What is Time To Value (TTV)?

Time To Value (TTV) refers to the amount of time it takes for a customer to understand the value your product brings. The goal of any business is to to decrease TTV as much as possible.

With software products, it's very easy for customers to churn and sign up for competitor products. As a result of a shorter TTV, customers see their Return Over Investment (ROI) sooner -- and they're more likely to stick with your product! that's why we think discussing Time To Value is something important that can help you growth your business.

A few definitions

Value is the benefit your customer is expecting to receive from your product. It's your promise to them.

Your product promises X → Customers buy it in hope of X.

Now the question is: How long does it take to fulfill your promise?

The Aha Moment

The next question is: Where and how do you fulfill your promise? This is the aha moment. It's when customers first realize the value of your product.

For Airbnb → Finding a dream listing

For Shazam → Discovering a song’s name

For Facebook → Seeing your friends, after signup

Once you figure out where and how your promise is fulfilled, decreasing any friction to get customers to that point is critical.

How To Decrease TTV

Here are 3 ways you can shrink TTV in your product:

Create Onboarding Guides — this can be in-product tours, documentation, or drip emails. They provide guides on how to get set up and what to do first.

Deploy Customer Success — this is typically for B2B enterprise-type products that require a more hands-on approach to get set up (ex: Salesforce). Customer success managers help with personalized onboarding and are great first points of contact for customers.

Improve Product UX — unclear instructions, poorly labeled buttons, and complicated menus can keep customers from that aha moment. Perform user interviews and track product usage stats to identify areas where UX can be improved to make an impact on TTV.

📌 I’ll end with a few questions:

Do you know your product’s aha moment?

How long does it take for your customers to get there?

What are some ways you can shrink the TTV in your product?