Blinkist · Go-to-market · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

Improve Blinkist trial conversion ethically

Blinkist is a subscription app that offers short summaries of nonfiction books in text and audio. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

growth strategy
user empathy
experiment design
metrics judgment
ethical product thinking

The situation

Your growth lead asks you to review Blinkist's Premium trial signup flow. The company wants more users to start a free trial, but the current paywall is not converting as well as hoped, and a meaningful share of people who do start a trial cancel almost immediately. Recent user research suggests the biggest hesitation is not confusion about product value, it is fear of forgetting to cancel and getting charged. The team also suspects that some standard subscription design patterns, like hard to find exits, feature heavy sales copy, and terms shown in tiny text, may be reducing trust even if they are common in the market. Leadership wants a recommendation this week because paid growth is a priority for the next quarter, but the brand does not want to rely on dark patterns or make cancellation harder. You own this part of the funnel. Recommend how Blinkist should redesign the trial paywall and the moments right after trial signup to improve trial starts while protecting trust and reducing avoidable cancellations or complaints.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product recommendation memo.

Your answer must

State the core user problem you believe is blocking trial starts, and cite the evidence from the scenario that matters most.
Recommend one primary change to the trial paywall and up to two supporting changes in the immediate post signup flow.
Explain the behavioral or psychological reasoning behind your proposal, especially how it addresses user fear and trust.
Define the key success metric, at least two guardrail metrics, and what result would make you ship, iterate, or stop.
Outline a simple A/B test plan, including the target audience, major variants, and main risks to monitor.

Constraints

Keep the experience transparent and ethical, no hidden exits, confusing fine print, or friction added to cancellation.
Do not change pricing, trial length, or the core Premium feature set in this recommendation.
Limit scope to the paywall and the steps immediately after trial confirmation.

Format

Use five sections, diagnosis, recommendation, why it should work, experiment plan, metrics and risks.

How Blinkist actually played it

Step-by-step walkthrough of paywall and trial design for Blinkist that lifted trial conversion by 23% without dark patterns. A usable template for trial funnels.

Be explicit about when and how the trial converts
Transparency can raise, not lower, conversion

Built from How Blinkist Increased Trial Conversions by 23% (Ethically) by Growth.Design.