Subscribe to Ryan Barry’s newsletter, The Experience Shift, for bi-weekly insights on how the best companies scale great experiences to drive growth.
On March 3rd, I became the CEO of Appcues—and with each day, I feel more energized and confident about the opportunity in front of us. Appcues pioneered product adoption software, and today we’re positioned to redefine what great customer experience looks like across the technology industry.
Our founder, Jackson Noel, built a great business—with soul. He’s a 10/10 man, an incredible leader, and someone I’m lucky to call a partner as he transitions to our board. We share a deep belief that great culture is built on amazing people with the agency to improve customer outcomes.
I’m also incredibly grateful to Brad Coffey, our chairman, for recruiting me and being a world-class partner from day one—and to our board members Marc Lederman, Tim Guleri, Sam Clemens, and Jonathan Kim for their belief in our vision and commitment to building something lasting.
I’ve been struck by how welcoming, authentic, and sharp the team at Appcues is. It’s clear that this mix of talent, technology, and customer reach puts us in a powerful position to transform customer experience—and, as a result, the P&Ls of technology businesses around the world.
While this space may be new to me, the problem we're solving is not. For years, I struggled to consistently deliver the expertise and impact of our best customer-facing people to every user—at scale. We tried playbooks, ops, headcount, tech. But too often, it wasn’t enough.
That’s the real challenge for modern technology businesses: your team has the answers, but your users don’t get them fast enough.
Today’s customer experience is fragmented. GTM teams are under pressure to grow quickly in lean conditions. CS teams are stretched thin. Lifecycle and product marketers are pushing out thoughtful programs, but they don’t always make it all the way through the customer journey.
And users? Users demand answers and value quickly—or they can, and they will, decide to churn in as little as 30 seconds.
Existing technology can solve this—but only if it’s purpose-built and deeply connected to outcomes. That level of orchestration is rare—and that’s the opportunity in front of us.
The Appcues platform already helps technology companies engage users with experiences that drive real outcomes—adoption, expansion, and retention.
It’s not about chasing engagement. It’s about giving go-to-market teams the power to scale what works—fast—and deliver value to users at the moments that matter most.
The reality most tech companies are facing:
Most companies are still running the same playbooks. MQL-driven marketing, siloed execution, overburdened CS teams trying to hold the whole thing together.
They’re playing defense. It’s a losing battle. And it’s time to change.
We’re building a future where customer experiences are no longer reactive, fragmented, or disconnected.
Instead, they’re intentional, intelligent, and deeply tied to outcomes.
And it’s already happening—with companies like Fullstory leading the way. Their recent work with Appcues drove a 14% increase in user activation, and they’re blowing industry standards out of the water when it comes to engagement rates.
Whether you're a customer, a partner, a prospect—or even a rival—I’d love to connect.
In the months ahead, I’ll be meeting customers in cities like San Francisco, New York, LA, Austin, Toronto, Boston, London, and Tel Aviv. I’ll also be launching a new customer advisory board, a podcast, and sharing more about our product roadmap—including where we’re headed with AI and autonomous experience delivery.
If you want to be part of it—help us shape this category, challenge the old playbooks, and reimagine how technology companies grow—let me know by responding to this 1-minute survey.
Last but not least, I just launched a new bi-weekly newsletter called The Experience Shift. Subscribe to get regular updates and insights on how the best companies scale great
We're not going to watch the future of customer experience unfold.
We're going to lead it
Let’s make the shift.
—Ryan
ryan.barry@appcues.com
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