Ryan Barry takes the helm as CEO of Appcues

In Boston, Massachusetts, on March 25, 2025, Appcues announced the appointment of Ryan Barry as its new Chief Executive Officer. Barry succeeds Jackson Noel, who is transitioning to a board of directors role after co-founding the company. With a strong focus on customer-centric growth, Barry aims to redefine how technology firms engage their customers in a rapidly evolving market. His background includes co-authoring the best-selling book, The Consumer Insights Revolution, which reflects his expertise in customer engagement. Barry's immediate goals include addressing the challenges tech companies face regarding product adoption and customer retention. Ryan Barry enters the CEO role during a critical time when businesses are increasingly pressured to enhance customer experience and retain users. In his view, many tech companies struggle to deliver consistent experiences across the customer journey, leading to high churn rates among users who expect immediate value from products. Barry emphasizes the necessity for companies to empower their go-to-market teams with effective strategies that can be scaled quickly to cascade successful practices, thus eliminating the lag associated with traditional customer engagement processes. Barry has shared an ambitious roadmap for Appcues, indicating plans for AI-driven autonomous experience delivery and launching a customer advisory board and podcast. These initiatives aim to drive innovation within the company and set new standards for customer engagement in technology. His vision aligns with Appcues's commitment to enhancing user engagement and product adoption through tailored solutions that deliver real-time value to customers. The support from former CEO Jackson Noel and board chairman Brad Coffey affirms confidence in Barry's leadership, reinforcing the company's culture that values employees' agency in improving customer outcomes. The transition in leadership comes at a pivotal moment when technology businesses need to accelerate their response to user demands. Barry's insights suggest that many new product launches are falling short, often due to companies' failure to replicate the expertise of their top customer-facing staff across their organizations. Appcues aims to lead the charge in overcoming these challenges, positioning itself as a vital partner for businesses in scaling customer success effectively. As the company moves forward, it welcomes collaboration to reshape the landscape of customer engagement and redefine successful growth strategies in technology.