Problem
The founder and CEO, Patrick Hogan, wanted someone he could trust to take over his product responsibilities and make sure there was a stable, scalable, and innovative product for him and his sales team to sell. I was brought in because: (i) our competitors’ products had more features, (ii) we had low NPS scores, and (iii) some longstanding customers cancelled their contracts. I was given the reports, emails, and smoking guns that gave me clues relating to the problems with reliability, features, and overall product value. To work out how to boost sales, I needed to understand the Tenfold buyer personas, so I used the DiVA model to define the decision makers.
To understand how to retain our current clients, the decision makers depended on the power users for feedback and whether they found value in Tenfold. To solve the retention issue, I had to understand the power user persona. Power users often had to handle complex workflows using multiple screens to manage each call.
"I need to juggle the CRM, customer portal, and knowledge base while being an active listener with the customer. It's hard to catch everything they say when I am clicking all over the place. If the customer thinks I am not 100% into their issue, then I'll get a bad score." - Power User
Challenge
Tenfold did not have a team of designers or product managers. I had to build a team from scratch but first I had to see if it was a smart business decision to redesign the product and add the features that the sales team asked for every day. I conducted an audit that presented a business case for change, because if the cost of the redesign outweighs the potential benefits, then it should not be done. For this audit, I tested the current product and prototypes that I designed to observe the workflows and the emotional reactions from users who do not typically embrace change.
The other challenge was that Tenfold did not have any skilled researchers or product specialists who could shadow our users. This was essential for checking whether the product was being used in the way intended after the core CRM and phone integrations were made. The culture was very protective, and the team would not give me access or introductions to their clients. I had to create a program in which internal Tenfold employees from sales, accounts, support and marketing became ambassadors for the redesign and to keep them updated on the design process. This inclusive approach made it easier for me to reach out to customers at all phases of the customer journey, from pre-sales, on-boarding, new accounts, renewal of contracts, and even cancelled customers.
Solution
Patrick Hogan and the board of directors made me the VP of User Experience and I proposed a 90-day plan to tackle the product issues. This included research, prototypes, reports, defining a process, and recruiting a UX team, which I would then manage. Since we had to think like lean innovators, I had to create a starting point in terms of a core persona. I realized that if we could make the power user happy, then the other personas would be satisfied with the product, even if it was overkill for their use cases, since the power user aligned with the more complex use cases that were presented as new sales opportunities.
Business Opportunity
The future of contact centers is chat because people prefer not to make calls for sales or support issues. Tenfold has a good reputation with call agents and I was able to provide the Tenfold sales team with a totally new product, in addition to the greatly improved call UI redesign. The other opportunity was to improve the current product so much that it would persuade our current customers to pay more for the new version and would reduce the chance of customers cancelling. If I could design a flexible UI that functioned as an embedded solution inside the top CRMs and also functioned as a native desktop, mobile, and Chrome extension, then Tenfold would not have issues with the IT persona saying that Tenfold would not work because of the platform.
Strategy
To execute the plan, I had to conduct user research of the current product with key accounts. After this was done, I had to define problems and workflow issues that were solvable with current integrations and technologies. The next step was to create prototypes and validate findings, which were validated with each user testing mission.
Wireframes of Proposed Redesign
Prototype and Demo
Visual Design
Results
I helped to define the product development process based on the DNA of lean innovation methodology and to make design thinking an integral part of the company. It was important for all employees to understand that the product was not solely the responsibility of the engineers, product managers, or the CEO. It embodies the company brand because it’s what the customers engage with. As well, the product encompasses all the touchpoints, including customer support, website, emails, and partnerships. In town halls, I reminded everyone that “we are all a part of the experience team.” This shift in the product design attitude helped the UX team and developers ship the redesign from initial research to public rollout in under 10 months. The redesign also improved the user workflow, reduced actions by 5.5 clicks per call, and created upselling opportunities that were not present in the previous design or in our competitors’ solutions.
"I love doing everything in Tenfold since it's compact and doesn't take up a lot of space. All the chunks of info are there in one place so I can focus on the caller and not juggling tabs." - Power User
Tasks to Achieve Goals
- Define buyer personas
- Define user personas
- Define the customer journey
- Collaborate with the CEO to define new products and processes
- Redesign the core product
- Present the product when piloting it with customers
- Communicate the value of the redesign through product marketing efforts
- Define the detailed spec
- Design, test, build, ship, and monitor the workflows
