Qlik Sense Trial Optimization - Qlik
Methods & Outcomes
- Behavioural research
- Discovery interviews
- Journey mapping
- Strategic UX recommendations
- Solution concepts for trial redesign
Team
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What stops trial users from becoming long-term customers?
Highlights
Qlik, a global leader in data analytics, needed to understand why users were dropping off during the trial of its cloud platform, Qlik Sense. Despite an experienced in-house UX team and strong product capabilities, conversion from trial to paid user was lower than expected. DFFRNT was brought in to surface behavioural insights and help reshape the user journey.
Starting with discovery, DFFRNT examined internal research, interviewed Qlik teams, and analyzed trial data. Then, through direct user interviews and journey mapping, the team uncovered key obstacles to trial success. Two distinct user needs emerged: buyers looking to evaluate, and learners hoping to self-train. DFFRNT's human-centred approach revealed the need for differentiated experiences.
The Client
Qlik is a multinational enterprise specializing in data integration, analytics, and business intelligence. With over 38,000 active customers, Qlik is a recognized industry leader.
Despite having a capable internal UX team, the company turned to DFFRNT for an outside perspective, seeking unbiased behavioural insights and human-centred expertise to uncover challenges their internal teams may have missed.
DFFRNT's reputation for aligning strategy with user reality made them a natural choice for this engagement. The company specifically wanted to improve adoption rates for Qlik Sense, their cloud-based analytics platform.
The Challenge
Although Qlik offered a 30-day free trial for Qlik Sense, too few participants were converting into customers.
Users often felt uncertain about what to do next after signing up, struggled to locate key features, and were unsure if they were using the platform 'correctly.'
Some reached out directly to Qlik seeking clarity on capabilities, signaling that the trial experience wasn’t surfacing the product’s value clearly or intuitively.
Despite strong internal capabilities, the team needed fresh insight into these behavioural pain points to understand why trial users weren’t progressing.
"""In a case like this, we generally know what the product is supposed to do. We don’t need to know how it does it. What we do know is where the user gets confused; we are a champion of the user."" "
The Solution
DFFRNT began with a deep discovery phase, analyzing onboarding flows, existing research, and trial analytics. Interviews with sales, tech support, and client-facing staff helped focus the investigation. In the research phase, DFFRNT spoke directly with trial participants to understand their goals, struggles, and expectations.
Behavioural insights were visualized in a journey map, revealing two core trial personas: buyers and learners. Each had different needs and pathways, but the existing trial experience failed to serve either well. DFFRNT recommended a split-path approach with clearer guidance, simplified content discovery, and task-focused onboarding.
The Outcome
Qlik gained a clearer view of trial participants' needs and the friction they encountered. The research revealed organizational misalignment around personas and value messaging, contributing to a disjointed trial journey. DFFRNT delivered strategic recommendations and solution concepts aimed at clarifying the value proposition and simplifying the user journey.
By aligning internal teams around shared insights and restructuring the trial path, Qlik was better equipped to convert interested users into confident customers.
Key Takeaways
- Behavioural research can uncover hidden friction in digital experiences
- Differentiated user goals require tailored onboarding and support
- Discovery phases are crucial to building on existing internal knowledge
- Journey mapping clarifies how and where users get stuck
- Aligning internal teams improves consistency in customer experience
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