Rajashree Pimpalkhare, Director of Partner Solutions for Intuit Developer Group, dives deep into tips, techniques, and best practices for developers building QuickBooks Online app integrations. Insights are the result of learnings from integrations that we build inside Intuit, using the QuickBooks platform. Talk first given on Nov. 3, 2015 at the QuickBooks Connect conference in San Jose, CA. Watch the talk here: https://youtu.be/qYUWcI1lmRs

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Eating our own Dog Food:
What we learned developing as 3P inside Intuit
Rajashree Pimpalkhare
Director Partner Solutions, Intuit Developer Group
WiFi: QBConnect
No password required

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We do it first
So you can do it better!

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Launched Last Year…
QuickBooks Accounting API
Accounting Data Sync’d Auto-magically
QuickBooks Payments API
Credit Card Payments Online

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Here is what we learned….

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Iterative Approach to Successful Integrations
Ideate Define Build Launch Grow

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Customer Benefit is the improvement in the
customers life in what matters most when using the
app
Gain deep customer empathy
Declare the key customer benefit
Measure the customer benefit …and build
durable
competitive
advantage
Find an
important,
unsolved
customer
problem
…that you
can solve
well…

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Customer Pain Points
• Up to 8-10 hours per week spent manually entering
transactions
• Hours spent on ensuring accuracy and need to
double check all data entered
• Small business customers want to spend time on their
business vs. their books
• Customers want integrations to be automatic and
secure
• Many small business customers dislike managing
their financials
• Government Compliance needs accounting
• Getting a business loan needs accounting
Time is MoneyAccounting can be Tedious

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Accounting is Done
Automatic reconciliation
between apps
Small Business Benefits in Connecting to QuickBooks
Improve Cash Flow
Get paid faster on
outstanding invoices
Get Instant Insights
Better decision-making
by connecting data

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Components of a Successful Integration
Clear Customer Benefit
Onboarding the Right Users
Guided First-Time Use
Intuitive Ongoing Use

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Integration is a Feature of your Product
• Accuracy is critical
• Build for scale, security and supportability
• Resilient design for downtimes
• End-to-end testing

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Learn from Customer Feedback and Iterate Rapidly
Beta
• White glove onboarding
• Direct support
• 15-20 successful users
Soft
Launch
• Self Serve onboarding
• Controlled access
• 100-200 successful users
General
Availability
• App store availability
• Monitor for scalability
Go-to-
Market
• Marketing starts

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Learn from Customer Feedback and Iterate Rapidly
Before
Today

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Data, Data, Data

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Data to Monitor Integration Health
Total Transactions
379,038
Active Companies
4,829
You must track both positive AND
negative indicators in order to be
successful

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Data to Support Growth
• Track new connections growth weekly
• Understand seasonality and marketing
drivers
• Keep the integration “best-in-class”
• Monitor reasons for disconnect
• Listen to user feedback
• Measure NPS

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670
Total Connects
Disconnects
Net Connects
during that week
Re-connects
~33% reconnect rate
Net Connects
After first week
525
78%
443
66%
82
36%
227
34%
145
64%
• Is this app for me?
• Specific reason for disconnect?
• What is the expected disconnect rate?
Still
Disconnected
Data Assessment for Disconnects

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• Integration is a feature of your product
• Focus on customer benefit
• Grow with data not opinions
• Solve for SMB and Accountants

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Demo:
Sync with PayPal:
Follow-me-home simulation with:
• Cory Tan, Principal Experience designer, IDG
• Peter Vogel, Principal Solution Architect, IDG

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Thank you!
Join the conversation #QBConnect

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