Messaging: Startups & YC Flows 3.0

[joethreepwood]

Messaging

We've seen some repeated issues with the old startup flows. These have come down to a few things, including:

• Anonymized users (solved by removing the option)
• Users triggering both the plan_added and backfill event (fix unknown)
• Me messing up a workflow (they're complex; I'm stupid)
• Users triggering events incorrectly (various causes)
• Some events not firing (@zlwaterfield has fixed, we think)

As a result, we need to change things up. I think the best solution here will be to split the current two campaigns (one for backfill, one not) into more campaigns which each trigger a specific email based on a single event.

Best case: This will solve the issues, remove any logic problems, and mean that users more reliably get the correct emails. Worst case: We'll compartmentalize any problems, remove any logic problems, and have a better view of where things go wrong.

What I'm proposing is we completely deactivate the existing Startup flows and replace with four more campaigns:

• One which triggers whenever the plan_added event fires, sends a welcome email
• One which triggers whenever the 50_percent event fires, sends a warning and an internal sales email
• One which triggers whenever the 75_percent event fires, sends a warning and an internal sales email
• One which triggers whenever the bonus_added event fires, sends a bonus and goodbye

Going forward there shouldn't be any situations where users trigger the removal event. Instead, they should trigger the bonus_added event, and we can tell them: Goodbye, here's a bonus.

Content for these emails doesn't need to change based on what's used in the existing flows.

[joethreepwood]

I'll just link directly to the new flows here, for quicker approvals:

• Welcome: https://fly.customer.io/workspaces/127208/journeys/campaigns/115
• 50%: https://fly.customer.io/workspaces/127208/journeys/campaigns/116
• 75%: https://fly.customer.io/workspaces/127208/journeys/campaigns/117
• Bonus and Goodbye: https://fly.customer.io/workspaces/127208/journeys/campaigns/118/

@minekansu and @zlwaterfield let me know your thoughts on this approach!

[zlwaterfield]

@joethreepwood this looks good to me.

Few thoughts:

1. I can update the events to be like the transactional emails with a standard startup event name and a property to differentiate the event type if you want them in the same campaign (just LMK)
2. Can we still make sure we don't trigger the same email for a user twice in the case an event does get triggered twice?

[zlwaterfield]

Note: we will still send startup_plan_customer_removed and startup_plan_balance_100_percent but they can be ignore from a campaign perspective.

[joethreepwood]

1. I can update the events to be like the transactional emails with a standard startup event name and a property to differentiate the event type if you want them in the same campaign (just LMK)

No need for that now, as I've built them out already. Thanks though!

2. Can we still make sure we don't trigger the same email for a user twice in the case an event does get triggered twice?

Yep. I can set it to be once only.

Note: we will still send startup_plan_customer_removed and startup_plan_balance_100_percent but they can be ignore from a campaign perspective.

Yeah, I don't think we need this for messaging anymore.

Launching today!