About SourceDay
SourceDay’s supply chain software allows buyers and suppliers to collaborate in real time about price, quantity and delivery date direct material PO changes.
In 2022 alone, SourceDay connected over 18 thousand companies, processed 10M PO lines, managed 11.6M PO changes, orchestrated receipt of 16.6B parts on-time and protected $755M in revenue on average for 250+ customers.
🎯 The challenge
Launching new features at SourceDay isn’t just about building something great—it’s about ensuring it works for a diverse group of users. On one side, there are highly experienced manufacturing professionals with deep expertise in their roles, who prefer familiar processes over new technology. On the other, there are tech-savvy users eager to explore and leverage advanced features.
“We’re using Appcues to bridge the gap between complicated feature sets and a user base that’s split between really technical and not technical at all,” said Connor Machon, product manager at SourceDay.
To make things trickier, the people who champion SourceDay—often executives—aren’t necessarily the ones using it daily. “We have companies that see the value, but their counterparts have been ‘voluntold’ to use it,” added Lisa Furler, product enablement specialist. And before users can even reach the good stuff—the stuff that provides value, they need to tackle the basics. “We’re always thinking about what users need first. We can’t get to the fancy parts until they’ve set up something basic like their columns,” Lisa said.
Running a beta for a new feature adds another layer of effort most of us know all too well. With a lean team and a ton of manual work, staying on top of everything is overwhelming.
“We don’t have the capacity to check in with users every day and understand 'Where are they?' 'Have they engaged with the product?' Okay, they’ve done that, let’s invite them to the next step. Now, we need to get feedback.”
🏆 The solution
The latest SourceDay beta synced perfectly with the beta of Appcues’ new Workflows feature which connects in-app messaging, email, and push notifications (talk about meant to be 😉). The team quickly saw the potential to automate their beta communications and tailor outreach based on user adoption progress.
With Appcues, they streamlined the entire process—from sending initial invitations to driving feature engagement and collecting feedback.
“We were able to easily toss in a controlled group of users, set up Workflows, trigger automatic emails, and appointments magically appeared on our calendars,” Lisa shared.
What sealed the deal was Appcues’ ability to send messages triggered by users’ real actions in the product.
“Any launch requires messages both in the app and out of the app,” said Connor. “We have Marketo and it’s great for big email campaigns, but for this, that would mean going to Marketo to schedule these emails and then going to Appcues, splitting time between those applications, timing those messages to be successful, and making sure the same people aren’t seeing the same content. That’s just overhead. And for a small team like ours, that’s something we like to avoid whenever possible.”
👀 How they did it
Now for the real magic. Here’s how Lisa and Connor built their behaviorally-triggered Workflows:
1. Set up custom events related to the new feature
The SourceDay team began identifying key actions within the feature that indicated user engagement and adoption milestones. These actions were set up as event triggers, ensuring their Workflows delivered timely and relevant messages.
2. Built an automated Workflow
Lisa and Connor designed a Workflow with branching logic to automate outreach based on user behavior. Built-in pauses gave participants time to engage with the feature without feeling overwhelmed.
“The Workflows were incredibly easy to build,” Lisa said. “We didn’t have to worry about chasing users down—it was all automated.”
3. Write personalized messages
Using branching logic, the team tailored their communication to match user behavior:
- For participants actively engaging with the feature, they sent requests to book meetings for feedback.
- For those less active, they offered guidance to encourage adoption with helpful nudge emails.
“If they’re not doing the events we expect them to, then we want to provide them little nudge emails,” Connor explained. “And once they’ve used these features, we want to drive feedback."
4. Collect feedback
By embedding survey and Calendly links directly into their Appcues emails, Lisa and Connor made it easy for users to share feedback or schedule one-on-one time with the team.
✅ Results
By automating their beta program with Appcues, SourceDay:
- Unlocked time: With a lean team, automation freed up time to focus on other priorities. “It revolutionized how we approached the beta program,” Lisa said.
- Improved engagement: Automatic emails and in-app nudges ensured users stayed on track, with minimal manual intervention.
- Streamlined feedback collection: Embedding surveys and scheduling links into emails simplified the process of gathering insights and scheduling feedback sessions.
Lisa summed it up for us: “It was really amazing. It revolutionized the way we did it and also really helped us tackle other things we had to tackle.”
And the best part? SourceDay is just getting started. With the ability to add in-app messages to their Workflows coming to Appcues soon, their team is excited about the ability to automatically trigger in-app experiences alongside email and push notifications—all in one place.
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Our hot take
SourceDay’s challenges—juggling a diverse user base, managing too many manual processes, and driving constant engagement—are ones many teams face. In fact, it’s exactly why Appcues is building automated multi-channel Workflows: to make it easier to connect, personalize, and automate communication that drives meaningful action and lasting engagement.
What stands out most in SourceDay’s story? How thoughtfully they approached their Workflow. Instead of dropping a generic email into a Workflow and calling it done, they built something purposeful. Branching logic tailored messages to user behavior, built-in delays gave participants space to engage, and feedback mechanisms ensured every interaction delivered value.
So, here’s to SourceDay for rethinking the usual, manual and tedious beta process. They’ve shown how strategy paired with the right tools can turn complexity into calendars that fill themselves. 🥂✨