CASE STUDY
Gathering testimonials for product launches
Project Date: 2022
Company: Dropbox, a cloud hosting, file sharing and collaboration software company
Challenge
Dropbox was preparing to launch three new products in beta:
Shop (sales platform for digital products)
Capture (screen recording and video message tool)
Replay (video review tool)
During this time, Dropbox was still widely seen as a file storage and sharing platform, despite having already launched several collaboration tools.
The new products were meant to simplify a user’s workflow and showcase Dropbox as an ecosystem. To showcase just how these new products could improve workflows, save time and create less headaches, they needed to be validated through customer interviews and testimonials — we needed to understand exactly how, why and when these tools were used.
Solution
As a customer marketer on the product marketing team, I supported the PMMs for these products by gathering customer evidence in preparation for the beta launches. This work included:
Conducting outreach to Shop, Capture and Replay users
Preparing interview questions that addressed product feedback, how the product fit into a customer’s day-to-day, and quantifiable data for how the product has improved their work or life
Scheduling and conducting interviews
Sharing product feedback with product managers
Finding the right quotes that showed the value of the product, and getting customer approval
Working with other teams to showcase these testimonials across various marketing materials
Results
In total, I interviewed dozens of customers and captured over 25 testimonials with approval for the beta launches of Shop, Capture and Replay. This customer evidence was featured throughout launch materials, including the website landing pages, social media, email campaigns, internal decks, sales enablement and blog posts.
In interviewing these customers, I also noticed that several were a good fit for other engagements because they had compelling workflows and use cases that included multiple Dropbox products. These users were later tapped for customer stories and our advocacy program; many are still active in Dropbox’s advocacy program as of 2024.
Success story
How a customer testimonial for new products led to long-lasting advocacy
During my outreach to Replay customers, I contacted Daniel Jackson, a solopreneur who uses Dropbox and Replay. Through the interview, I learned how Jackson uses Replay in his daily workflow as a videographer and music promoter. Jackson signed off on a testimonial that was used for Replay’s landing page (shown here) and across various marketing materials.
I also interviewed Jackson about Shop, which he had been testing. That led to this blog post written by the editorial team (not by me), where Jackson is featured alongside other creatives that I also interviewed for the Shop beta launch. The blog post quoted directly from my interviews.
During my interviews with him, I noted that Jackson could be a great customer advocate for a new program my team was spearheading. Because of how he was using Dropbox and his level of engagement and interest in new products and features, I later tapped Jackson to be among the first 40 customers to join the Dropbox Champions advocacy program. He was added to an internal advocates database where cross-functional partners could learn more about him and showcase his story in the future.
Jackson is still an active Dropbox Champion to this day. He was featured in a 2023 customer story (not by me) about his work, which was also promoted on social media, and has done been involved in other engagements in 2024.
Jackson is not the only customer success story as a result of these product launches. His testimonial was one of 25 that I gathered for this project, and there were several others that led to additional customer advocacy engagements.
Customer testimonial for Capture on the product page
Customer testimonial for Replay on the product page
Customer testimonial featured in a blog post about Shop