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With 2020 in full swing and with 2019 behind us, we want to take a moment to reflect on what we, at Layerise, have achieved during the last 12 months. At the beginning of 2019, we outlined a product vision and an ambitious and aggressive execution roadmap, including all the features and functionality that we found essential to unlock even greater customer satisfaction.

## A year of growth and rapid product development
Looking back at our achievements in 2019, there is no doubt that we have taken a huge leap forward with our product, design and solution. Since Jan 2019, we have quadrupled the number of clients and have, at the same time, reached thousands of end-users across all seven continents with outstanding Product Assistant usage.

This is a noticeable acknowledgment of our platform, as this past year, we focused on unique end-user product experiences, increase in features and improved service value, and at the same time have done significant work to ensure that brands using our platform have the best-in-class tools and support. The work that has been accomplished has further enhanced our ability to support a wide range of product categories and improve customer post-sale experiences.

Our commitment to continually push updates and improvements, while at the same time work on enhanced platform architecture and data portability has allowed us to see significant positive returns both with clients and Product Assistant end-customers. At the same time, we have been hard at work promoting sustainable environmental choices while growing or expanding business ventures. We are therefore incredibly proud that more brands have decided to join Layerise’s efforts to minimise paper production and usage by utilising digital and smart Product Assistants to provide an even more excellent post-sales experience for their customers.

### Product Assistant growth
Layerise has been attractive and popular among brands with unique and smart products, making our Product Assistant solution a perfect fit for their efforts to provide their customers with the best product onboarding and guide. This alone has meant that customers are experiencing the full potential of their devices while using the Layerise-powered Product Assistant.

![Chart](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/13Kwf7PJV6JhUuyGNUcl0L/846d41aaacc2e4f04fab3c9c2907cad0/Chart.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Since the day we started rolling out our Product Assistant Gen.1, we have seen impressive growth and adoption rates. During early 2019 customer growth and product, registration was driven by a small number of deployed Product Assistants. Still, as we moved into Q2 and throughout 2019, we have recorded doubling rates several times. It has been exciting to see customer adoption and the rate of which more and more customers are registering multiple devices. This growth translates into the evidence that customers are expecting better and more useful post-sales customer experiences and will, in the future, have more significant product onboarding requirements. Besides, every time a customer has used the fully digital Product Assistant in the past year, we have saved earth that incremental negative ecological trail that paper production, colour cartridges and distribution/shipment provide.  

## Making platform stakeholders happier
All parts of the Layerise platform and offering have been improved by great lengths. Over the last 12 months, we have doubled the team to execute faster and to return great productivity value for all platform stakeholders.

### Improved user experience
We started 2019 off by releasing the Product Assistant Gen.1. Since then, the Product Assistant has received more than 400 feature, performance and enhancement updates. In the same period, the Product Assistant UI has been renewed several times to cope with the increasing feature richness and to better adapt to the growing variety of customer usage patterns.

Here are a few screenshots from different points in the year to see the Product Assistant speedy progression:

![assistant evolution](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/3PXNIr2lTRWtNnRzmGLRNI/891de655a1d4306433e53d54426ab58a/assistant_evolution.png?w=1200&q=80)

As evident to the screenshots above, we ended 2019 with releasing the Product Assistant Gen. 2, which marked a new level of platform maturity. Among many enhancements during the year here are the most crucial:
- Customer & Product Registration: the best and easiest way for customers to register their product ownership.
- Highlights format: allowing customers to gain crucial product know-how and guidance with the “story” like Highlight format.
- Reminders: an effective time-based event to help customers perform specific tasks as a recurring event.
- Dialog: enabling brands and customers to engage in a smart and premium dialog without the need for exchanging basic ownership and product info.
- PWA install: helping customers to install the Product Assistant on their device without the Play Store and App Store hassle.  

### Admin work as a superpower
Equally, as with the Product Assistant, we have released more than 700 incremental Layerise Admin updates aimed at improved features, productivity score, and performance KPI’s. We have also taken significant steps in its platform architecture. As we have been pushing for broader data portability and making our offering easier to use, we have seen great feedback and recognition from brands and industries. Our focus to push effective, stable and powerful offerings has meant that brands, technical writers and customer service users have been able to provide customers with fantastic product experience value as evident below to the evolution of the Layerise Admin.

![admin](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/5TtgHspRRbfvLDo4JSCvj4/c04b367a73552fa04a6a3ea1d6ea289f/admin.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

2019's big successes include: 
- Product management: brands can automatically create Product Assistants and manage availability and identification. 
- End-to-end WYSIWIG: allowing technical writers to work within the same context as the customer will consume content. It allows for fast content creation and effective fine-tuning with insignificant revision loops.
- Customer reach: brands can, with ease reach out to any customer based on a variety of customer satisfaction signals. 
- Insights: easy and quick insight into customer demographics, customer product onboarding performance and product feedback/issue tracking
- Organisation API: provide the ability for any brand to use their content outside the individual Product Assistant and create other solutions.

## Funding and focus
Throughout 2019 we have frequently been asked about our decision to grow Layerise with a self-funded mindset, and with good reason as it’s somewhat easy to become mesmerised with a long line of zeros ticking from investors. But for us, it has been essential to remain grounded and keep our fingers on the adoption of our offering. Thus far, this has been an excellent decision for us, as we have been able to push ideas, make changes and test opportunities fast and without any concern for broader approval. Furthermore, while it’s given that funding injections can provide execution uplift, it also comes with its challenges and drag, something we thought would not benefit our product execution focus and plan. The 2019 growth has been primarily driven by a focus on personal sales and a keen eye on sustainable product delivery practices. Something that has provided us with tremendous knowledge throughout 2019, and which has been an instrumental part of our long-term product focus but allowed us to effectively navigate as we grow.

## 2020 plan! 
We have spent most of the last few weeks planning the 2020 roadmap. During the next year, we will be continuing our release practice with several updates going out every month, each focusing on known and new areas of the platform. 2019 has provided us with a long wishlist that we are currently mapping out. Among several innovative initiatives that we have started to design and test, we are going to work hard on building solutions that bring customers and brands even closer together. At the same time, our data has shown that customers are looking for collaboration and information exchange between them and other users of the same product. Finally, we are going to expand our platform into an ecosystem that embraces complementary solutions in our efforts to build the leading Product Assistant solution for brands.

## Thank you for your support!
We want to say Thank You! Thank you for your support and trust in Layerise. We have come a long way in 2019, and this has been due to your patience and belief in our ideas and solutions. This has now become a strong foundation for us to further develop outstanding products and provide even higher value through 2020. We don’t have any plans on resting.


Layerise year 2019 recap

2019 recap & 2020 outlook

In Part 1, we dug into how we began dreaming of a new and different design process at Layerise. How we feel the current process was too cumbersome. If you haven't already, please read [part 1](https://www.layerise.com/resources/blog/post/reshaping-the-design-process-with-code-part-1 "Part 1") before continuing. 

As we concluded in part 1, our goal was to move from a rigid waterfall process to a more fluid and team-wide process. To achieve this, we added some milestones on how to accomplish this:

- One source of truth. No more requests for newest version or work with an outdated design package version.
- Setting up version control (Semver). Help the team get familiarised with the changelog and provide complete autonomy over the upgrade process.
- Quick prototyping. Promote quick prototyping is essential and should be possible both through code and visual editors. 
- Dedicated playground. Have one place to showcase, document, and test the design system. 

### One source of truth
This is something every designer, product manager, and developer has experienced. It is not unusual to see memes and jokes about design files called final1.psd, final2.psd, thisisthefinal.psd. 
As we talked about in part one, there is no such thing as a final design. Design is iterative; hence having a file representing a design version isn't a good idea.

We looked into the developer tooling and solution landscape to seek out a solution. We were impressed by how open source and package registries allowed for a more open, shared and interactive truth without the loose of control or degradation of the truth. 

However, going down this route meant a quite big mindset change. Moving away from only visual editors into a programming editor is a big switch. Nonetheless, by utilizing a package registry, we can publish and update our *one source of truth* and allow the individual user the right amount of granular control by targeting specific versions.  Furthermore, this allows for a much closer relationship with our developers since they can create a design issue or make a pull request which is in line with how they work.  

### Version control
Many designers have hopefully been introduced to some version control, though usually, it's only the major version, like 1.0, 2.0, etc. In most cases, this is because design used to be done in a more vacuum-based process, where only UX, Product Managers, and Project Managers participated, and the end goal was a huge chunk of views/screens that needed to be updated and delivered. 

This needed to change, as having an one source of truth powered by a team-broad always-active design process, the number of major versions would naturally inflate. At the same time, the need for minor and patch updates are needed to allow for a more iterative process. Moreover, with an increase of version roll-out frequency, it is good practice that the participant of the design system understands what's been updated in each version. So whenever a major or minor version is bumped, looking into the changelog is required. On the other hand, with patch version bumps it is recommended to read up on changelogs as patch updates are pushed accessibility issues, bugs, and small visual tweaks. The official guidelines for Semver are defined as:

- (1.0.0) MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,
- (0.1.0) MINOR version when you add functionality in a backwards-compatible manner, and
- (0.0.1) PATCH version when you make backwards-compatible bug fixes.

### Quick prototyping
While having one source of truth stored as code packages is suitable for control and sharing, the need for a quick prototyping ability is still very essential in the design process. The need for scaffolding many different variations and flows for the user experience exist and is in many ways where the design team's most crucial task is. Yet, these prototyping methods are spread across many different levels of fidelity. 

The lowest level of fidelity is pen and paper or drawing on a whiteboard. This level allows the whole team to easily participate and is usually more of getting a common idea of what's needed, like a rough scoping. Depending on your teams' size, there can be multiple levels of fidelity after the first one, like wireframes. 

At Layerise, we still have the wireframing step, but it might be a bit different than other teams. Our wireframe step is merged with the design handoff step since we're have created a continuous integration with our design tools. If your visual editor of choice is Framer X, you can grab the newest design packages through our shared store, which auto-updates on every new version. Using Sketch or Figma? Then you can download the latest version of each design component through our design system platform (We'll dig into this further in the next paragraph). By having a continuous integration, we allow quick prototyping in visual editors with the newest design version available. 

### The design platform
In a traditional design process, the design usually lives in files. Though, this isn't the case with our setup. Since our interface and components live as code we needed a different solution. We're using [Storybook](https://storybook.js.org/ "Storybook") which allows us to document, test and design our design system. Storybook has add-ons built-in which in return allow us to test with real data, test for accessibility issues and responsiveness. 

With the way we use Storybook to handle our design library, the individual Layerise team member can learn about how to use each component, in which context and what tweaks that are available. Moreover, since our design now lives in Storybook, members of our team have the newest design at hand anywhere. In essence, the whole team can now instantly get the newest design whether its a component or a color tweak. They can furthermore read the changelog and get notified for new changes. 

Our new design process has been under development for the last year, and we're still tweaking the process to come closer to our goal of having one source of truth while the whole team can participate. We're very close and look forward to letting you get a deeper look into what the daily workflow looks like in part 3. 

design part 2

Reshaping the design process with code – Part 2

As we are moving towards the end of 2019 we want to end the year with a vital product update. The update we are pushing out this time is a culmination of many months of hard work and dedication. We are greatly motivated by strong feedback-loops to seek out customer direction and converting the acquired knowledge into useful product enhancements. For this update particularly, we have been making sure that we cover as many requests, small or big, that you have requested over the last 4 quarters.

## Introduction to Reminders
One of the most requested features has been the ability to remind your customers about product actions. In fact, this has not only been requested by you but also end-customers who are looking for help on maintenance, usage and much more. 

We have studied this for some time, trying to get our head around what would be the best solution. A solution that is easy to use, easy to understand and has the appropriate impact. The solution we have built and are releasing does all that and more. 

![intro](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/3QCi2De6zVznPdvekZTWkV/56b359370ced3a1f2eca37c6935b23b4/intro.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

As evident to the above Reminder card, a Reminder is a container for an activity fully defined as: 

> A reminder is a time-based event to help customers perform certain tasks as a recurring event. 

To ensure a large array of customisation options a Reminder consists of following configurations:

- Title 
- Description
- Frequency in days
- Learn More

Finally, Reminders are grouped under every Language. Meaning it is possible to create language-specific Reminders targeting users segmented by their language preference. 

### What to "Remind" about
Reminders allow you to inform your customers about any action you find important for the customer to perform. We have gathered a few examples below:

Product maintanance
![Maintanence](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/30TDfeDm6wtMDTqsUF98LA/a298c01057044ebce4705aaf9c42285d/Maintanence.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Proper product usage
![usage](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/RdmnZqG7120NjaAcisjcB/601ddde96da42cf426dc29a6cf8e38e4/usage.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Product experience
![Experience](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/79gglferie7RvZsFKqbzmO/7f77ee58de5937775e7449d0e830880c/Experience.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

### The power of Reminders, Highlights & Topics
Informing customers about certain actions requires sometimes extensive information about what needs to be done, how to do it or more. To help with this need we allow Reminders and Highlights/Topics to be connected.

![maintanence card](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/1WgSiYTbuLPgB6iAjMmpuR/e0277c1d0595593a8814152e48a81dfa/maintanence_card.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

As shown in the example above the Reminder will display the Topic content upon the user request to Learn More. Only published Topics or Highlights can be connected to a Reminder. You can, therefore, use already available material to connect to the Reminder or create new.

### Reminders in the Assistant
After the Reminder is published it will be made available for all customers after they have registered their product. Moreover, Reminders will be displayed prominently on the Assistant home page under the Language from where it originates.

![score card](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/4MeT1uTByg1r1gaS5Jws6J/d75b6f54b6af4451c5e59e6144932145/score_card.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

When shown in the Assistant, Reminders are scored based on customer product ownership and Reminder due-diligence. In detail, Reminders conducted accordingly to the due cycle are positively impacting the score and vice versa when not accomplished within the due date. When a Reminder is due, the customer will be automatically notified about the Reminder Action point. 

In addition to the Reminders being shown in the Assistant, we are also simultaneously introducing 3 additional quick action toggles: Install, Registration and Updates. While the Install toggle allows the user to quickly install the Assistant on their devices, the Registration toggle allows quick product registration. As the last quick action toggle, the Update action allows the customer to enable receiving product updates. 

## Advanced Content Management
### Updated design
Another major request we have been getting throughout 2019 is greater content management control. One thing we have been getting, again and again, is the ability to group content, arrange content groups, filtering of published and drafted material, and easier language control. We have listened to your demands and made tons of changes to support your content management needs.   

### Toolbar
First thing you will notice is the new toolbar. The new toolbar is improved in look and features. Here you will be able to change languages, create a language, apply filters, add content and more.

![toolbar](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/2WNgTRwri2vrUkQckhIiJS/79fa544fa457a9cccf8980f934396c04/toolbar.png?w=1200&q=80)

As evident above you will now also have quick access for both Language and Experience settings, allowing you to conduct configurations quicker and easier. 

### Welcome "Categories"
With this update you are no longer bound to only one Category, instead, you can create as many categories as you need per Language and group content by simply drag and drop. 

![categories](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/31nDozM2kKACsFQYeHoWoB/6724d0069bb141365e2029caf6ea7af3/categories.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

To create a new Category you simply use the toolbar Add function and thereafter select Category. Moreover, you can rename, remove or reposition categories by using the options menu found on every Category.   

### Autosave
Until now, upon every change, you have made when managing your Language content you were instructed to save, draft or publish changes. With this update, we are introducing Autosave on the main Language page. This will simply allow you to make changes without the need to save them. 

For Active (formally called Published) Languages, changes will automatically be saved and made available in the Assistant. On the other hand, changes made in Languages that are in-active (formally called Drafted) will be saved and only made public when the Language becomes Active. 

## Release date
We will be rolling out this release on Tuesday the 17th of December 2019. All features will be available for Free and Paid plans. Any content already created will be untouched and all active product Assistants will be automatically updated.   

And as always, if you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Spectrum Community"). 

Cover - Reminder Product Update

Say hallo to Reminders - Product Announcements

With the Gen 2 Assistant being rolled out during this month we have been doubling down on tracking performance and areas of improvement. After several weeks of analysis and tracking, we have been pushing out smaller updates focused on tweaking and enhancing certain parts of the Assistant and the platform. 

## Assistant enhancements 
### Assistant speed 
One of the major challenges is to provide a reliable and fast Assistant regardless of the customer location or network bandwidth. With the Gen 2 Assistant update, we have from the get-go been focused on increasing the first load experience by minimising the minimal Assistant data needs and prioritising in data sequencing. Since the initial release, we have pushed 23-speed enhancements to the assistant resulting in a further improvement of the quick Layerise Assistant delivery.  

### Assistant Search speed 
Based on our user behaviour analysis one of the often utilised features is the in Assistant search. To make sure that we deliver the best possible search experience we have been updating our search algorithms to increase search result speed. Instead of requiring minimal 3 characters for live results we now empower the user to seek out results from the first character input. As a result of this users will now be able to see the first "most relevant" results 1.5s to 2.5s faster depending on their bandwidth and character input. 

## Generic updates 
### SEO Optimisation
One request we have been getting is that you want your product Assistants to rank high on the Google search engine when your customers search for it. We have been working on this during this month and have pushed dedicated updates. 

As it takes Google search engines some time to crawl pages and thereby to reposition results we have been tracking and comparing the performance. As an example, evident to the image below when searching for *"Mate X Assistant"*, Google will return ~105.000.000 results with the Nr. 1 result being the Layerise hosted Mate X Assistant.

![seo](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/3qiljtQCGv1JpgrgrfYC1h/e3b0d3e44c7b726cc836ce42ed9fa25e/seo.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

In detail, we use the content provided both on Product and Experience level to build the best meta information. Moreover, we populate Open Graph Tags on every page level using the content available on the Topic & Highlight level. Overall this means that regardless of the amount of localisation per individual Product Assistants, we will run SEO optimisation for each localised market. To increase the likeliness of your Assistants to be ranked Nr. 1 or at least top 3 on Google follow these simple content rules:

- Make sure your product *title* is using the marketed product name
- Use a recognisable *product image*. Best performing images are with the product only on white/transparent background
- Write clear and searchable Topic & Highlight titles
- Keep the experience content updated 

### iOS & Safari
November has also included updates for iOS devices with WebKit (Safari Technology), which is a requirement for all browsers running on iOS devices. Due to the Service Worker issues on WebKit reported back to Apple back in 2018-04-10 ([reported bug](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=184447 "Service Worker mp4 bug")) we have seen little willingness from Apple to commit a swift fix to the issue. 

Due to the prolonged process, we have throughout 2019 exhausted all our options for finding a fix to this problem while remaining dependent on the Service Worker on iOS devices. During the beginning of November, we have decided to refrain from Service Worker dependency on iOS devices as it introduces bugs and issues. 

As os today, [Apple has annonced](https://webkit.org/blog/9658/release-notes-for-safari-technology-preview-96/ "Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 96") a partial fix to the Service Worker issue with unclarity on when the full solution will be rolled out. The full WebKit release notes on the matter can be found [here](https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/251594/webkit/ "Changeset 251594 in WebKit"). 

## What next
As hinted last month, we have been working on highly requested features, which we will release during December. Stay tuned as we will be publishing How-to and API documentation updates during the next few weeks. 

And as always, if you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Spectrum Community"). 

Layerise speed improvements update

November '19 Product Announcements

For the final October product update, we will introduce several major   Product Assistant enhancements. It's no secret that we have been burning the midnight oil, to further progress on our aim to provide you with the best solutions and experiences. Since the initial release, and throughout our different stages of platform growth, we have been tracking and measuring the performance of a large number of key performance indicators. As the platform usage readily increased over the last 8 months, we have mapped and discovered several improvements and opportunities. This update will, therefore, focus on some of the enhancements while others will be released during November 2019. 

![Layerise - Gen 2 Assistant](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/3oPgfzrGyWOC1FIYOXE6lS/a92c060cec2cf67b31dafbf9e0c360ab/intro.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

## New Assistant Look and Feel
To help you give your customers the best possible product experience we are ready with a long list of improvements as we are rolling out the __Gen 2 Product Assistant__. While we have received incredible amounts of positive feedback for our Gen 1 assistants, the Gen 2 takes the user interface, user experience, amount of features, mobile-friendliness and utility value to a whole new level. 

### Bottom Navigation for Optimal UX
The first thing you will notice is that we have changed the way customers navigate through the Product Assistant. Over the last many months, we have been tracking and measuring the navigation behaviour and comparing the results for top vs. bottom navigation. As evident to the comfort heatmap of customers one-hand reach below, it is essential that important top-navigational and frequently-accessed areas or features are placed within or as close as possible at any time to the green comfort zone. This is essential as it allows the customer to navigate with comfort using the thumb. 

![Layerise - Comfort Heatmap](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/7xQRy0tSjZjPL8A79No4iN/ff834bc8430c7c005db0bef0f410b1e2/comfort_heatmap2.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

In addition to the repositioning of the main navigation to the bottom, we also focused on increasing the navigational overview and fluidity, while at the same time give the user a native mobile app experience. We achieved the navigational improvements by concentrating on: 

- __Visiable and well-structured__. We used as few navigational options as possible, that remain in the same position throughout the navigational journey.
- __Easy to understand and use__. The navigational bar is easy to scan and understand across languages. At the same time, navigational buttons are large and can be easily tapped. 
- __Consistant__. We used recognisable icons consistently throughout the navigation. 

### Context Product Card
We are adding a contextual product card to always provide the product context. Moreover, the product card will show different information depending on its usage. As evident below, the product card displays: 

- Product name
- Product image
- Registration status
- Registration quantity
- Ownership details

![Layerise - Product card](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/5vcUQ3Oy87FYccvt0kdjhP/748dc76616f08d244c7cba9dc69e265c/Product_card.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Note that the product card will differ depending on if the customer has logged-in/out and if they have registered the product. 

### Improved Highlight and Topics Design
We tracked and analysed millions of highlight and topic views across different assistant layouts, phone screen resolutions, languages and customer behaviours. We have concluded that we can improve the readability, experience and consumption by improving the design. With the Gen 2 Assistant, customers will now experience improved topic content readability and a better overview of highlights with a redesigned progress bar, chapters overview, better video/image quality and improved loading speed.  

![Layerise - Updated Highlight Design](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/6uhyzyX1vHd1CmW31lu1o9/4d079a6f363caeee5021018204b6b83e/highlight.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

### Add and Remove Product Registrations
With this update, we are also rolling out the opportunity for customers to add or remove product registrations. This is done from the new customer profile. 

To add an additional product registration, a customer can easily click on "Add a new product" which in return will allows them to select an available product from the same workspace (to add more products to your works space [click here](https://admin.layerise.com/products "Add a product - Layerise Admin")). 

To remove a product registration a customer needs to click on the "more" menu on the product registration card available in the customer profile. Here they will have the option to delete the product registration. 

### Other changes
For Product Assistant Gen 2 release, all sections and screens have been rebuilt from the ground up. This has been an important task as we want to ensure an even better, faster, more secure and mobile native experience. 

Other noticeable but minor changes: 
- The language selector is now moved from the footer (footer is deprecated in Gen 2) and is placed as the last element on Home
- UI and UX changes in Registration and Login flow
- Customer can now add their profile avatar
- Improved UI on Customer Profile Settings
- Improved Dialog composer

## Important to know
The Gen 2 Product Assistant is rolling out globally Friday the 1st of November 2019 and will be available for all products on Free and Paid plans. 

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be pushing out several new awesome features for the Product Assistant that increases the product longivity, decreses product breakdowns and helps customers conduct scheduled maintenance actions. But until then it's everything we have for now. If you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Spectrum Community"). 

Layerise Product Assistant Gen 2

October '19 Product Announcements

Since the last product update, we have been busy working on several great enhancements. While some of the improvements to the platform will be shared over the next couple of weeks and months, today we are excited to announce that from Thursday, October 24th 2019, all clients regarding active subscription plan, with be getting better Insights.

### __Better Insights better decisions__
One of the major benefits of Layerise is the easiness of data collection and the user-friendliness of data visualisation. After several rounds of revisions and testing, we are finally releasing much better Insights to track the performance of your Product Assistant's. We’re more than convinced that these aggregate data insights will help you continuously follow Product Assistants success and to further improve the customer experience.  

### __New features__
With this update to Insights, you will be able to quickly get short and long term performance measurements. On top of that, you will be able to see performance changes to all measured KPI's (Key Performance Indicators).

![Layerise Insights Since Beginning](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/CPYx38njZtJBKToXpVcez/1ca23cbec4e16d6b36872cfa91687ff5/zoom.png?w=1200&q=80)

#### Measured KPI's
Following KPI's are measured across all date ranges.

- Registrations 
- Customers
- Conversations
- Cost saved on paper (Layerise Product Assistant vs. conventional printed product manuals)

#### Date ranges
Following dates ranges and data granularities are available.

Date ranges and with daily data granularity
- Last 14 days   
- Last 28 days 
- Last 90 days

Date ranges and with monthly data granularity
- Since beginning 

#### Customers
One highly requested feature over the last couple of months has been the ability to measure product adoption by customer group and track product model registration. With this update, it is now possible to see product adoption down to the individual customer. This feature is supported by the Dialog customer & product satisfaction rate ([Read more](https://layerise.com/resources/blog/post/introduction-to-layerise-dialog "Layerise Satisfaction Rate")).

That’s all for this update. If you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Community"). As we move with 🚀speed we expect to be able to unveil something awesome already next week. Get the update directly [here](https://admin.layerise.com/new "Layerise Admin New").


Layerise Insights

Better insights - Product Announcements

At Layerise, we are strong believers in continuous development. It is our goal to add new features and enhancements to our services constantly. We also focus on helping developers and customers with data portability solutions with APIs. To ensure that our APIs reflect this focus we are today releasing a GraphQL structured Organisation API. 

### __Layerise Organisation API__
The Organisation API enables you to access organisation data and build amazing experiences fast and with scale. Using the API is easy and made available programmatically via. GraphQL.

### __What is GraphQL?__
REST and GraphQL are two ways to transmit data over HTTP. The REST-based approach is the traditional way of doing so and has gained a very high adoption rate in many application stacks in the last years. On the other hand, GraphQL is a completely new approach to API services. It can overcome major shortcomings of the traditional REST protocol. Moreover, GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with your data. GraphQL provides a complete and understandable description of the data in your API, gives clients the power to ask for exactly what they need and nothing more. GraphQL is easy, powerful and very future safe.

####  GraphQL vs REST
GraphQL introduces major enhancements that make a big impact on the developer experience when building solutions and consuming APIs. An overview between the difference of GraphQL and REST.  

- In a single request, GraphQL can traverse from the initial query to any related data, following simple schema relationships. While using REST, you have to call multiple and individual endpoints to fetch the same data. With GraphQL there is no over-fetching and under-fetching.
- With GraphQL the fields on the Query type and the fields on any other type are equally as powerful. This first-class concept of a nested URL does not exist in REST. 
- With traditional practice, each call with REST usually provides one route handler function. In contrast, GraphQL can with one query call many resolvers and return a nested response with multiple data sources.

### __API usage examples__
There are no creative limits to what you can build with the Layerise Organisation API. As your data is fully available as resources you can easily and with great speed and flexibility build large and small services. 

Here are two examples of website widgets (Rich and Standard) showing data directly from a Product Assistant. Interacting with the widgets will direct a consumer to the Product Assistant. As a result, the two provided examples increase easiness for consumers to locate Product Assistant and at the same time enrich the website with Assistant data.   

#### Rich
This widget fetches product data with a single API call. This call returns all necessary product identification data and at the same time provides prioritised content based on publishing date. 

![rich](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/1FACLZ1GwNbGVDPiRSPTiu/1f8fb632b5faf7db37a6c5ca11988639/rich.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

#### Standard
Equally to the Rich widget, the Standard widget is built on a single API call return. However, it does not show any content but works as a link directly to the Product Assistant upon interaction from the customer. 

![standard](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/2kc85nqtbCC0wiQuOhNGRv/4a4843ee727eda25145d22ba24b9bcae/standard.jpg?w=1200&q=80)


For more information and in-depth guide for API utilisation please visit our [API documentation](https://layerise.com/docs/api) page.If you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Spectrum Community").


Layerise Organisation API

Improved API - Product Announcements

As a part of several posts on how we are reshaping the design process with code, we will begin with an introduction to how it all began.


At Layerise, we are on a mission to ensure that everyone in the team can and is empowered to design. Design should not be produced in a vacuum and it should be a constant iterative process without an end.
— In fact, there is no such thing as a perfect design since the demand for new experience, new technology and digital standards keep evolving.

To comply with the need for fluid and team broad design methods, we have decided to create a new design process from the ground up. But how do you bring together the whole team to prototype and participate in the design process?

### The end is the beginning
To understand how we design we conducted an internal exercise, an exercise based on presumptions. We needed to understand what design is and how we make design. Here are some of the interesting presumptions the team came up with: 


1. Designers don't code. 
2. There too many steps from idea to delivery.
3. Responsive design is cumbersome.
4. UX can't be accurately tracked.
5. Too much software is needed in the process.


This is just a few of many interesting presumptions. Next step was to dive into these presumptions and try to understand them. 

One presumption kept being brought up. Designers don't code. A never ending question in the design community and among scholars. But in our case it became a very interesting topic, as we all had challenges with not being able to implement our own design. Emulating the design implementation in a graphical editor just seems to be a slow and tedious process and the design implementation was always impacted by the tools used, the reviews and resources. 


Code seemed to be the goal, but an untouchable goal. When design was delivered the process stopped and a new sprint began. The only iterative process was when that particular area/feature had to be changed. So we began to play with the idea that we could code. What did that mean for the design process? 

1. We will be able to do interactive design.
2. We could deliver responsive components.
3. We could work with applicable animation and interaction. 
4. We could setup tracking and measurements per component.
5. We could have one source of truth from design to implementation.
6. We could limit the amount of steps. No more handoff!
7. We could invite more team members to participate and leave design feedback.

While this sure seems like a dream process we where still interested in understanding why so few designers had jumped into coding. We invited some of our developers to participate in the discussion. The answer was as you probably anticipated, starting to learn code felt overwelming.

However, a recent technology and DX (developer experience) leap has allowed designers to jump into code easier than ever. 
> Frameworks like React and ideas like CSS-in-JS have many concepts we know from the design world. Components and props are similar to Sketch's symbols and overrides. 


That didn't sound that scary, we were intrigued by this. 
In the next several posts we will dive into how we went from a rigid waterfall design process to a fluid iterative process. How we managed to become multi-disciplinary and what it means for the design team and the design output. 







cross-disciplines article

Reshaping the design process with code – Part 1

Since our last update, we have spent some time reflecting on several UI decision we have made earlier. It is important for us to develop the UI at a constant and same rate as we bring new features and improvements to the platform. Over the last couple of weeks, we have silently pushed a large variety of UI enhancements centred around easier navigation, less redundancy and better information architecture. Remember to download the Layerise Admin PWA and get instant updates. 

### __Is there anything else?__
Indeed there is. In parallel with the UI enhancements, we have been working on the ability to archive and unarchive Products and Experiences. This feature has been highly requested as it allows for a more sophisticated product and experience management.

![archive product](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/2BaRTdVKTWDhUsPXjcXOHb/50c89cfa9070bb7d1c5485b60258d1ec/archive_product.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Archiving and unarchiving Products or Experiences is very easy. First, from today you will notice three new tabs on the Product and Experience section. These tabs will help you sort between material that is archived and unarchived. Second, to archive visit a Product or Experience page. Her you will find an Archive button which does the trick. 

### __Important to know__
Archived Products will no longer have an active Assistant, will be disconnected from any Experience and will no longer be available for new Experiences. In a similar fashion, archiving an Experience will disconnect the experience from the Assistant. Both the Product and Experience can at any time be unarchived if needed. 

We might have another update coming at the end of this month, but until then it's everything we have for now. If you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Spectrum Community"). 

Product Section

September '19 Product Announcements

After all the amazing support we have received over the last several quarters, we are finally ready to add new and important features. Moreover, due to the interest and support, we have decided to push product update blog post at least once a month. This post is the first one in a sequence of many. 

What is being introduced?
Since the beginning, we have been working hard on providing a platform that establishes the most effective and service-oriented communication path between brands and customers. Now, with the experience of servicing the dialog between brands and customers, we are finally ready to release a platform update that will ensure a dialog rich communication between you and your customers. 

![dialog assistant 2](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/4qttJjxSuWqiYGYo5kovJs/0962ca0b57d33f058a521646962b1c71/dialog_assistant_2.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

From today, all clients both on the FREE and PRO plan will get access to [Layerise Dialog](https://admin.layerise.com/dialog "Dialog Essential"). The Layerise Dialog will serve the need of communication between brands and customers. Our goal has been to make a communication tool that is easy to use, product-aware, customer-centric, smart and automation driven. Also, we wanted to empower brands to provide customers with a premium communication feeling directly from the product assistant. With this, customers can open the assistant and with one tab directly communicate with a product representative. Comparing this experience with the conventional communication we are completely removing the hassle for customers on sending emails, tracking support tickets, providing product model information and most importantly waiting for help. 

![dialog admin](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/4cIS0GEFumq5lpNlrHkaiL/33cad0569e9358a71f0464fb9653bf7a/dialog_admin.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

As a brand using Layerise Dialog you will be given a customer and product-centric data set when communicating with each customer. This data includes customer validation, satisfaction, product registration, assistant usage and behaviour. As you communicate with customers the Layerise Dialog will conduct product and communication satisfaction scores which you will be provided in realtime during your dialog.

That’s all for this month. If you have any questions or need help please [join our community](https://spectrum.chat/layerise "Layerise Spectrum Community"). 

Layerise Dialog

August '19 Product Announcements

With the MATE X model, MATE has defined new crowdfunding boundaries by becoming the most successful project ever on Indiegogo. With 17 days left of the campaign the team out of Copenhagen, Denmark has raised more than $15.6 million and more than $21 million in total between its two campaigns (model X and S/CITY). As the company aims to push the frontier of eBikes and sustainable transport, MATE has partnered with Layerise to provide a rich, digital and customer-focused product experience throughout the customer product journey.

Since the inception of the company, MATE has relied on printed (in-packaging) product instructions, maintenance tips, troubleshooting guidelines and much more. However, as the company's eBike offering is maturing and new models are brought to the market, the printed format is becoming increasingly more unreliable to convey the product guidelines in an efficient way, and at the same time falls short of the digital presence expected by the ever more digital-focused customer.

![mate new manual](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/YoTmFKvVdaSznTXH7t94p/a6e96553a2a3cf559f66c12866daabdd/mate_new_manual.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Over the last 3 months, we have together with MATE discussed and planned how our Layerise platform can help them map and execute a digital product onboarding strategy that provides customer value throughout the full product life cycle. In more detail, MATE was looking to establish a digital experience that could push the experience beyond the limits of the conventional digital PDF manual. The company set out an execution plan that included the following objectives: 

- Provide a digital product assistant with the aim of rich product onboarding and post sales experience
- Focus on providing information and guides with the use of rich media material
- Establish a clear and customer-friendly way to access the digital assistant
- Allow customers to easily and efficiently register their purchased bike for support and other benefits
- Build a content strategy that aims to provide valuable product information and allows easy content update and revision
- Form a solution that informs customers about product changes, updates and maintenance through omni notifications
- Cut down on all unnecessary use of paper and print. Seek environmentally friendly solutions by providing equivalent digital offerings

To achieve the above, MATE has decided to completely review their owner's manual. While customers who already own a MATE bike will get access to the digital assistant through newsletters and other communication channels, all new MATE customers will receive an updated packaging and slimmed down physical owner's manual with a clear and prominent guide with information on how to access the digital assistant. As shown in the image above, the new owner's manual will focus on informing the customer about the assistants' availability already on the front page. Moreover, the image of the packaging below illustrates the commitment on guiding customers to gain access to the assistant already before unboxing the bike. This ability allows MATE to establish even more unique experiences with the focus on the customer and their complete product journey. 

![MATE X box](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/4nZwll81hBiRsUf7mc5kUV/c81bb3e165f7f6731880d84db60287d9/mate_box.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Finally, the digital assistant will be available for all MATE customers end of March. However, already this month MATE is sending out limited access to already existing customers. Layerise is looking forward to empowering MATE and their customers with digital solutions that will improve the product experience and overall customer satisfaction. 

![04 03](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/3RhxbqQQ4quUBqher3lv9G/7d8f09363235287dec8a86ad4419257a/04_03.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

mate remove bg

MATE continues to evolve 

We all know the feeling. The weekend has arrived and the day will be spent hunting for IKEA furniture and products as one of the rooms at home or work needs a new look. While a trip to IKEA with the endless arrows on the floor can result in a feeling of disorientation, the real challenge starts at the point of furniture/product assembly. 

Now, within the Layerise team, we have huge respects for what IKEA has achieved and how they constantly improve their business. On the other hand, we also recognise the challenges that occur when the DIY process starts. While you may be the person who reads an instruction manual meticulously, or who enjoys DIY every day and to whom IKEA furniture assembly is pure joy, the promise that the IKEA instruction is there to compensate for the lack of assembly abilities for a lot of people is shortlived. In fact, some go as far as to say that the Swedish furniture manufacturing company has a dark side: its furniture is really hard to assemble. As shown in the image below it's not always clear what exactly the customer should be doing. 

![instructions IKEA billy](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/5Br6wKT6CBa2wLjuZmaB1M/69c05431baff74658a20db3a927b64d7/instructions_IKEA_billy.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

IKEA has good business reasons for creating their instruction manuals without any text, images or in-depth explanations. This allows them to in-return cut costs and at the same time easier reach global instruction applicability. On the contrary, this comes with a number of setbacks for customers as the furniture assembly guidelines become less helpful and explanatory. 

The question is then, what could IKEA do? To start out with, IKEA could perhaps provide a better assembly experience by simply digitalising the experience, while remaining truthful to their instruction manual ideology. This would allow them to provide a more immersive experience, updates, track assembly issues, and additionally cut costs on print and paper. A concept to such an IKEA assembly experience is presented below.

![ikea concept](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/6gAUkCWOX6VUduJ9zlFS4q/5398c5b88205c7df78f1c2811c4f33ec/ikea_concept.gif?w=1200&q=80)

At Layerise, we are working hard on providing solutions that improve any assembly or product use. In fact, deep in our core, we believe that a standard instruction manual should be a product assistant; always present, always ready to help and provide a great experience. 

*The concept is provided in cooperation with [Calin Doditoiu](https://dribbble.com/calindoditoiu).*


instruction

What could IKEA do? 

We are excited to announce that the largest bike/e-bike manufacturer in Denmark, HF Christiansen, is partnering with Layerise to enhance the customer product experience journey. Among a complete list of 8 different brands, HF Christiansen manufactures brands as RALEIGH, Avenue and WINTHER, and is looking to help their bicyclist's to gain a much stronger understanding of their newly purchased bikes.

One of the interesting opportunities HF Christiansen is gradually and with certain domination moving towards is a broad electrical bike (e-bike) offering. It is within the advent of the e-bike, that the company is looking to further extend their relationship with their customers. To this day, HF Christiansen has been utilizing intermediaries and local dealerships to establish a customer relationship, a model that is increasingly more difficult as customers seek and expect brand presence and product experience to go much beyond the conventional brand-to-customer relationship. 

![F1](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/3Bc7cxDGwe2ZzkimR75wVj/63fd2401a01a331995a64165befc53ec/F1.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Furthermore, in parallel with the growing customer demand for ever stronger and more omnipresent product experience, the company is also looking to use the Layerise platform to mitigate the growing complexities of bikes, with the e-bike driven features, and the broad lack of customer willingness to consume information through the customary user/owner manual. In detail, with the utilization of the abilities provided by the Layerise platform HF Christiansen will among a long list of things gain following abilities: 

- Establish a direct-to-consumer relationship
- Provide an easy and mobile-driven product registration
- From a communication pipeline to customers throughout the product life cycle
- Delivery a rich and digital product onboarding experience
- Secure a long-lasting customer-to-brand communication flow
- Enrich all e-bikes with tap/scan access to product service, update, maintenance and more 

As we slowly move into 2019, all HF Christiansen customers will be presented with tags as evident above when they purchase their e-bike. With this tag (NFC and QR code enabled), the customer can swiftly and easily get access to the owner product onboarding experience that includes extended product benefits, set up guidelines, video tutorials and explanations, instant direct support, maintenance reminders and much more. This instalment will be rolling out starting 2019, and will initially be available with following models Raleigh Darlington, Raleigh Sussex E1, Raleigh Sussex E2 & Raleigh Essex E. 

![Screen Recording 2019-02-06 at 11.31.10 1](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/5cI35dyQy0hohyaAQFwNai/0f98bff8a6c3ff1c0c9481c51d3ab7a5/Screen_Recording_2019-02-06_at_11.31.10_1.gif?w=1200&q=80)

Raleigh_bike

HF Christiansen is going digital

The last decade alone has provided a tremendous technological enhancement of consumer goods. Everything and anything is being reshaped by the strong technological force, providing even greater overall value to consumers. However, there is a catch. Modern day consumers are required to understand and remember how to operate and engage with tens or hundreds of different products during their daily routines. A task -  too big and too cognitively heavy for a trouble-free product experience. 

Moreover, products have never been more complex then they are today. A decade or two back, product lines regardless of the B2B or B2C nature aimed to do one thing. One thing only with few bells and whistles. In contrary, products that are marketed today are SMART, IOT powered, driven by sensors and can provide a lot of added value benefits. It is at this conjunction of strong growth in beneficiary product offering and consumers' lack of cognitive free capital that the product experience and customer success declines rapidly. 

In parallel with the above, marketers, product managers, service leaders and technical content writers are to this day focusing on providing customers with printed instructions, hard copy owners manuals, physical brochure or quick start one how-to pager to minimise the broadening knowledge gap between product abilities and customer knowledge. Based on our research, which we have documented throughout 2018 in a 3 piece article, it is clear that providing customer product experiences through a one-time medium as a printed product instruction manual is a loss giving knowledge transfer.     

As evident in the graph below, an illustration of the phenomenon that we call customer knowledge gap is provided. In detail, the graph demonstrates how the returning value of printed product manuals over time is decaying while the product complexity is rapidly growing. In the widening gap between these trends customers are left stranded and without the right tools to maximise the satisfaction value of their purchase. 

![kn 2019 art](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/5MxSabAFhPAsMnJ3TuhSAb/a52288c5fdc3022d818973c8b453ba51/kn_2019_art.jpg?w=1200&q=80)

Our final remark to this matter is that brands and all domains within the organisation who seek to establish a bullet-proof customer product experience, from the stages of onboarding and all the way throughout the product/customer lifespan, need to pivot into long-term product education activities rather than focusing on information off-loading. It is by focusing on being present and always at hand available for customers, that the seeds for product satisfaction can be established. Now, how this can be done is something we look forward to sharing with you in a couple of months.

con_ar_2019

The customer knowledge gap

Customer product experience and service objectives are no longer just nice-to-have activities. Data and macro trends show that it's becoming an essential part of a competitive advantage. 

> By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key differentiator between brands.
> 

*Walker Report*


For a long time, it's being commonly understood that if you build a nice product or introduce a price competitive device, the success is more or less ensured. But in a world where product expertise, technological distribution, talent accessibility and production availability is broadly and globally present, it's no longer a strongly convincing argument. In a report from Walker is stated that by 2020, the price tag and the product quality will be overshadowed by customer experience. Moreover, as evident below by Forrester, having the appropriate experience established for your brand and product is vital for product penetration. 

> 90% of customer Experience decision-makers say that a good experience is critical for success.
> 

*Forrester*


Based on our customer research that we have initiated earlier this year, and have been conducting throughout the summer, is clear that customer experience funnels and solutions are at the highest of importance for product satisfaction and brand repurchase. In more detail, our data shows that brands, who focus on delivering digital post-purchase product onboarding or instructions, are __5 times more__ likely to see their customer base repurchasing their products. In addition, we find strong evidence that customers have a preference for digital (video, images and voice instructions) product instruction experiences. In fact, 84% of all participants are seeking experiences that go beyond the static and hardware limited print instructions. Post-sale experiences need to be digital, omnipresent and provide benefits and services which can prolong their product satisfaction.



As the end of the year is near it's worth for brands and marketers to notice that the competitive landscape is changing. The focus on long term customer experience is essential for product longevity. At Layerise we are extremely focused on providing solutions that can mitigate the growing hunger for better customer experience and at the same time provide great ROI for global brands. Our purpose is to establish solutions that can lead the way for effective and efficient customer journeys.  

digital_experience

What brands need to know

Early this year we decided to initiate a global survey. The aim was to provide some additional insights on how consumers experience the printed product manuals.




Many surveys have already worked extensively with this topic and the vaste concensus is: Consumers don't benefit from the provided product manual. We have studied these findings in great detail and have been able to extract tremendous amount of useful data. On the other hand, as we very focused on getting even more granular data about consumers wishes, excpectations and experiences, we have decided move forward with our own data gathering to further solidify our emperical base.




One of the things we focused a lot on in the survey, is making sure that we did not end up with a biased or very segmented group of respondents. We, therefore, decided to look for respondents that resemble the general consumer population (gender and age). At the same time we aimed at respondants with diverse purchasing patterns. As evident to chart 1, we believe that our respondents represent the addressable consumer base.

![group-6](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/4Qvzhv1hJmkqOEyCcyysSO/67f708b37f8a252bffaed434e3ea1de2/group-6.png?w=1200&q=80)
*Chart 1*

## Product manual usage
Our underlying assumption was already well established by many other survey publications. The average consumer was confronted with a high cognitive effort task when using the product manual. In return this resulted in misreading, no reading of product instructions or mis-use of the product. Also our findings confirm this assumption.

- 46% never read the product manual before using their device
- 39% never use the product manual for product onboarding purposes
- 76% are mis-using or not using the product completely due to lack of know-how
- 92% don't read the product warranty declaration

The above results are not surprising. Based on our random test we did during 2017 we found a large number of product manuals that were unhelpful. Some of which were never used by our sample group of people.

## The top-line problems
If we dig a bit deeper into the data, it becomes more and more clear that the broader issues with product manuals do not come from the lack of need. Instead, it is driven by the continuous lack of clear and easily accessible information and value-added benefits.

- 54% don't find the product manual helpful
- 35% never get their needs covered when troubleshooting
- 40% don't use the product manual. Instead, they use other sources that are easier accessible on demand

It's evident that the product manual lacks effectiveness. What we have learned is that consumers tend not to utilise them before start using the purchased product. Moreover, it is also evident in the presented data above that consumers are not willing to go through the hassle of reading the manual as the way information or knowledge is handed-over is not packaged and presented accordingly to their needs.

Enough with yammering for this time. We have tons of data to support the above results further. As we go through our analysis, we will keep on sharing. For now, it's more clear than ever that it's wise to start thinking about new was of onboarding and introducing your product to your customers as the status-quo product manual might very well fall short.



difficult

The lack of effectiveness

Roughly two months have passed since we initiated a global consumer survey with the purpose of shedding some additional light on the lack of effectiveness of the product manuals.

To set the right context for our survey and thereby to ensure that our methodology and our empirical data is useful, we spent some time defining what a product manual is.

## Definition
Early this year we wrote that the product manual has many names, however, we needed to define it.

> A product manual is a physical or digital document (made available by URL) that the consumer is provided during the unboxing of the purchased product. The product manual can consist of 1 or many pages, contain localised content, imagery or graphical material, warranty information and product registration guidelines.

## Methodology
We decided to use online survey tools to build our 21 questions questionnaire. The subjects were divided into 6 sections, starting with the easy questions and slowly asking more in-depth questions. All respondents remained anonymous and were able to answer the questionnaire once. Finally, the respondents were selected randomly, and we decided to run the survey over a period of nearly two months across all continents primarily focusing on English speaking entities.

## Empirical base (n=251)
We managed to receive 251 fully answered surveys. As evident in chart 1. below, 57% of the respondents were male while the rest, 43% were female.

![gender](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/5Zxt4xFwxqUYiqKsicGoEW/e9c9f3d7798d002d961292e7a4b1adf5/gender.png?w=1200&q=80)
*Chart 1*

Moreover, as shown in chart 2, 59% of respondents are in the age group 18-24 which made up the biggest respondent age group. At second place with 30%, we have age group 25-34, and the third largest age group was 35-44 with 8%.

![age](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/6LVjSil5HGUMAIWqyiq6ew/fbbcb3ccffcc0ed2d71edeab08d577af/age.png?w=1200&q=80)
*Chart 2*

Also, the survey data shows that the respondents come from a variety of continents. As evident to chart 3 the majority of the respondents are from located in Asia, Africa and Europe. Collectively more than 80% come from these three continents.

![location](//images.ctfassets.net/scrf7o05zai3/6dAUrlDbJmeEesAu20Y2iu/4eafc229cc28a7de70a61dbbdcf8ab66/location.png?w=1200&q=80)
*Chart 3*

Finally, we are super excited to dig deeper into the survey results. The initial analysis shows that our assumptions and early finding are in some cases fully and partially confirmed. At some point during March 2018, we will release the initial review.


global_survey_intial_results

Global survey - initial results

After months of research and discussions, it has become evident that there is something wrong with how consumers are introduced to the products they purchase.

We reviewed hundreds of products and we realised that the most frequent way of introducing products to consumers, and that is nearly 9 out of 10 times, is by printed B/W user manuals. There are many names for these manuals some of which are; User guide, instruction manual, owners manual, operator manual or product manual. While there are many names and shapes for the printed manual, they all tend to fall short in providing a useful and enjoyable product onboarding experience.

Limiting the product onboarding to the printed manual as described above, comes with a number of shortcomings. Some of the obvious ones:

- Customers don't enjoy reading manuals
- Customers find manuals challenging to use
- Information is not presented in a customer friendly manner
- Information is not shown in a prioritised way
- Content localisation becomes a problem and not benefit due to localisation overload
- Images are low quality
- Do not provide digital information access points
- The above list is extensive. Due to this finding, we have decided to finance a global consumer survey with the purpose of understanding the above in granular detail and more importantly map the end-consumers product introduction/onboarding needs and behaviour.

Over the next couple of months, we will be analysing the data and use it to steer our innovative solutions. We plan to share some of the first findings with you towards the end of February 2018.

the_manual_and_the_issues

The manual & the issues

## "Hello."
We are Layerise, and we focus on interactive product onboarding experiences.


In short, we have been working on the Layerise solution for a couple of quarters and are starting to get a great understanding of what we can do for brands that seek to improve their product onboarding experience. At this moment we have discovered and documented hundreds of issues with the current way brand do product onboarding or knowledge handover.


Over the next couple of months, we will be focusing on getting our product thoughts crystal clear and start building our private beta which we expect to release during Q3 2018.


Now we will head out to grab a freshly brewed cup of ☕ and get back to work.



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