Retention
Operator/Business Persona
The third quadrant focuses on retaining the business/operator persona as long-term customers. Retention strategies for this persona are centered around ensuring smooth operations, maintaining compliance, and providing robust support. The key elements of a retention strategy for this persona include:
Security and Compliance Information and Monitoring
Businesses need assurance that their data is secure and that they are in compliance with relevant regulations. Providing detailed security and compliance information, along with continuous monitoring, helps build this trust. For example, Google Cloud provides a security command center that gives businesses a centralized view of their security status and compliance posture. This includes real-time alerts and detailed reports on any potential security threats or compliance issues. Regular updates and transparent reporting help businesses feel secure and confident in the services they are using.
Granular User Access Controls
Granular user access controls are essential for limiting access to sensitive data, ensuring regulatory compliance, and increasing accountability within the organization. By implementing detailed permission settings, businesses can control who has access to what information, ensuring that only authorized personnel can view or modify sensitive data.
GitLab is a DevOps platform that provides a range of tools for version control, CI/CD, code review, and project management. They offer detailed access control features that allow enterprises to manage permissions at a granular level such as:
Project and Group Permissions: GitLab allows administrators to set permissions at both the project and group levels. Access to repositories, pipelines, and other resources within a project or across multiple projects within a group can be controlled.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): RBAC enables assigning roles (e.g., Guest, Reporter, Developer, Maintainer, Owner) to users. Each role has a predefined set of permissions, which can be further customized as needed.
Audit Logs: Detailed audit logs of user actions, including changes to permissions and access levels are available to help administrators monitor user activity and maintain compliance with security policies.
Access to Financial Information
Operators and business personas need seamless access to financial information such as invoices, payment options, and tax documents. This facilitates efficient financial management and ensures that billing processes are transparent and straightforward.
Twilio’s customer console targets the operator persona with a “Monitor” tab located right next to the “Develop” tab on the menu to the left. The dashboard provides details of the spend along with detailed reports per product.
Usage Analytics for ROI Tracking
Providing usage analytics helps businesses track the return on investment (ROI) of the services they are using. These analytics give insights into how effectively the tools are being utilized and where improvements can be made.
For instance, operators can opt to dive deeper into usage and pricing data on Twilio’s console to see reports by accounts and sub-accounts per product to track their ROI.
Communication Channels for Feedback and Support
Effective communication channels are vital for businesses to share feedback and request support when needed. These channels span the spectrum of interactive to informative. An effective communications strategy leverages both types.
Informative channels in the form of newsletters, quarterly business reviews, annual roundups, and surveys serve as outbound opportunities to disseminate information, in addition to providing the company a structured way to solicit customer feedback.
Interactive channels on the other hand such as chat (Slack/Discord), livestreams, company conferences, and social media (Twitter/LinkedIn etc.) serve as inbound opportunities for customers to request help and offer unsolicited feedback.
Here is how Datadog uses both types of channels effectively as a part of their communication strategy:
Informative Channels for Business Personas:
Executive briefings, industry reports, and case studies showcase successful implementations of Datadog's monitoring and analytics platform.
Thought leadership articles, whitepapers, and webinars tailored to business leaders address topics such as infrastructure performance optimization, cost savings, and security compliance.
Interactive Channels for Business Personas:
Personalized consultations with dedicated account managers provide real-time communication and collaboration opportunities.
Participation in executive forums and exclusive events, such as executive summits hosted by Datadog, facilitates engagement with the support team and industry peers.
Access to a customer portal enables business personas to submit inquiries, track support tickets, and access knowledge base articles tailored to their specific business needs.
Conclusion
In this two part series, we have explored strategies to effectively acquire and retain both developer and operator/business personas, each playing a critical role in the success of software products.
By tailoring strategies to the unique needs of both developer and business personas, companies can drive higher acquisition rates, enhance customer satisfaction, and ensure long-term retention. This comprehensive approach not only strengthens customer relationships but also positions companies for sustained growth and success.