The Product Adoption Agent spots early signs of low usage, identifies accounts at risk of becoming inactive, and builds an email plan for each group to help them adopt key features. You review and approve every plan before the agent sends any email.
Note: The Product Adoption Agent is in beta. To ask about access, contact your Pendo representative.
How it works
The Product Adoption Agent is powered by Pendo Predict. It looks at each account's usage patterns and behavioral signals, and it scores the account's risk of becoming inactive.
The agent places each account in one of the following risk categories:
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| Critical | Very likely to become inactive. |
| High | Elevated likelihood of inactivity. |
| Low | Low likelihood of disengagement. |
| Minimal | Engagement is stable or improving. |
The agent groups accounts that share a similar usage pattern into risk cohorts. For example, one cohort might contain accounts that don't use page analytics. The agent creates one plan for each cohort. A plan is a sequence of touchpoints, with a set number of days between them. Each touchpoint is an email.
Each account moves through the agent in the following stages:
- The agent proposes the account for a cohort. The account is awaiting approval.
- You approve the account. When you activate a plan, you approve the accounts you select.
- The agent sends the plan's emails to the visitors in the account.
- If the plan has a goal, the agent checks whether the account reaches it.
Before you begin
The agent uses the roles that your subscription already has for journeys. To open it, you need at least the Viewer role on the application that the Predict analysis belongs to.
| Role | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Viewer | View the dashboard, cohorts, and accounts. |
| Journey Creator and Editor | Regenerate risk cohorts and plans. Edit plans, including active plans. |
| Journey Publisher | Activate, pause, and resume plans. Change account statuses. |
| App Admin | All actions in this table, for that application. |
| Subscription Admin | All actions in this table, plus Manage and the agent's settings. |
Roles are additive. Controls that your roles don't allow are hidden, so if you can't find a button described in this article, check your roles with your Subscription Admin. If your subscription has more than one application in Predict, you can act on accounts only in the applications where you hold the role.
Manage the agent's settings
The agent's settings page has two sections.
To open the settings, go to People > Adoption Agent and select Manage.
Custom instructions
Custom instructions give the agent extra context. Enter text in the fields that apply and select Save.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Global instructions | Context that the agent uses in every action or decision. |
| Explain instructions | Guidance for how the agent explains an account's score. |
| Success plan instructions | Guidance for the recommended actions that the agent generates. |
Email sending settings
The agent sends emails through Orchestrate. Before you activate a plan, complete all of the following fields and select Save:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sender name | The name that recipients see. |
| Email domain | The domain that emails are sent from. The list shows only the sending domains approved for your subscription. |
| From address | The address that emails are sent from, at the selected domain. |
| Recipient metadata | The visitor metadata field that contains each recipient's email address. |
| Days emails can send | The days when the agent can send emails. |
| Start time and End time | The hours between which the agent can send emails on those days, in your subscription's time zone. |
Open the agent
To open the agent, go to People > Adoption Agent in the left navigation. The Product Adoption Agent replaces Risk Advisor. Links and bookmarks to the previous Risk Advisor page no longer open the agent.
The page has three parts: the overview metrics, the risk cohorts table, and the accounts table. To limit the whole page to one application or one segment, use the App and Segment filters.
Note: If your subscription has a Predict analysis but the agent hasn't been set up yet, the page shows Product Adoption Agent isn't available yet. If it doesn't appear soon, contact Pendo Support.
Review the overview metrics
The overview shows the following metrics:
| Metric | What it shows |
|---|---|
| At-risk accounts | Accounts with a Critical or High risk score. Shows how many are Critical and how many are High. |
| Managed accounts | Accounts that are in an active plan. Shows how many of them are at risk. |
| Awaiting approval | Accounts that the agent proposed for a cohort and that you haven't approved yet. Shows how many of them are at risk. |
| Active plans | The number of plans that are running or paused. |
| Success rate | The percentage of accounts that reached their plan's goal, across all active plans. Shows N/A when no active plan has a success goal. See Measure success. |
When plans are waiting for review, a banner below the metrics shows how many plans are awaiting approval. If only one plan is waiting, select Review in the banner to open it.
Review risk cohorts and plans
A risk cohort is a group of accounts that share a similar usage pattern. For example, one cohort might contain accounts that don't use page analytics. A plan is the sequence of emails that the agent drafts for a cohort. Each cohort has one plan. To rebuild the cohorts, ask the agent to regenerate them. See Regenerate risk cohorts.
The risk cohorts table lists each cohort and its plan. The table has the following columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Cohort | The cohort name. |
| Status | The status of the cohort's plan: Pending review, Active, or Paused. |
| Managed accounts | The accounts that are in the plan. |
| Pending accounts | The accounts that are awaiting approval for the cohort. |
| Delivered and sent | How many of the plan's emails were delivered, out of all emails sent, for example 80 of 100. Shows N/A until the plan sends an email. |
| Open rate | The percentage of delivered emails that were opened. |
| Click rate | The percentage of delivered emails where a recipient selected a link. Shows N/A until the plan sends an email. |
| Success rate | The percentage of accounts that reached the plan's goal. |
- To open a plan that has never been activated, select Review on its row. See Review and activate a plan.
- To open an active or paused plan, select View on its row.
View opens the plan summary panel. The panel shows the plan's status, its managed and pending accounts, who is in the cohort and why, and the adoption plan. The adoption plan lists each email in sequence, with its delivered count, open rate, and click rate.
From the panel, you can select Edit plan. You can also select Pause plan for an active plan, or Resume for a paused plan.
Review and activate a plan
A plan is the outreach that the agent drafts for one risk cohort. It has an objective, an approach, and a sequence of emails. A plan can also have a success goal and a recipient segment.
New plans have the status Pending review. Plans don't send emails until you activate them.
- Go to People > Adoption Agent and select Review on the cohort's row.
- In Risk and accounts, review who is in the cohort, why the agent created it, and which accounts are in it. Select Next.
- In Adoption plan, review the plan objective, the plan approach, and the emails. Edit the emails if needed. To send a test copy of an email, use Test and enter the email address to send it to. Optionally, set a goal and choose the recipients. Select Next.
- In Review and activate, check the plan and the accounts, and clear the accounts that you don't want to approve. See Approve accounts and activate.
- Select Activate (n), where n is the number of selected accounts. In the Activate this adoption plan? dialog, select Activate plan. Once the agent sends a touchpoint, you can't recall it.
To leave the wizard without activating the plan, select Exit. If you have unsaved email edits, a confirmation appears, and confirming discards them.
If Activate isn't available, ask a Subscription Admin to complete the email sending settings. See Manage the agent's settings.
Approve accounts and activate
The agent assigns accounts to each cohort. In Review and activate, you approve the assignment of each account. After you activate the plan, the agent starts it for the accounts that you approve.
The step shows the following:
- The plan. Who is in the cohort, why the agent created it, and the plan objective and approach.
- Segments. The number of selected accounts, the number of touchpoint overrides, and the maximum number of eligible recipients. Below that, the plan's segment and each touchpoint, with its day in the plan and its number of eligible recipients.
- Accounts to activate. Every account that the agent assigned to the cohort, with its risk score. All accounts are selected. Use the search box and the risk score filter to find accounts. Select Review on a row to look at an account.
To approve an account, leave it selected. To leave an account out, clear its checkbox. The number on Activate (n) is the number of accounts that you approve.
When you activate the plan, the agent sends its emails to the visitors in the approved accounts. Accounts that you cleared aren't approved. They receive nothing and stay awaiting approval.
Edit a plan
You can edit a plan in two ways:
- Edit it yourself. Change the touchpoints directly.
- Ask the agent to regenerate it. Before you activate the plan, give the agent new instructions, and it drafts the plan again. See Regenerate a plan.
Edit a plan yourself
Edit a draft plan in the Adoption plan step. Edit an active plan by selecting Edit plan in the plan summary panel.
Each touchpoint has the following settings:
| Touchpoint | Settings |
|---|---|
| Subject, Body, and Days until next touchpoint. |
Editing an active plan creates a new version. You approve the new version by saving your changes. Emails that were already sent stay unchanged. Later emails use the new version.
Regenerate a plan
You can ask the agent to rebuild one plan with new instructions, but only before the plan is activated. After you activate a plan, Regenerate plan is unavailable. Regenerating a plan replaces the whole plan. It overrides any manual changes that you made, including your edits to the touchpoints. You can't undo a regeneration.
To regenerate a plan, select Regenerate plan in the Adoption plan step. The dialog shows the instructions for the plan version that you have open. Refine those instructions instead of rewriting them, and confirm to start the regeneration. If you submit the field blank, the agent regenerates without instructions and doesn't fall back to the previous text. If you cancel, your edits are discarded. If a regeneration fails, the dialog keeps your text so you can retry.
Choose who receives a plan
By default, a plan's segment is Everyone, so its emails go to all identified visitors in the accounts assigned to the cohort. You can narrow the recipients with a segment, so that touchpoints reach only the visitors who should receive them. For example, you can send only to admins or to users of a specific feature.
To set the recipients for a plan:
- In the Adoption plan step, find the Segment card and select Edit.
- Choose one of the following:
- Select an existing segment. Choose any saved Pendo segment.
- Create a custom segment. Select Custom Segment to open the segment builder and define rules for this plan only. You can combine visitor and account rules, group them with AND and OR, and reference saved segments. The custom segment is saved with the plan, so you can reopen and edit it later. It isn't added to your saved segments.
- Select Save.
The Segment card shows the number of eligible recipients and a summary of the segment's rules. If the segment matches no visitors in some of the cohort's accounts, the card and the activation confirmation show how many accounts are affected. You can't change the segment while the agent is regenerating the plan.
Override the recipients for one touchpoint
Every touchpoint in a plan uses the plan's segment. To reach a different audience with one email, override the segment for that touchpoint.
- Open the touchpoint in the plan editor. The editor shows the touchpoint's current segment and its number of eligible recipients.
- Select Change segment.
- In the panel, select a saved segment. To use the plan's segment again, select Inherit plan segment. The panel shows the rules of the segment you select. Custom segments aren't available here. To use one, set it at the plan level.
- Select Apply, then save the touchpoint. If a segment that a touchpoint uses is deleted, you must choose a replacement before you can save the touchpoint again.
Manage accounts
The accounts table lists all scored accounts. You can show the following columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Account | The account name. |
| Risk | The account's current risk score: Critical, High, Low, or Minimal. |
| Trend | The direction of score change: up, down, or a dash if the score didn't change. |
| Plan status | The account's status in the agent: Active, Pending approval, Paused, Excluded, or Unassigned. |
| Risk cohort | The risk cohort that the agent assigned the account to. |
| Last updated | The date and time that the account's risk score was last refreshed. |
Each row also has a Review action that opens the account details. Select any column header to sort the table.
Use the All risk scores, All statuses, and All cohort plans filters and the search box to refine the list. You can search by account name. To add, remove, and reorder columns, select the columns icon. To download the table as a CSV file, select the download icon.
View an account
Select Review on a row, or select the account name, to open the account details. The panel shows the account's status and the following sections:
- Risk score. A gauge from Minimal to Critical, with the account's current risk category.
- What's driving this prediction? An explanation that the agent generates from the account's usage signals. It lists what lowers risk, what raises risk, and a takeaway.
- Adoption plan. The plan for the account's cohort. Each email shows whether it was sent for this account.
- Actions. The actions that apply to the account's status. For example, an account that is awaiting approval has Exclude and Approve.
Approve, exclude, pause, and resume accounts
After a plan is active, the agent might propose new accounts for the cohort. The agent doesn't send emails to an account until you approve it as part of a cohort. All account actions require the Journey Publisher role and are available only while the account's plan is active.
| Action | Available when | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Approve | The account is awaiting approval in a plan that is already active. | Starts the account on the cohort's plan. |
| Exclude | The account is awaiting approval. | Removes the account from the plan. The agent doesn't add the account to this plan again. On its next run, the agent tries to fit the account to a different plan. |
| Include | The account is excluded. | Makes the account eligible again. |
| Pause | The account is active. | Stops the account's emails. The account keeps its place in the plan. |
| Resume | The account is paused. | Continues from the next touchpoint that wasn't sent. |
To run an action on several accounts, select them in the accounts table and open Actions (n). Actions that don't apply to every selected account are unavailable.
Pause or resume a plan
To stop a plan's emails, open the plan and select Pause plan. Confirm the action. Accounts in the cohort stop receiving emails until you resume the plan. Each account keeps its place in the sequence.
To restart a paused plan, open it and select Resume. Confirm the action. Each account continues from where it stopped.
Regenerate risk cohorts
You can ask the agent to rebuild the risk cohorts with new instructions.
Regenerating risk cohorts regenerates all of them. You can't regenerate a single cohort. The agent rebuilds every cohort, their plans, and the accounts assigned to them. You can't undo a regeneration.
You can regenerate risk cohorts only while every plan is still awaiting activation, which means every cohort has the status Pending review. After any plan has been activated, Regenerate risk cohorts is unavailable.
To regenerate the risk cohorts, select Regenerate risk cohorts in the risk cohorts section. The dialog shows the agent's current segmentation instructions and journey instructions. Edit the instructions and confirm to start the regeneration. The dialog behaves like the one for a plan. See Regenerate a plan.
Measure success
A plan can have one goal. Setting a goal is optional. You can set or change the goal at any time, including after the plan is active. The agent marks an account as successful when its visitors complete the goal.
To set a goal, go to the Adoption plan step and select Set goal on the Plan goal card. Then complete the following fields and select Save:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Goal action | The action that counts as success: Feature clicked, Page viewed, or Track Event sent. |
| Target | The feature, page, or event for the action. Required. |
| Aggregation threshold | How many of an account's recipients must complete the goal. The only option is Any one recipient. |
| Evaluation window | The number of days that the agent keeps measuring after the last touchpoint before the goal fails. The default is 30 days. |
The Success rate metric doesn't count paused accounts, excluded accounts, or accounts that never received a touchpoint.
Use adoption risk metadata in segments
The Product Adoption Agent provides account metadata fields that you can use throughout Pendo to build segments, workflows, reports, and journeys.
Risk score metadata
Use the Adoption Agent Score account metadata field to create segments based on an account's current risk level.
| Metadata field | Description | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Adoption Agent Score | The account's current risk category. | Critical, High, Low, Minimal |
For example, you can create segments for:
- Accounts with a Critical risk score.
- Accounts with a High or Critical risk score.
- Accounts with a Low or Minimal risk score.
Risk driver metadata
You can create more targeted segments with the following account metadata fields:
| Metadata field | Description |
|---|---|
| Adoption Agent Adoption | Measures whether an account is actively using your product, based on activity frequency, feature adoption, and account tenure. |
| Adoption Agent Engagement | Measures how deeply an account engages with your product, based on event intensity and overall engagement. |
| Adoption Agent Retention | Measures whether an account continues to return, based on how recently visitors used your product. |
Each risk driver has one of the following values, based on its effect on the account's overall risk:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Negative | Signals in this category increase the account's risk. |
| Slightly negative | Signals in this category slightly increase the account's risk. |
| Neutral | Signals in this category have little or no effect on the account's risk. |
| Slightly positive | Signals in this category slightly reduce the account's risk. |
| Positive | Signals in this category reduce the account's risk. |
Use these fields with Adoption Agent Score to build segments based on overall risk and the factors behind it.