In November 2023, JISR was about to kill their Performance Management module.
By February 2024, it had 20% adoption.
What changed? JISR's product marketing team took control of every customer touchpoint, built three systematic playbooks, and turned their biggest weakness—release velocity—into their competitive advantage.
This is how a scrappy PMM team transformed 5-7 monthly feature releases from communication chaos into predictable revenue growth.
The Backstory
JISR's engineering team ships relentlessly across six different HR products. Before 2024, this pace created chaos:
"Customers were caught by surprise that a new feature had launched. They'd go somewhere and something else existed," recalls Harshita Kumbhar, Head of Product Marketing
Random emails from different teams. No coordination. No awareness strategy. Products dying not from lack of value, but lack of visibility.
The complexity was staggering:
- 6 products requiring different messaging strategies
- 3,000+ organizations with varying product combinations
- Bilingual requirements (Arabic-first with English support)
- Multiple personas (HR admins, finance managers, employees)
The Turning Point
Taking Control
JISR's product marketing team made a radical move: they revoked every product manager's access to customer communications.
"We had to be the bad guy for a bit. But now nothing goes to customers without PMM approval." —Harshita Kumbhar, Head of Product Marketing
Building the System
Instead of spray-and-pray messaging, JISR developed three distinct playbooks:
The Three Playbooks
1. The Awareness Engine
Strategy: Study top traffic pages, run campaigns only where users actually go
Hero Campaign: The JISR 2.0 Rebrand
Results:
- Average feature announcements now reach 2,000-5,000 relevant users
- ~22% average adoption rate for newly launched people management features.
- The "nearly dead" Performance module: 20% adoption in week one after targeted campaigns
2. The Adoption Accelerator
Strategy: Deploy contextual walkthroughs at exact friction points
Example: Payroll Optimization
Contextual walkthrough that simplified complex payroll calculations
When payroll admins struggled with monthly pay runs, JISR created step-by-step guides triggered at precise friction points.
Results: 12% uplift in payroll re-runs vs previous quarter (% of targeted accounts), driven by reactivated payroll customers
Example: Accounting Integration
As JISR's approach matured, they recognized that some workflows needed more than step-by-step guides. Their accounting integration—a 6-7 step process connecting to various ERPs—became a testing ground for richer support.
The Solution: Combine video education, contextual help, and a direct "Schedule a meeting" path for users who need human assistance.
Note: Accounting Integration Walkthrough: Launched recently, metrics TBD.
The Learning: Not every feature needs the same treatment. Match support depth to complexity.
3. The Expansion Machine
Strategy: Paywalls as parallel journeys, not blockers
The Genius Move: Using finance-specific language to naturally filter leads
"We write messaging that only finance can comprehend. Terms like 'accounting integrations' naturally filter out unqualified leads." — Uditi Johar, Product Marketing Manager
The Contextual Cross-Sell: When finance admins process reimbursements, they see targeted campaigns for expense management. Not disruptive, but opportunistic.
"We're not saying don't do reimbursements. We're saying we also have travel booking to make this easier." — Harshita Kumbhar, Head of Product Marketing
Results:
- 100% of paywall-generated leads were qualified finance buyers
- 50% close rate from paywall opportunities
- First 30-40 customers secured for each new product launch
The Travel Module Turnaround
The Problem Discovery
JISR noticed 83% of users dropping off mid-flow in travel bookings. Through a combination of:
- Direct phone calls to users (PM spoke Arabic)
- In-app surveys via Candu
- Sales feedback
They discovered: pricing was the issue.
The Solution
Targeted offers to users who had dropped off, delivered through hotspots and product tours.
Result: 83% growth in Travel bookings in one quarter
By The Numbers
The System That Scales
JISR doesn't just send messages - they orchestrate journeys:
Key Success Factors
1. Direct Customer Connection
"A direct gateway to customers without having to go through CS or product teams" — Soumya Chittigala, Senior Product Marketing Manager
2. Solving Awareness First
"Half the time, they just weren't aware a feature existed. It wasn't an adoption problem, it was an awareness problem." — Harshita Kumbhar, Head of Product Marketing
3. Strategic Control
Centralizing all customer communications under Product Marketing eliminated contradictory messages and created consistency.
4. Contextual Intelligence
Running campaigns on high-traffic pages, targeting by product ownership, and using language as a qualifier.
Customer Impact
The transformation is complete:
"The complaint from customers is never 'I didn't know you launched this' anymore. It's 'help me use it better.'" — Soumya Chittigala, Senior Product Marketing Manager
"We can easily close the first 30-40 customers through paywall leads." — Harshita Kumbhar, Head of Product Marketing
Looking Forward
With their foundation established, JISR is pushing for even more sophisticated orchestration:
- Advanced Throttling: Ensuring optimal message frequency as they scale to 10+ features monthly
- Enhanced RTL Support: Perfecting Arabic-first experiences
- Predictive Targeting: Using engagement data to anticipate needs
The Playbook Takeaway
JISR's success came from three critical decisions:
- Centralize control - One team owns the customer communication experience
- Study user behavior - Place messages where users actually go, not where you hope they'll go
- Match message to moment - Different UX patterns for awareness vs. adoption vs. expansion
The result? They didn't just implement a tool - they built a revenue-generating system that turns product releases into predictable growth.
About JISR
JISR is Saudi Arabia's leading cloud-based HR platform, serving 3,000+ organizations and 350,000+ employees across the region. Their suite includes Payroll, Performance Management, Travel & Expense, and comprehensive HR management tools.
About Candu
Candu enables product teams to create native in-app experiences without engineering resources. From onboarding flows to paywalls, Candu helps SaaS companies drive adoption, expansion, and retention through contextual user experiences.
For more information on implementing similar strategies in your product, visit candu.ai
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