I led a focused growth initiative for JetBrains Rider, designing an activation system that moved users to an early “Aha!” and improved trial→paid conversions. The work combined event reliability, onboarding UX, in-product prompts, and lifecycle email—all measured with clear funnels and weekly decision rituals.

Rider’s free trial had strong adoption, but too many users stalled before experiencing core value (fast C# iteration, debugger, Unity/Rider synergy). Data quality was inconsistent across trial states, making it hard to see where users dropped and which prompts moved them forward.

A measurement-first growth system: fix the top-15 events, define a clean activation funnel, and ship a tight set of onboarding and lifecycle experiments (checklist, in-IDE nudges, starter templates, paywall copy, and trial emails). Every change had a single KPI and an owner, enabling confident weekly decisions.

Discovery & KPI plan — mapped trial states, defined Activation (first project + build + debug), Qualified Trial, and the purchase funnel.

Event spec & QA — unified trial/usage events; added properties for project type (Unity/.NET), first build, first debug, plugin usage.

Onboarding UX — checklist + starter templates; reduced first-run friction (project picker, defaults).

Lifecycle — 4-email trial series (Day 0, 2, 5, 10) tied to activation milestones; “nudge when stuck” segments.

Paywall & pricing surfaces — clarified edition limits, added in-IDE “what you unlock” panel; exit survey on deflection.

Weekly growth board — funnels/retention + decision memo; iterate winners, retire losers.

E1: First-Run Checklist — “Create project → Build → Debug” with progress and help links.

E2: Starter Templates — pre-wired example projects (Unity/.NET) to reduce cold starts.

E3: Nudge When Stuck — in-IDE tooltip if no build in 15 minutes; optional 1-click sample project.

E4: Trial Lifecycle — 4 email touches: Day 0 quickstart, Day 2 feature prompt, Day 5 success story, Day 10 paywall primer.

E5: Paywall Copy Test — “Upgrade to keep…” vs. “Unlock faster debugging for…”; added benefits grid + 1-click upgrade.

E6: Unity Focus — tailored path for Unity devs (asset import + play mode tips).

E7: Recovery Path — re-activation email if usage drops for 3 days with a 2-step quickstart.