Findmypast

Project outline

Overview

Tree Search was the first new feature in 15 years. The feature was to allow users to search our vast tree database for any other tree node and add that information to their own tree.

My Role

• Lead designer on project.
• Lead research, scoping and execution.
• Mentored junior designer through the project.

Goals

• Research to understand how users want to search for other people. This would define the scope for mvp of the project.
• Design and deliver an mvp to subscribed users.
• Develop an enhanced sharing control centre that allows users to opt out or opt in (default) to sharing their tree data.

Metrics to measure

• Tree search volumes.
• Tree searches per session.
• Tree searches / node profile view rations per session.
• Number of nodes added to tree.

Outcomes

• MVP soft launch in July 2022 with a full launch to all users in August 2022.
• First 30 day metrics:
  • 275k searches
  • 9k nodes added
  • 6.5k private messages sent
• Post-launch roadmap scoped
  • This roadmap was later abandoned as resource was needed else where on the project. Tree search has not been developed further even though it is one of our best perfoming search features.

Discovery

Competitor analysis

Market background:

• Findmypast is the smallest participant in the geneology market. Ancestry make up around 60% of the total global market. Other big players are Family Search and MyHeritage.
• All of our competitors have a feature that allows users to search other user’s trees.