Consumer products
Technology
Discover how Zigzag used human insight to develop the Ziggy AI chat function for their popular puppy coaching app
To sustain our business growth, we identified an opportunity to help users get trusted, instant answers by integrating OpenAI within Zigzag. Being able to move fast with confidence in our solution was crucial for our business.
Jack Mitchell
Head of Product & Operations, Zigzag
Backed by Purina, one of the world’s leading pet care companies, Zigzag app is a digital puppy coach that guides dog owners through the ups and downs of early puppyhood with a breed-specific and fully personalized plan, plus a raft of other tools that ensure a fun & stress-free journey. Zigzag exists to bring “Pup happiness, the world over.”
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Contact SalesZigzag has no dedicated user researcher. Jack Mitchell, Head of Product & Operations, and Marija Dubrovska-Hassan, Senior Product Designer, collaborate together to utilize the UserTesting platform. UserTesting’s Contributor Network gives them access to a large and diverse audience for remote user testing of their app and Figma prototypes. They also conduct moderated user interviews.
According to Marija, “Leveraging human insight is imperative to uncover valuable discoveries for Zigzag’s product design and development. Ultimately, this helps us deliver user-centric growth which is critical for achieving our business objectives.”
From their user interviews, Jack and Marija identified a problem: users hesitated to request support from puppy coaches for what they perceived to be simple or trivial questions. Instead, they preferred searching for answers independently on platforms like Google and YouTube.
Zigzag sought to address the problem in a way that would drive up lifetime value for customers through subscription activations and retention. But with the rapid increase to Zigzag’s user base, they faced limitations to their business capacity, particularly in the availability of puppy coaches.
Per Jack Mitchell, “To sustain our business growth, we identified an opportunity to integrate generative AI chat from ChatGPT within the Zigzag app. Being among the first dog training apps to adopt this technology was crucial for our business, and missing this opportunity was not an option.”
Zigzag would need to assess important aspects of the AI chat function, now affectionately known as Ziggy. The team sought to ensure subscriber growth, confirm user willingness to pay for the solution, measure user satisfaction with the answers they receive, evaluate whether users understand the feature, and validate that users would ultimately prefer the AI chat over searching with Google.
They conducted the following tests to refine their approach:
The team conducted multiple rounds of Figma prototype testing that focused on key aspects: discoverability, first impressions, and user willingness to engage with Ziggy. The results of these tests allowed them to refine the designs and the functionality.
Key findings
Marija says, “Findings from the tests made us change the way we present information at the first point of entry into the AI chat feature. That got us thinking about how we can make Ziggy more fun and engaging for users. Adding more screens into the app is always scary, but it was important for us to pace the experience so the users could easily understand the value of the chat function. Multiple tests since then have helped us identify which features we could include in the initial launch and others that we should adjust.”
Business metrics demonstrate the impact of implementing the AI chat feature within the Zigzag app. The results reflect improvements in user engagement, conversion, customer satisfaction, feature adoption, and operational efficiency. By addressing user needs and delivering a superior experience, Zigzag’s AI chat feature launch has contributed to the success of the app and will help to drive business growth overall.
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