Work

Improving Developer Onboarding At Hiro

Product Flows
User Research
Documentation

Empowering Developers to Unleash Bitcoin's Potential

Hiro Developer Documentation

Opportunity

In the dynamic landscape of blockchain technology, Bitcoin stands as a testament to security and success. Yet, its potential as a programmable asset remains largely untapped. Enter Stacks, a platform poised to unlock $1 trillion in Bitcoin capital by ushering in new use cases and making Bitcoin programmable.

My Role

As the Lead Product Manager for developer products, I was accountable for the growth of active developers on the Stacks blockchain. Within this project, I was directly responsible for end-to-end strategy and execution.

Hard Things

Embarking on the journey to make programmable Bitcoin accessible to new developers presented multifaceted challenges:

  • Complexity Barrier: Stacks, as a blockchain reimagining the decentralized internet, introduces a paradigm shift. Its cryptographic foundation, unique protocol, and proprietary programming language posed significant hurdles for new developers.
  • Ecosystem Diversity: The Stacks network fosters a thriving ecosystem where contributions are incentivized. However, navigating the multitude of tools developed by various stakeholders with distinct objectives was cumbersome and time consuming.
  • Purposeful Platform: Balancing the platform’s vision to revolutionize traditional computing and storage with practical use cases demanded a nuanced approach for onboarding. It required showcasing the technology’s key value propositions while addressing specific developer needs.

Approach

Navigating these challenges demanded a methodical approach.

Commencing with exhaustive developer research, I conducted both quantitative surveys and qualitative user studies. These studies delved into user behaviors, pain points, and onboarding experiences, laying the groundwork for informed decision-making.

Sharing key learnings and observations, I initiated a collaborative working group to align on improvements across internal teams (product, marketing, and design) as well as external ecosystem groups. This collective effort ensured a unified approach towards enhancing user experience and documentation clarity.

Armed with insights, I crafted an ideal developer onboarding journey. This journey, delineated by milestones and critical learnings, aimed to streamline the onboarding process and introduce delightful interactions.

Overhauling the Stacks documentation, I reimagined its structure based on the developer onboarding journey. Emphasizing key concepts, guides, references, tutorials, and samples, I tailored content to address developers’ goals and facilitate seamless implementation.

Impact

The endeavors yielded tangible outcomes:

  • Strategic Marketing Campaigns: With clear insights into developer needs, marketing campaigns targeted thousands of new developers, driving adoption and engagement.

  • Iterative Product Enhancements: Through user feedback and research insights, the team identified and implemented product improvements (to the Stacks API, SDK and Explorer), fostering greater user engagement and satisfaction.

  • Enhanced Conversion Rates: By aligning documentation with user goals and use cases, I witnessed an uptick in conversion rates, signifying increased developer activity and platform utilization.

What others said

I received praise from the Stacks community for my efforts as the Product Lead for Developer Experiences:

Stacks community feedback

Key Highlights

  • Informed Product Roadmap: Synthesizing user feedback, team roadmaps, and ecosystem vision, I crafted a focused product roadmap tailored to enable top use cases within the Stacks ecosystem.
  • Human-Centered Design: Grounded in user research and journey mapping, our design approach prioritized user needs and pain points, shaping a holistic end-to-end experience.
  • Use-Case-Centric Documentation: Departing from technical minutiae, our documentation centered around key use cases and developer objectives, fostering clarity and accessibility.

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