Engineering: Trim-down the "skip copy" in the .com trial flow for non-GL users
Experiment summary
We believe that simplifying our copy is likely to clarify the process of completing the trial form, thus, increase the number of trial started.
To verify that, we will shorten the skip copy in the trial flow for users that are not authenticated to GitLab or entering the trial flow through the marketing website.
Hypothesis
Simplifying our copy is likely to clarify the process of completing the trial form, thus, increase the number of trial started. (speak-easy effect).
Business problem
We are seeing an increase in skipped trial for users that start a trial and are non-authenticated to GL. This flow is mainly relying on copy to convey the necessary steps to follow to start a trial. If the copy is ambiguous people are likely to abandon the process of starting a trial, thus impacts the number of trial started and IACV down the line.
Supporting data
~24.5% (combining all trial referring skip URL) of skip trial come from the trial pages (with an impressive 15% for the trial/new page). Source
Expected outcome
We will see a statistically significant increase in the successful signup rate of trials.
Experiment design & implementation
We will remove the parenthesis part of the skip copy. The copy will then be "Skip trial" instead of "Skip trial" (continue with free account).
| Control | Group |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Current copy | Simplified copy |
Pages where this copy should be changed during the test:
- gitlab.com/-/trials/new
- gitlab.com/-/trials/select
Note: This test should only run for the control and experiment groups when the user originated from https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new
Experiment tracking
In order to determine the success or failure of this experiment, we need users enrolled into the experiment after they submit the form on https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new (or on the subsequent page load of gitlab.com/-/trials/new). The users should be added to the experiments table with a unique Experiment_ID value, the users in the control should be given a Group_Type value of 0 and the experiment group should get a Group_Type value of 1.
In order to track the success metric of successful trial signups, we need to fire a backend event associated with the user_id when the user completes the form on gitlab.com/-/trials/select where they select "Start your free trial". Or if the experiment table is ready we can add this as the success flag in the experiments table for this particular experiment.