When we set out to build Sherlock, our goal was to help SaaS businesses of all sizes operationalize their product engagement data. After running many SaaS businesses ourselves, we knew how essential this data was to all our customer-facing teams — yet how hard it was to for them to access and use it. We knew that, at the very least:

  • Sales needs to know which trials are actually using the product and when users become activated;
  • Customer success needs to know when key accounts are in danger — or ready to expand;
  • Product needs to know if key features are being adopted;
  • Marketing needs to know which customers were most successful so they can go get more

We created Sherlock to help package this data in a way that all of these teams could easily benefit.

But we also realized that to make this data truly actionable, teams needed to have it in the places they lived on a regular basis. This is why we opened up connections to bring this data to Segment, Intercom, Salesforce, and more.

But still, that wasn’t enough. Not only do these teams need the data and need it in their tools of choice – they need it fast. This is the job of our latest release, Sherlock Alerts. With Alerts, teams can ship their essential product engagement data from to Sherlock when they need it, where they want it — in Slack.

With this release, Sherlock has taken another big step in helping SaaS teams operationalize product engagement.

What Are Sherlock Alerts?

Quite simply, they are the easiest way to keep your team updated on how your users and accounts are engaging with your product.  
With Alerts, you can design notifications for any engagement situation. If there’s something you want to know about how your users are engaging (or not engaging) — there’s an Alert for that.

So What Can I Be Alerted About?

Good question! Here’s just a few things:

There’s been a change in a user or account’s Engagement Score

product engagement alert sample engagement score

There’s nothing more fundamental to Sherlock than the Product Engagement Score. It’s a one-number overview of how engaged your accounts are with your product.  And now you can get alerted whenever there’s an increase or decrease in an account’s score. Stay abreast of churn threats or — even better — expansion opportunities!

A new account is created or new user is added to an existing account

product engagement alert sample new user

Ahhh…is there anything more exciting than seeing new users being added to your product. One of the purest shots of dopamine.

But even more important than the self-satisfaction these alerts bring, is how they can keep your sales and CS team on top of these new entrants. Knowing when new accounts are created can help your sales team get a jump on the competition. Knowing when new users are added to existing accounts can insure that your CS team is delivering a spectacular initial experience to these important users.

A trial lead has become activated – PQL alerts

product engagement alert sample pql

Ok, let’s get real. The vast majority of today’s SaaS offerings have some kind of free trial or freemium offering. It very difficult to compete without it. Try-before-you-buy has become the norm in today’s software universe. This means your sales team is constantly selling to prospects who have already started to use your product.

This means your salespeople need to know how far an account has progressed during a trial period. They need know the activation rates for every trial account. And they need to know once an account passes a certain threshold of Activation because this is an essential signal for conversion.

This alert is foundational for any effective PQL process. A bit of a game changer here.  

Someone’s entered a segment

product engagement alert sample entered segment

User and Account segmentation is one of the most important features in Sherlock because they allow you to organize and track the important slices of your customer base. In many cases, knowing when any user or account enters any of these segments is important. With Sherlock Alerts, you can.  

Bonus! Create Your Own Alert

product engagement alert sample custom alert

At the end of the day, your product is unique. Instead of relying on a “one-size-fits-all” approach to alerts, we wanted to ensure maximum flexibility in this feature. We wanted our users to be able to create Alerts based on any engagement scenario – and that’s what we’ve done with our custom alerts.

Don’t just measure Product Engagement — operationalize it

Our goal at Sherlock is to help every SaaS business (that’s you!) improve how they execute and compete. Knowing how users and accounts are using your product is essential information for high-performing sales, CS, and product teams. Many of their day-to-day decisions are based on this information. If they are spending their time fishing for it, that is time they are not selling, supporting, or building.

Getting this data into the hands of your people in a way they can use it, in the place they want it, at the time they need it is what Sherlock is all about. This latest release is a huge step in this direction.

We hope you love them as much as we do!