Edurino is a learning product for kids that pairs physical figurines with an iOS & Android app. I led the onboarding redesign that lets new families play before buying, building trust before the first purchase.
One of the first things we looked into as a Growth Team was acquisition data: who was downloading the app and why so many never came back. That’s where we noticed a pattern: a large group of people downloaded the app but never added a figurine to their profile. They most likely came out of curiosity, after seeing an ad or a friend’s recommendation, but stopped using the app because there was nothing for them to see before buying a figurine.
To check why some people never turn into paying customers, we scheduled 8 on-site interviews with potential customers (parents + child/children of age from 4 to 8), people who had only heard of Edurino or were considering a purchase, but also people who never heard of the app.
A few things parents told us (paraphrased):
If new families can play before buying, they will trust the product enough to consider a purchase.
We chose the smallest change that could test the hypothesis: redesigning the First Time User Experience.
New users without a figurine were now asked two questions during onboarding: their child’s age and their interests. Based on the answers, the app surfaced two minigames from the existing pool, matched to that child, letting families play a relevant part of the product before buying anything.
About 50% of new users without a figurine started a trial game. Their sessions got consistently longer and no longer ended abruptly at the figurine screen. (Exact figures are confidential.)
The hypothesis held halfway: playing first built trust, but it didn’t lead to a purchase on the spot. Follow-up sessions showed parents felt the offer came too early, so we phased out the upsell and kept the demo, which families liked.
The upsell still gave us a useful answer. Across 5 A/B tests on in-app offers, I learned what parents would accept as a first purchase: a starter kit of 3 figurines and a pen.
The demo is still part of the app today, and the concept has grown beyond onboarding: the same try-out format is now used to showcase new games whenever the company launches them.
We ran 3 on-site testing sessions to see whether the flow met parents’ expectations and whether it would move them towards a purchase. Both kids and parents liked the free trial games. However, parents weren’t convinced by the upsell screen. As the main reason they mentioned that the device usually belonged to the child, and they didn’t want to be pressured by their kids into buying figurines on the spot. Some of them said that it was simply too early for the decision.
Rather than a funnel with a direct revenue outcome, test-before-buy is better understood as one touchpoint in a longer, multi-session decision process. It builds trust and familiarity early, even if the purchase happens somewhere else, later, on a different device.
The key to the games is physical (the figurine), so buying one involves real-world delivery, which naturally puts distance between the demo and the purchase decision.
Kids often play on their own device, separate from the parent’s, so the person who makes the purchase decision won’t buy on a kids-only device.
This case study is one selected project. Alongside it, I worked on:
