Business Context

In 2016, Monotype launched a new way to license fonts. It was called the 'Monotype Library Subscription' and was sold via their eCommerce websites like MyFonts and Fonts.com to customers across the globe. Customers paid a low monthly subscription and had access to Monotype's library. Fonts could be downloaded via SkyFonts. 

A year later, with customer complaints about SkyFonts becoming problematic, it was decided to overhaul the concept and build an MVP of a desktop app. In order to understand which user needs to focus on and how to prioritise the roadmap, the Product team undertook a programme of research across 6 months. I worked collaboratively with the team to co-ordinate the research.

Stakeholders

• VP of Product

• Corporate Strategy and Product Committee

• Product Marketing Manager

• Product Manager

• Design Director

• Product Designer

Goals

• Size the market

• Gather high level feedback of the concept

• Define 'the best customer' for the new subscription offer

• Understand the behaviours, needs and wants of the 'best customer'

• Create personas and journey maps

• Prioritise the roadmap

Approach

Over 6 months I worked collaboratively with the team to conduct and project manage research, analysis and persona generation. We undertook the work in two three month phases and reported back to the Product Committee at the end of each stage.

Phase 1:

• Review of previous research

• Online survey partnering with external market research agency

• Online focus groups and concept testing partnering with external market research agency

Phase 2:

• Stakeholder workshop

• Proto persona generation

• Customer and non customer interviewing 

• Persona generation workshop

• Buyer journey mapping

My role was to co-ordinate each activity, ensure the wider team was involved in all aspects of the research and to project manage the market research agency who undertook the initial work for us. I worked collaboratively with the Product Manager, Design Director and Product Marketing Manager for the whole of phase 2 but led the co-ordination of each activity. I facilitated interviews, the persona generation workshop and assisted with the capturing and writing up of the personas/journey maps.

Outcomes

The depth of knowledge gained from collaboratively delving deeply into the needs of the 'best customers' had several outcomes. The main one was the re-prioritisation of the product roadmap to focus on the absolute 'must have' features first. This led to a much better market fit for the initial launch of the app. The second key outcome was the realisation that the biggest opportunity was with teams and not individuals as the team had first thought. In 2018, the library subscription was repositioned as the Monotype Library Subscription for teams and design and marketing efforts were switched to building features for teams - eg design agencies. 

"Emma brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to the research team leading successful projects that had direct and positive impact on our products by achieving a better understanding of our customers wants, needs, behaviors and journeys. She would be a fantastic asset to any organization, a pleasure to work with, and I would not hesitate to recommend her."

- David Gould, Former Monotype Director of Product Management