How iRobot uses Pendo to power their personalization strategy

You know the name, and have probably even seen a video or two of a cat riding on top of one. Yes, we’re talking about the iconic Roomba®. 

iRobot, the company behind these trailblazing robot vacuums (and a growing collection of other automated household devices), not only changed the way millions of people around the world clean their homes—they’ve also changed what it means to deliver exceptional, tailored digital experiences that help users make the most of their robots.

With a connected network of over 14 million users globally, the iRobot team has found a way to make each interaction their users have with their app personal, delightful, and informative. 

And they’ve done it with the help of Pendo.

Using data to make the experience personal

In 2020, the iRobot digital team decided to heavily invest in product-led personalization. In a time when consumer expectations had never been higher, they knew they needed to proactively use product data to tailor how they engage with their users.

As Mary Ward, senior digital product manager at iRobot, explained, “Not only [is iRobot] a robotics company, we’re a software company. And that means we’re going to personalize the experiences our customers have through software . . . We know this has to be a part of our foundation, and we know users benefit from this because they’re engaging with the moments that are relevant to their behaviors and preferences.”

Ward and her team started with data—using Pendo Analytics to understand how users were engaging with their devices, and iRobot’s web and mobile apps, to determine what made a moment truly personal. They took a holistic approach to this discovery: examining their users’ behavioral data, demographic data, and channel data to paint a full picture of the user experience.

Reaching the right users, at the right time

Another important element of iRobot’s personalization strategy is how, when, and where they communicate with users. “Our goal is to get users quickly introduced to and trying the new feature, [in ways] specific to their goals,” said Ward. “We also know that if we don’t reach users at the right moment, at the right time, during the right journey, their feature engagement goes down by 30%.”

Ward and her team now use Pendo In-app Guides to segment and reach the right users, at the right time. And Pendo’s metadata and Track Events makes identifying the right cohorts of users for each messaging push, easy. “Using Pendo, [we] can segment any kind of data,” she said. 

This powerful targeting is at the heart of iRobot’s personalization approach, and is critical for ensuring the team sends relevant messages, feature announcements, or important calls-to-action only to the users who need to see them—without disrupting those who don’t.

The results

The iRobot team has achieved incredible results by using Pendo to power their personalization strategy. To date, they’ve seen:

• 43% increase in engagement with feature announcements
• 50% reduction in time to production
• 75% reduction in engineering effort around routine in-app messages

Pendo has also helped unite cross-functional teams within iRobot—building user empathy and creating a shared understanding of the customer experience. “[Before], it wasn’t easy for product managers to find analytics and figure out where users were in the funnel,” she explained. “With the power of Pendo, we’ve been able to understand where people are falling short, understand where our user journey maps need to be iterated on, see if our milestones should change, and learn how to pivot our product strategies around personalization.”

Read the full iRobot story to get even deeper insight into how Ward and her team are using Pendo to build and power their personalization strategy—and to learn how you can do the same for your organization.