What caused the sudden 30% decrease in daily active users for Nutmeg's investment portfolio feature last week?

Introduction

The sudden 30% decrease in daily active users for Nutmeg's investment portfolio feature last week is a critical issue that demands immediate attention. This analysis will systematically identify, validate, and address the root cause while considering both short-term and long-term implications for the product and business.

To tackle this problem, I'll follow a structured approach that covers issue identification, hypothesis generation, validation, and solution development. My goal is to not only uncover the cause of this significant drop but also to propose actionable steps to rectify the situation and prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Step 1

Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)

• Looking at the timing, I'm thinking there might have been a recent product update. Has there been any significant change or feature release in the past week?

Why it matters: Recent changes often correlate with sudden metric shifts. Expected answer: Yes, there was a UI refresh. Impact on approach: If confirmed, I'd focus on user experience and potential bugs introduced.

• Considering user segments, I'm curious about the distribution of the decrease. Is the 30% drop uniform across all user segments, or is it more pronounced in specific groups?

Why it matters: Helps identify if the issue is global or segment-specific. Expected answer: The drop is more significant among newer users. Impact on approach: I'd investigate onboarding processes and new user experiences.

• Given the nature of investment products, I'm wondering about market conditions. Have there been any major market events or economic news that could influence user behavior?

Why it matters: External factors can significantly impact investment-related product usage. Expected answer: No major market events, relatively stable conditions. Impact on approach: If confirmed, I'd focus more on internal factors and product issues.

• Thinking about system reliability, I'm concerned about potential technical issues. Have there been any reported outages, slow performance, or error spikes in our monitoring systems?

Why it matters: Technical issues can directly cause drops in active users. Expected answer: No major outages, but some intermittent errors reported. Impact on approach: I'd prioritize investigating these errors and their impact on user experience.