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Brief

Refer a Friend — Post-Lesson Trigger

Description

Learners who have completed 3+ lessons show significantly higher satisfaction signals but we're not capitalising on that moment to drive referrals. The current refer-a-friend mechanic exists but is buried in account settings — it's not surfaced at moments of peak motivation. We're leaving organic acquisition on the table. Objectives: Surface the referral prompt at the right moment in the learner journey (post-lesson, post-milestone) Understand what incentive structure actually motivates sharing vs. passive awareness Test whether timing the referral ask to lesson completion improves referral conversion

Synthesised 1 May 2026

The referral mechanic exists but is triggered at the wrong moments — and that's costing organic acquisition.

Preply's Refer-a-Friend (RAF) programme is live, but its primary entry points are passive: buried in account settings, surfaced in header navigation, and delivered via a general-purpose notification centre. None of these trigger at moments of peak learner motivation. The after-lesson moment — specifically after lesson 3+, when satisfaction signals are at their highest — is almost entirely untapped as an RAF trigger.

Evidence of the gap:

  • The RAF modal is viewed by ~3,000–6,000 unique users per day on web (modal_refer_a_friend_viewed), but the click-through from modal view to action averages approximately 3–4% (roughly 100–200 unique clicks/day). That modal close rate (3,000–6,000 closes vs 100–200 clicks daily) signals the current UX is not compelling at the moment it's shown.
  • The RAF notification centre funnel (chart rm6bamq8) shows that of ~54,000 students who received the user.refer_a_friend notification on mobile app in the July 2025 period: 17,458 saw it displayed → 1,571 clicked → ~9% click-to-notification-open rate, ~2.9% end-to-end conversion from notification receipt to click. This is the current triggered mechanism — and it's not anchored to lesson completion moments.
  • The Shareable Moments programme (launched ~Oct 2025) is now generating meaningful volumes: the review experience leads with 600–800 shares/week, compliments at 700–850/week, and the newly launched newsubs (new subscription) at ~500/week since late April 2026. But the post-lesson Lesson Insights progress tab (liprogress/lessoninsights_progress) generates only 14–47 shares/week — one of the lowest-volume shareable moments in the portfolio — despite being the closest proxy to a "lesson completed" trigger (Shareable moments deepdive).
  • The baseline framing is confirmed: no post-lesson RAF trigger exists. The existing account settings placement is demonstrably insufficient to surface RAF at moments of highest learner motivation.