Duolingo little-known experiment
Unheard of experiment that drove Duolingo's success
Hi, I’m Felix! Welcome to this month’s ADPList’s Newsletter: ✨ free edition ✨ advice column. I write high-quality insights on designing products people love and leadership in tech. If you’re interested in sponsoring us, let’s chat.
Today, I’m coming back by popular request in a special format.
This is a bite-size powerful study on real-world companies and products and some of the most important product lessons we can learn from them.
We’re coming back with Duolingo.
Let me know what you think about this format in the comments! 🙏✨
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Imagine you are a Product Designer or Manager at Duolingo.
Luis, the CEO, invites you to a meeting and asks… which version of the Duolingo Super paywall is going to perform better in converting users to pay.
Which one would you pick?
While this might seem like the easy choice with the visuals and aesthetics—the magic is actually a very small detail inside. Can you guess where?
Most Designers/PMs, argue it’s the “countdown timer” that drove urgency.
Hint: It’s not.
In a recent A/B Test, version B performed better at converting free users into paying customers.
Why?
In Version B, the annual plan is already selected for users.
As I have come to learn as a designer over the years, smart defaults are insanely powerful mechanics. This is a little-known power ux move.
Don’t underestimate their power.
That’s all for this week, have a productive and fulfilling week! 🙏
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Do you like this quick-read format? Let me know in the comments! 🙏✨
In case you missed it, I wrote more popular posts on Duolingo:
I'll keep creating great stuff if you keep reading. I read every reply if you care to reply :). You might get an answer back.
Until next week.
Felix Lee
I'd be more likely to click on B due to the reasons you mention. However, the family option is excluded from option Both my daughters also use Duolingo so the family option is by far the best deal for us so I'd probably be a little annoyed not knowing that was an option and finding out later and having to try to amend my subscription so actually option B maybe isn't the best one as it doesn't show all the options.
When does it stop being a power UX move and it becomes a dark pattern though? Users may not be necessarily looking for the long term deal at supposedly the best price, some of them just want to give it a try (longer than the random 2 day trial that Duolingo gives to power users). For others, the family plan might be the better deal but they wouldn’t know with option B. Just a thought.