How AccuWeather uses Pendo to forecast users’ needs and deliver critical information in-app

AccuWeather is a weather forecasting company that provides forecasts and other weather-related information to businesses and individuals through its website and mobile apps.

With more than 1.5 billion people around the world using its website and apps to check the weather, AccuWeather is one of the most widely used weather forecasting services in the world. 

In the past, the company relied on its analytics team to report product usage and its engineering and design teams to communicate feature releases and send out alerts in-app. This often meant that it took days or weeks to generate these user insights and communications—which doesn’t work for a business that needs to move at the speed of the weather.

Communicating when and where it matters with Pendo In-app Guides

AccuWeather first started using the Pendo platform to validate their product decisions, collect feedback, and more efficiently communicate critical information to users. 

“The nature of a weather app is really about delivering the right information as soon as possible,” said Olivia Malachowicz, Associate Product Manager at AccuWeather. “The company’s mission is to save lives, and my job is to make sure we stay true to this mission and deliver information to our users at the right time, in the way that they want to be communicated to.”

With Pendo In-app Guides and segmentation, Malachowicz is able to do just that. 

One example is with their Forecast Eye Path tool, where users can track the path of a storm and anticipate whether or not it is going to impact their location. Since AccuWeather expects a lot of engagement with this feature during hurricane season, the team turned to Pendo to create an educational in-app guide to help people use the tool more effectively. This single guide contributed to an 81% increase in engagement (left/right swiping) in their application.

“It’s very powerful to know that we don’t need to block any design, engineering, or analytics [team] time in order to educate users in-app about a subscription or new feature.”

Olivia Malachowicz | Associate Product Manager, AccuWeather

Most recently, Malachowicz and team have also started leveraging a similar strategy to drive product-led growth. They created upsell guides that trigger based on the season as well as usage patterns, helping to increase subscription revenue with a 0.5% conversion rate. “When we [use Pendo to] do contextual targeting of our users based on the season or even the holidays, we see higher conversion rates,” Malachowicz noted.

Using Pendo to deliver a more personalized experience for users

The AccuWeather team is also utilizing Pendo to inform product decisions—and build features they know users will find value in.

Earlier this year, AccuWeather used polls and surveys in Pendo to unlock a key insight around the difference between iOS and Android users. Malachowicz explained, “iOS users tend to rely more on curation and on [us] to provide the most important information, whereas Android users are more interested in customizing […] the type of notifications they receive.” 

After digging in further, the team saw that Android users rely heavily on persistent notifications (a tool specific to Android devices) to get information about the weather. “That unlocked an opportunity for us to expand our subscription package to introduce custom persistent notifications for winter weather and hurricanes,” Malachowicz shared.

“After [using Pendo to learn] that iOS and Android users have different preferences around customization, we were able to unlock a key feature for our Android users within our Premium Plus subscription.”

Olivia Malachowicz | Associate Product Manager, AccuWeather

With this insight, AccuWeather’s product team got to work building the new functionality. “This was really exciting for me to find out and add to our roadmap, and it ended up being a really valuable feature for our users,” Malachowicz said. She also noted how this decision wouldn’t have been possible without Pendo. “This was an example where we had a high level understanding [of our users], but we didn’t necessarily think about it at the product and feature level.”

In the end, Pendo is helping the AccuWeather team provide more value for users—and drive meaningful growth for the business.

“Pendo helps me build a deeper connection with our users,” Malachowicz shared. “[This means] understanding what our users want and not just releasing a product that’s generic, but really making sure that we tailor it to their needs.”