451 Research is a global research and advisory firm that analyzes the technologies, services and companies that disrupt information technology. With a team of 100+ analysts, and research organized into 13 Channels, 451 Research has a reputation for high quality and insightful research.
“Our experience with Whatfix overall was heavily positive. From the initial sales inquiry and feature review, to the implementation and partnering with the Professional Services team, everything went smoothly and to plan.”
The Challenge of Adoption and Information Discovery
451 Research covers a wide range of topics with an extensive repository of reports, white papers and articles made available to customers. Their purpose- built research publishing and digestion platform is used by customers to create research requests and self-search for information. However, sifting through the research to get to exactly what’s needed was turning out to be a time-consuming process for their customers. It was not only hurting the user experience, but also defeating the purpose of having a self-service platform.
Aaron St. George, CIO, discovered that 451 Research customers needed more handholding in order to drive more platform adoption and new feature usage.
The Whatfix Solution
To support 451’s global user base, they had to find a way to guide users within the application with minimal dependence on external intervention. To solve for this, Aaron crafted targeted user journeys utilizing specific features to provide the most efficient way to discover information using:
- Advanced search filters
- Guidance on research category details
- Best practices of research content discovery.
Whatfix digital guidance helped actualize these user journeys in the 451 Research platform through:
- Whatfix walkthroughs and self-service capabilities that empower users to self-discover these features and find the right resources quicker
- Support content and tooltips embedded in online PDF guides help users navigate them effectively
- Beacons and tooltips that highlight and explain changes and new features.
A Powerful End User Experience
The following have been the biggest positives in Aaron’s experience with Whatfix:
Ease of Integration: 451 Research used Whatfix through a JS embed model and found the integration to be impressively easy.
Professional Services: Whatfix’s Professional Services group was engaged to develop content and they not just provided a very user-centric and prompt service, but also gave expert consultation on how the Whatfix platform could be best utilized.
Flexibility: Whatfix works with a simple browser extension that can be used on any web-based application. That combined with many different types of widgets and customization options has helped Aaron elevate the user experience across all touchpoints.
451 Research would like to leverage more Whatfix personalization capabilities to create a tailored user experience based on role and function. Additionally they plan to utilize the tool to help guide end-users to curated or specifically unique research for their needs.
