Driving User Activation: A Summer of Growth and Engineering at Warp

The author spent their summer interning at Warp, a company focused on building great products with real impact. They were initially hired as a software engineering intern but quickly developed a deeper sense of user empathy and leaned further into the product by helping out with product growth. Their primary project was to improve user activation, which involved analyzing frictions users face within the first week of using the product and designing solutions to decrease these frictions and improve activation. The author conducted over a dozen observed onboarding sessions and combined their observations with an analysis of Warp's overall funnel and retention data to present three key findings. They then brainstormed solutions for a revamped product onboarding experience, coined "Onboarding 2.0." After building the v0 of the welcome block and resource center, they ran live onboardings to test their solution and gather feedback from real first-time users. The author's greatest takeaways from their internship include balancing qualitative and quantitative data, embracing a risk-tolerant mentality for experimentation, and fostering efficient communication within the team. They feel that their experience at Warp has helped them grow exponentially as an engineer and product builder.