Today, Feedzy is the most powerful WordPress RSS aggregator, helping users easily curate content, autoblog, import, and display unlimited RSS feeds. 

But it wasn't like this all the time.

The Challenge

In 2021, we did some UX Research and competition analyses and concluded that the product had some challenges. Mainly, the issues were around new users uninstalling the product on Day 1 (which is critical), and the product needed to be ready for the next stage. At that time, the next stage meant enhancing existing features and scaling the product with new features.

Another issue was the UIX discrepancy between how Feedzy can be used in different contexts: Shortcode, Gutenberg, and Elementor. In each of those, Feedzy was doing the same thing, but the setup experience differed for each. This added some Cognitive Load for the users since they had to learn how to configure Feedzy in each medium again.

This is how Feedzy looked in 2021:

The Solution

First, to mitigate the issue with users who uninstalled the product on Day 1 - we added onboarding, more accessible help, and documentation materials in the UI. We separated the flow between first-time users and the ones returning.

Secondly, we simplified the Steps required for the Golden Path to just 4 steps:

1. Select Source

2. Add filtering (if needed)

3. Add actions

4. Map the imported content

Third, we upgraded the UI. This required step helped both the Design, Support, and Development teams because now the UI flow followed the same structure in all contexts: Shortcode, Gutenberg, and Elementor. The new UI also allowed us to scale the product quickly; for example, when we released a new feature - it would be easy to integrate into the new UI without breaking anything.

Upselling Pro Features

Another issue identified during the research phase was the discoverability of the existing features and new ones. Specifically, the Plugin comes in 2 versions: Free and Pro. However, in the Free version, there were few indications of what the Pro version offers, and a lot of the Pro features were hidden.

After brainstorming potential solutions, we agreed it would be best to show all the features in the Free version (with Pro upsells), making all the plugin's capabilities visible to the users. Before this, users had to search or ask the support team if Feedzy had a specific feature.

AI features and Amazon Product Advertising

In 2023 and 2024, we started prototyping an AI integration and released an OpenAI feature that can paraphrase, summarize, generate missing featured images, or apply custom prompts to the imported content.

Additionally, we released an integration with Amazon Product Advertising, allowing us to easily import and display Amazon products directly on the WordPress site and earn commissions on sales. While working on this, I got the confirmation that the new UI was scalable since it took just a short time to make the prototype.