Tamber, a fictional small-appliance brand, sells a well-reviewed air fryer that loses more often than it should. To see why, 40 people about to buy an air fryer kept a diary on their phone for three weeks. Every time anything touched the decision, a video, a store aisle, a friend's kitchen, a review, they logged it in the moment: a photo or a short video, a line of text and two quick ratings. The diary kept going through purchase and the first uses at home.
Kept the diary 21 days
40 of 42
20 first-time buyers, 20 replacing an older fryer
Entries logged
1,284
median 31 per person, range 12 to 64
Bought within 21 days
36 of 40
4 still deciding at the end
Trigger to purchase
9 days
median among the 36 buyers
Entries by diary day Measured
A gentle evening nudge goes out on any day with no entry. Entries stay above 45 a day for all three weeks, so the later stages are as well covered as the first.
Entries per participant Measured
Entry type, of 1,284 Measured
What the app asks, every entry
What just happened?
Where are you in the decision?
How sure are you which one you will buy?
Did this push you toward or away from a model?
Which brand, if any?
About 40 seconds an entry. Short enough that people log the moment and do not save it for later.
Who took part Measured
Why in the moment
The journey map is built from the entries themselves. Each entry was tagged to a stage and a touchpoint. Percentages are the share of participants who logged that touchpoint at least once in that stage. The first three stages use all 40; purchase and first use use the 36 who bought.
Days from trigger to purchase, n=36 buyers Measured
Median 9 days. 21 of 36 buyers took more than a week, which leaves time for a brand to get onto the list. Trigger date is the first entry tagged as the need.
How sure, by stage, 0 to 10 Measured
Average of the "how sure are you" rating on every entry in that stage. Confidence climbs only 1.2 points while comparing: reviews raise as many doubts as they settle. For first use, the question changes to "how glad are you that you bought it?"
Every entry asked whether the moment pushed the participant toward or away from a model. These are the moments that came up most, with the share of the 40 who logged one and the average change in how sure they felt on their next entry. Click any moment to read an entry.
Moved people toward a model Measured
Moved people away from a model Measured
Seeing it beats reading about it
The two strongest positive moments, a friend's kitchen and an open display, both let people see the basket and the food. Neither is something a product page offers today.
Size worries arrive late
Counter and cabinet space came up in comparing, after a favorite was chosen. 11 people photographed a tape measure. Most could not find the height of the model they wanted.
One bad review travels
The coating complaint was logged by 13 people, usually after sorting reviews by lowest stars. It followed the leading brand and rarely touched Tamber.
Tamber is easy to find at the shelf and hard to find anywhere earlier. Shortlists are set while people compare, and by then most had never seen a Tamber. When it did make the list, it won more often than any other brand.
Participants who saw each brand, by stage Measured
| Stage | n | Any brand | Tamber | Volta Kitchen | Crispwell |
|---|
Seen means the brand appeared in at least one entry at that stage: a video, a photo of a shelf, a review read, a friend's kitchen. Red cells mark where Tamber was seen by fewer than a fifth of people.
From seen to shortlisted to bought Measured
Seen: during comparing, of 40. Shortlist: the two or three models named in the last comparing entry. Bought: of the 36 who bought. Other brands and store brands account for the remaining 8 purchases.
What people looked for and could not find about Tamber Measured
Count of participants who logged searching for this and not finding it.
What it means for Tamber
Get on the list
in the first week
The product converts. The problem is being missing while lists form. Put Tamber in the recipe videos people watch in the first days, publish the inside basket size and the height with the drawer open, and push for open displays where people can pull the basket out. Test a photo of the basket after six months of use as an answer to the coating worry.
A selection of entries, as logged. Photos and videos are described in place of the images. Participant numbers are study IDs. Filter by stage to follow the journey.
Ratings show the "how sure" score at that entry, or "how glad" at first use. Entries are lightly trimmed for length.