Aha-moment is the ultimate goal and many companies are constantly developing their product and researching their target audience. In this article, we will find out what Aha-moment is, how it is defined and what Aha-moment is in different companies.

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What is Aha-moment

According to the dictionary from the Merriam-Webster publishing company (a branch of Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest English-written universal encyclopedia), Aha-moment (this term is slightly changed to Aha! Moment abroad) is defined as “a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension”.

Archimedes, a scientist from ancient Greece, was amazed when he realized that the water level had risen according to the volume of his body. This discovery has attracted great attention to the understanding of the world and its laws. In addition, it has become a solution to a problem Archimedes was thinking about back then. “Evrika!” (“Got it!”) by Archimedes can be the most laconic definition of Aha-moment.

In the present-day meaning, the term appeared in the early 30th of the XX century.

In marketing, Aha-moment is the time when the user realizes the value of the product and makes the decision to use it on a regular basis. To a greater degree, the Aha-moment relates to simple Math, product credibility and to a lesser degree, it relates to deep analytics.

Aha-moment is also an activity that brings value to the client. If you understand what the activity is (thought the interview or product data analytics), then you will be able to optimize the onboarding process of the new clients and increase the loyalty of the old ones.

The reasons why new clients don’t want to get back to the product may vary: perhaps, the user doesn’t have a need that the product satisfies or the product’s team attracts wrong clients (has wrong self-presentation), or the product’s added value isn’t high enough, or the product’s value is presented and explained in a wrong way. Thus, the main task of the product is to show its value to the client giving him a possibility to experience it: from saying “Okay, it’s just another service” to “WOW, that’s what I was looking for!” ( Aha-moment at its best).

While defining Aha-moment, the accent is made on simplicity. The moment when the client becomes regular, can come after your service acquired 30 subscribers or it was once downloaded or received 2000 messages.

Aha-moment is searched not for accuracy but to define the basic companies work directions — to understand what is valuable for the client and work in this direction. In such a way,

Aha-moment is the most simple indicator of interaction with a client — when he realizes that your product is valuable to him.

Facebook case

The most widespread case, which is taken as an example of the Aha-moment topic is the Facebook case. FB aha-moment is a possibility to make a certain number of friends in a certain number of days. The correctly calculated Aha-moment has become Ariadne’s clew from the beginning of the road to 1 billion active users, and then to 2 billion. According to the date of 2019, the number of registered FB users reached the point of 2.3 billion users.

This example is nothing else but a fact of Aha-moment definition through the median of specific actions quantity. Conditionally, on Facebook, this median was the situation when one user added 7 new friends in 10 days. At the same time, someone has become a regular user after finding 4 friends in 20 days, and somebody in 2 hours spent on the website, in which he added 10 new friends.

Stampede case

Let’s have a look at another example. Stampede is a service for offline-business which allows to simplify online-marketing processes. The tool gives a possibility to acquire all the information about the guests via the guest wi-fi and use it for a better understanding of the clients’ needs.

Aha-moment for Stampede is the moment when the service user acquired information about their clients. As for small businesses, it is quite hard and expensive to organize user interviews, and with this tool, companies have the possibility to acquire such important information in the price that equals the program subscription price.

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How to determine Aha-moment

Despite the definition, Aha-moment is not specifically a moment. More likely, it is a complex of actions that allow divide the clients, who value your product and those, who don’t. Those clients who value your product, come back.

To calculate Aha-moment, you need to understand what actions divide those users who stayed from those who left. In such a way, you would know what is the customer value and then define Aha-moment for your product.

Usernap case

Usernap is a tool for getting feedback from clients who use web-services. Usernap gives a possibility to send screenshots and reports of browser errors.

Users value the service as it can be integrated with project management and CMS-tools. This allows not only to get feedback from the clients but also to integrate it into your operating program, and this saves time. The product’s Aha-moment happens when an error, received from the user, integrates into those tools, which the company already uses.

So, how to find Aha-moment:

1. Workout the client’s life stages in terms of your business and using such called AAARRR-funnels:

• Awareness — new clients received information about your product from the exterior resource;

• Acquisition — clients left their contact information;

• Activation —clients tried using your product and understood its value;

• Retention — clients used your product again;

• Referral — clients advised your product to their friends;

• Revenue — clients paid for the product.

2. Research on the client activation stage is the moment when a decision is made: do I want to continue using the product? To define Aha-moment, look for the answer to a question: What action in the product/with the product brings the maximum value to a customer?

3. Workout 3 dimensions, at the intersection of which lays Aha-moment:

• The key action that brings the value and leads to its acquisition, counts all the user experiences when the client “fits” the product and understands its value. It may be the number of downloads, the number of sent messages, or the amount of subscription/subscribers.

• Define the required quantity of key actions.

• Define the time period when you have to do these actions.

Taking into consideration all mentioned above, you need to consider the following factor:

If the user won’t “taste” the product promptly, you can lose it forever.

4. Analyze the action combinations, their quantity and time for accomplishing them, and define the combination which perfectly correlates with the retention. In the result, you will get Aha-moment formulation of this type:

At the same time, calculating the time period is not always a doable task. Sometimes key actions don’t correlate with the time-period or vaguely correlate because of the product specificity. In such a case, Aha-moment = X of key actions.

Slack case

Slack is a corporate messenger that has become the most fast-growing business application in history. The company was researching the user-feedback on different capabilities of their product, and they came to the conclusion that when employees of the company-client will send 2000 messages in the app, there is a 93%-chance that the company will become a regular user of the product.

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Interview on how to find Aha-moment

The most secure way to receive information that is necessary for determining Aha-moment, is through personal interviews with users who have tried your product recently.

To begin with, from the cohort of new users for the last 30–60 days, select those who began to regularly use the product/moved to the category of those who pay for the product.

Then arrange a short (no more than 15 minutes) interview with these people, during which you will find out the answer to the question: at what point did the respondent understand that he was ready to continue using it?

If most of the answers match your calculations/assumptions, then you are on the right track — you already have an idea of ​​what your Aha-moment consists of. If nothing matches so far, delve deeper into a more detailed study of the issue.

Trainual case

Trainual is an application that organizes all studying materials and company tutorials in one place. Besides, the service gives a possibility to create study guides for new or existing employees, clients, contractors, trainees. This platform allows organize all in-process knowledge about a company, document standard procedures and create repeatable scalable processes.

Aha-moment of this product happens when an owner or a manager brings a new employee to the company and shows the ropes using the service. How did they get it? They talked with the clients and found out that the service helps to regulate the company processes.

Wishpond case

Wishpond is the platform that combines a range of marketing tools: lendings, pop-up windows, forms, contests, promotions, marketing automatization, e-marketing, guidance, creditable and leading profiles. They possess themselves as a platform that guarantees the growth for client’s business.

Aha-moment of the product is the moment when a user creates a company using the service — lending, contest, pop-up and its publishing. The majority of users consider all these as a daunting and time-consuming process but when they try to do it using the service and see that it takes only a few minutes, they understand the product’s value and become adherers to the product.

The Wishpond founders managed to define their Aha-moment by funnel analysis and interviews with clients. The first option included data observation and selection of actions which lead to the increase of user activations and to the retention. The second option included talks with clients, which shed light on what is the product value for them.

Uploadcare case

Uploadcare is the service that represents file storage for websites and applications. In the Uploadcare basis, there are three components. Those are content downloading networks, a system of content processing and adaptation, and a content delivery network.

The team has conducted special research and the results defined several Aha-moments in their product. Those are the configuration of the downloaded files when the user chooses which format is relevant for him. This is a report about the perception of pictures — the service shows how pictures on the website can be optimized, how this can influence the page load time and other factors. Finally, it is an interactive demonstration of the user’s homepage, which illustrates how it will work after adaptation with the service. Each of these three actions influences the client’s loyalty.

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Resume

Aha-moment is a moment when a new client realizes the product value, and as a result, the new client becomes a regular client. Aha-moment is a completely simple action, nonetheless, it has the key meaning for the consumer. Usually, it is represented by the quantity of received or sent messages, completed reporting downloads, integration of the acquired information, which the client is already working with.

In order to accurately determine what Aha-moment of your product is, you need to analyze AAARRR-funnel and address the activation stage. After that, you have to create the list of key actions that the client does with the product, pay attention to their quantity and to the time spent on accomplishing these actions. After this, you have to analyze the acquired combinations and define the one or several that correlate with the retention. After all, mentioned above, talk to new clients in the form of an interview and get to know when the user understands that he is ready to continue using the product.

Defining Aha-moment will help you to coordinate the work on the product and forward it to optimize the characteristics which are the most valuable to the client. In perspective, this will boost the process of acquiring new clients and increase the old users’ loyalty.