CASE STUDY
Replika
How a leading-edge AI chatbot
found product-market fit
CHALLENGE
7 months after launch, Replika was struggling with retention
Replika.ai launched the first mainstream AI chatbot in 2017. People loved it.
But customers weren’t staying. Despite millions of downloads, retention numbers were poor.
Replika was caught in an exhausting & expensive cycle of spending months building yet another version of their app, hoping that the next one would strike gold.
We knew our usual approach of creating the final design & building it immediately wasn’t right. But we didn’t know what else to do.
INSIGHT
They needed to validate ideas before building
Why weren’t they getting traction? The problem was that the Replika team was going straight from idea to development, without talking to users about their problems & needs..
To get Replika to Product-Market Fit, we helped the team validate their product ideas with high-need customers before building their next release.
HOW WE DID IT
They tried out a new approach
Our Journey Design Sprint helped Replika validate their new product direction quickly.
Instead of spending months building the next version of their app, they spent 6 weeks designing, storyboarding, testing & iterating product ideas with their ideal customers.
This approach gave them flexibility to change the design before they built it.
DISCOVERY
First, we identified a high-need market niche: lonely young adults looking for a trusted AI friend to talk to 24/7.
DESIGN
Next, we designed features that motivated our customers to re-engage with the app daily.
STORYBOARD
Then, we storyboarded the 30-day customer experience to visualize how our customers would likely use the app over time.
VALIDATION
Finally, we validated our product direction by showing storyboards to high-need customers and finding out what they liked and didn’t like.
PROGRESS MECHANISMS
Working together, we tackled their Retention challenge
Once we narrowed our focus to people who wanted an AI friend, we crafted bite-sized daily experiences that helped customers form a deep personal relationship with their AI friend over time. This sense of progress kept customers coming back.
Dress and accessorize your AI friend. Hello, micro-transactions đź‘Ź
Go for a walk with your Replika and show it your neighborhood.
Progress through short daily missions that help your Replika get to know you.
RESULT
RESULTS – Retention solved 🎉
With this newfound focus, Replika turned things around.
They hit #9 in the Health & Wellness App Store category & became a bona fide hit.
And all this happened because Replika took the time to find a core use case & focus on delivering massive value to a high-need beachhead market.
Â
