Dynamic Yield
2021
Triggered email
A new Price Drop trigger for Dynamic Yield’s Triggered Email, launched on a selection and setup flow rebuilt to support every trigger that followed.
Overview
A revenue product with a setup flow that couldn’t scale
Triggered Email is one of Dynamic Yield’s top revenue products. The brief was a new Price Drop trigger. Early on, it became clear the existing setup couldn’t absorb another trigger, let alone the ones on the roadmap.
The Impact
+$100K in annual revenue from triggered emails
10 customers launched Price Drop campaigns within 30 days
A framework that grew from 4 to 13 trigger types
Problem
Every new trigger made setup harder
Interviews showed marketers knew their goal but struggled to translate it into the product’s rules. Triggers were listed by name only, and setup lived in one dense, technical form.
Old flow
Design
Building for the next trigger
Expand the scope
The ask was one trigger. Using prototypes and early testing, I made the case to PM and engineering to rebuild selection and setup instead. Every trigger added later shipped on that foundation.
Describe triggers, don’t just name them
A visual picker gives each trigger an icon and a one-line description, so marketers choose by intent. Category filters keep it scannable as the catalog grows.
Break setup into focused steps
Condition, audience, schedule and limits became separate steps, closing with a plain-language summary of what the email will do.
Lessons
Feature requests are system questions
The request was one trigger. The opportunity was the structure behind it. Prototypes made the cost of the old setup visible to the team, and that is what changed the scope. Since then, I ask what the next five features will need.
