Reuters/Robert Galbraith
Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo
It’s not because they weren’t confident, says Michael La Guardia, chief product officer for Yahoo Finance and Sports, but because of the drastic changes he’s about to make to one of Yahoo’s most popular products.
“We knew we were doing the right thing,” La Guardia told Business Insider. “But every time you replace something, especially a very attractive and widely used product, you will find other people having problems. ” “.
Since launching a completely revamped design in July, Yahoo Finance has garnered massive reactions from its users, estimated at 75 million unique visitors per month, according to comScore. Its user forum is full of rude posts criticizing the changes, and even some prominent investors who have used Yahoo Finance say they are ready to abandon the product.
As with sports, Yahoo has replaced the monetary industry’s user interface so radically that it creates the best time to look for alternatives: which one is better?
But La Guardia says the replacement was mandatory for the product as a whole. And despite all the virulent criticism, he says the reception has been positive or negative. The actual functionality and engagement metrics have also changed, La Guardia says.
“We call it ‘the ‘You moved my cheese’ phenomenon,” says La Guardia. “Surely we have a better product now. “
yahoo
Michael La Guardia, director of financial products at Yahoo
Some changes, such as non-stop articles, were made because it has become a trend led through Facebook and Twitter, says La Guardia. The local classifieds now appearing in News Feed are aimed at maximizing price for Yahoo’s premium partners. The largest section of graphics and videos? These are intended to have a new, consistent look across all Yahoo products, adding Yahoo Sports, she says.
And despite all the court cases about Yahoo Finance lagging after the redesign, La Guardia says it’s just a matter of “perception. “
“The appeal of functionality is that it relies heavily on perception,” La Guardia said. “The real speed, the real numbers in this are faster than our previous numbers. “
While LaGuardia declined to give significant functionality figures, he noted that traffic has continued “up and to the right” since the redesign.
Last week, the number of daily active users increased 5% compared to its 52-week average, and earlier this month it even recorded the highest traffic day in the last 6 months – an impressive feat considering the market has been relatively quiet during the past. Some months and money sites sometimes don’t see as many traffic spikes during the summer.
Still, La Guardia is the first to admit that this is a high-pressure scenario because Yahoo Finance hadn’t replaced it in almost 7 years and had a very giant and unwavering following.
“It took a little courage to take such an iconic product and say, ‘Let’s check it out to do better,'” he said. “Control of customers’ products is for the faint of heart. “
Yahoo
Many other people are not satisfied with the Yahoo Finance review
On the day of the new version, La Guardia sent a private email to 7 million Yahoo Finance users. It was intended to get feedback from some of its most loyal users, but it was also part of La Guardia’s efforts to engage directly with people, he said. he says.
“I can’t make people’s court cases go away, except for a commitment to creating the most productive product possible,” he says. “By trying to do that, we knew we were passing on to upset some people. “
This is not to say that all negative comments have gone unnoticed. The Guard says that it will pay more attention to the complaint in order to be informed of it. So far, he’s dealt with about a hundred user court cases about the product, and in August he even wrote a blog post detailing what kind of new tweaks are being made.
“My boss, Simon Khalaf, likes to say, ‘The opposite of hate is not love, it’s apathy. ‘ And what we’re seeing here isn’t apathy: we’re seeing other people care about this product,” La Guardia says.
The redesign affected all facets of the site, adding the product backend. This means that you can now bring more inventions and new features than in the past on the previous site. He declined to give a percentage of exactly what is being prepared, but said it would unlock “all kinds of innovation in the currency space. “
People who don’t like the new Yahoo Finance can still access the previous edition through foreign sites, such as Yahoo Canada’s money page, because the update was only made in the United States. La Guardia says that he has no control over people’s choices, but that he will continue to work hard to make them happy.
“I’m not going to come out to say that I’m saying goodbye intelligently. People deserve to use Yahoo Finance only if I give them a price. If not, I deserve them to leave. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give up. I will continue to regain your trust,” he said.
Advertisement
POPULAR CATEGORIES