We built polljoy out of frustration and failure. Antony and I had created a point-to-point messaging app especially for families.
We thought it was a great idea.
Something easy enough for grandma and safe for little Megan.
We did customer research early (“just what I need for my kids”), tested mockups with real users (ambushing strangers at the airport really works) and focused on a fun UX and stable product.
But when we finally launched our high quickly evaporated:
Retention sucked
The vast majority didn’t even make a connection. Our Flurry dashboard told us what was happening, but not why.
- Was it because they didn’t get the invite code concept?
- Or didn’t have an easy way to let the other side know hot to install?
- Or they did but the other side didn’t need it or trust it?
- Or they didn’t like the look and feel of the app?
- Or they were fine just using text messages or Facebook etc
- Or a technical issue?
- Or they were expecting something else when they downloaded? etc…etc…
All we had were guesses.
User feedback? Our 13,402 users gave us less than 10 reviews or emails — less than 0.08% response rate.
We failed and didn’t even know why.
We grimly shut down the project but doing so, it got us thinking — how many other developers are in the same boat as us?
We figured – probably a lot.
So we decided to build a tool to solve: “not knowing why users leave”.
Fast forward many months of work we’re launching our free survey maker for mobile and web - We’d love your feedback on polljoy.
ps — you may see our polls running on our site. Simple reason – we don’t want to screw up twice ☺
