Added new oql funnel stages doc #115
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This doc adds a new page to break out the new functionality added with the latest OQLs release and shares use case information.
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| ## Interest <a id="interest"></a> | ||
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| These events are like viewing your documentation, your README, or your site (pixel activity only - a download would trigger the investigation stage). Less than 10 points are accrued in this stage. |
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I think we may want to be a little bit less specific here. 10 points might be what we require now but it's very likely to change as we refine our heuristics. Qualitatively, "Interest" is representing the fact that the lead has demonstrated that have heard of the project and minimal familiarity with it.
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Ok, not a problem. I'll remove the point values here and with the other stages.
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| ## Investigation <a id="investigation"></a> | ||
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| Enough activity has occurred for us to suspect the user/organization is actively investigating your OSS. Between 10 and 39 points are accrued in this stage with events such as at least one package download with multiple docs views or at least two weeks of consecutive pixel view activity, and the company has been active in the last 30 days. |
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Similar thing here and for the rest, let's de-emphasize the specific point values that drive this and focus more on what we are qualitatively looking for. Our heuristics will get much more sophisticated over time. The general idea here is that the lead is likely to be at least gathering enough information about the project to investigate adopting it, and typically has at least downloaded it (or has read a significant amount of docs, resources, etc)
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| ## Experimentation<a id="experimentation"></a> | ||
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| Sufficient activity has occurred for us to suspect the company is actively using your OSS for one or more production systems. Between 40 and 69 points are accrued in this stage with events such as multiple downloads and page views over 30 days or a single download and multiple page views over 60 days, and the company has had activity in the last 90 days. |
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This stage is actually not about using it in production yet, but that they showing enough activity that they are at least demoing, working on a proof-of-concept, etc. They show significant enough use that it was not a one-off blip but they are leaning into the software more.
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| ## Ongoing Usage <a id="ongoing-usage"></a> | ||
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| Companies in this stage may be ready to become paying customers and should be moved into your sales/marketing pipeline where available. For non-commercial open-source projects, companies in this stage may be good sponsorship targets or valuable advocates in the community. These companies will have event activity over the course of the past 90 days, such as continued downloads or views, and will have accrued 70 or more points. |
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Here, we're not quite saying they are ready to be customers. Many OSS users will never become customers, and that's okay! Rather, we're claiming that there is enough usage over a long enough period of time that they are relying on the software in an ongoing way. If a lead is in this category and also an organization that is a good fit for the Scarf customer's commercial offering, and maybe even shows other buying intent (eg, viewing a pricing page, support page, etc), we could say there is significant evidence purchasing intent. But we want to be clear of the difference between OSS adoption stage and purchasing intent. They are related but not the same.
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| # Open Source Funnel Stages<a id="funnel-stages"></a> | |||
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| Scarf assigns a point value, or score, to companies based on event activity, such as documentation views or artifact downloads. This score considers the recency, frequency of event activity, and Event Importance, combining the benefits of traditional lead scoring and intent data. That point value is used to determine the **Funnel Stage**, which helps to clearly identify a company’s readiness for various types of marketing or sales engagement. | |||
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We want to be a little careful here because there are two different notions of "points" here. There are points that we assign to actions that get leads to their next funnel stage, but there is separately points that go into "Scarf Score" which represents our notion of their actionability. Further down the funnel doesn't necessarily mean more actionable, as we might disqualify companies that don't fit the customer's target profile, etc.
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What do you think about this:
Scarf tracks event activity, such as documentation views or artifact downloads, and considers the recency, frequency of activity, and Event Importance, combining the benefits of traditional lead scoring and intent data and formulating a Funnel Stage.
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Maybe something more like:
"Scarf analyzes how companies interact with your open source project to infer their progress towards adopting it. Funnel Stages represent the portion of the user journey that best describes any given company or lead, from the moment they learn of your project, to when they deploy it to production, and beyond."
You could mention custom intent signals here but it actually feels like more of a detail than a top-line value proposition.
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| Scarf's data combines lead scoring's best features with intent data. Real-time activity highlights the companies actively researching and testing your open-source software. This data facilitates operationalizing the usage and intent data provided by your Scarf Gateway. | ||
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| ## Build More Accurate User Personas & Ideal Customer Profiles<a id="build-more-accurate-user-personas--ideal-customer-profiles"></a> |
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This section is a bit more broad, not sure if it's really relevant to this page in particular, would suggest moving it or just discarding it here for now.
docs/funnel-stages.md
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| # Using Your Scarf Funnel Stage Data<a id="using-your-scarf-funnel-stage-data"></a> | ||
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| Scarf's data combines lead scoring's best features with intent data. Real-time activity highlights the companies actively researching and testing your open-source software. This data facilitates operationalizing the usage and intent data provided by your Scarf Gateway. |
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We may want to add something about optimizing the funnel itself. If you are noticing drop off at certain stages, it may indicate onboarding improvements you can make. Maybe your docs need work, maybe product positioning is off, etc.
Updates made to each of the funnel stages to remove details on point values.
Rephrased introduction
Removed broad info on using scarf data for sales and marketing ideas, narrowing focus to key trends.
Accept addition of Adoption to funnel stages title. Co-authored-by: Avi Press <mail@avi.press>
Added new page for OQL Funnel Stages and Funnel Stages documentation that explains new functionality and use cases.