Research project overview
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Redgate
Enhancing Redgate internal License Management Portal to better serve enterprise customers
Part of my internship at Redgate, I had the honour of leading a UX research and a UX design project on the License Management portal, aiming to identify areas for improvement concluded with possible design solutions. This is a SaaS platform frequently used by account executives to assist customers in answering and mitigating licensing issues on behalf of customers.
My objectives:
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❀ Finding out areas for improvements through conducting user interviews
❀ Analysing and synthesising research data to actionable next steps
❀ Utilising Redgate Honeycomb design system to high-fidelity design outcome
Info
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Role
Product Designer
Duration
July - August 2023
Key Tasks
User Interview
Thematic Analysis
Wireframing
Guerrilla Testing
Team
PM
Tech Lead
Engineers x8
Ellie Morgan - Senior Product Designer
Context
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Why? Redgate is currently revamping the customer-facing License Management Portal, which is in its Alpha version, and is looking to identify opportunities to revamp the sister portal - the internal License Management Portal used by Account Executives.
Project Purpose & Timeline
Starting from Research
Research Objective: assess and improve the functionality, user experience, and efficiency of Redgate's internal License Management Portal used by Redgate Account Executives.
Conducting interviews
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Research Call Plan & Interviews
Conducting interviews are both challenging and exciting. Ellie led the first call, and as I gained more confidence, I took the lead for the rest of the calls.
During the research calls, I encountered a challenge where all the interviewees I spoke to were extremely experienced with the portal. This means that some UX inefficiencies might have become muscle memory for them, making it harder to identify user flow issues.
I asked many scenario-based questions, such as:
What does that look like when you need to create a new licence?
What does that look like when you need to check a licence information?
What does that look like when you need to check a customer entitlement? Is the portal, the best place to look for this information?
What’s the last time you had difficulties finding something?
“The portal was like the Early Learning Centre version, we could get information quickly and fairly simply, but we couldn’t go very in depth with it.”
Analysing Research Finding
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Research Analysis Process
To ensure research insights could be gathered and synthesised to better understand issues faced by Account Admins, I envisioned a research analysis process to ensure structure, rigor, and a systematic approach.
01.
Findings
[Async] [Designers]
Divided the work between Ellie and I. I thought Asyn was better as allowing time to re-visit and think was important. I transfer findings to stickies with tags, enabling a higher-level perspective to identify broader themes or trends.
02.
Thematic Analysis
[Sync] [Designers]
As we grouped stickies with similar issues, recurring patterns and themes began to emerge, aiding in the identification of underlying meanings. This method helped extract these meanings, contributing to a deeper understanding of the data.
03.
Insights Statement
To ensure issues are understood to a deeper level, the insights statement followed the structure:
Persona…wants…Action…because… Pain point/Current situation…so that…Aim/needs…but….issues/barriers
[Sync] [Designers]
04.
Actions
[Sync] [Designers, PM, Engineers]
I initiated discussions beyond the designer group and engaged with the wider team. Currently, it is crucial to consider perspectives from both technical feasibility and company viability for each Insights Statement, which was concluded with an Action.
05.
Action Prioritisation Matrix
[Sync] [PLT]
I believed team collaboration in deciding prioritising actions was crucial. With the PLT, we engaged in discussions, weighing factors like time, effort, feasibility, and impact, ultimately deciding on actions based on Effort and Impact.
06.
[Sync] [PLT]
Next Steps
Continuing our discussion, the next step was deciding when and how to implement the changes. I brainstormed with Ellie on the different slices moving forward and iterated them with the PLT.
Key Summaries
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Research Findings Summary
✤ Searchability
Current license search functionality is restricted to user ID or individual licenses, which omits search capabilities for subscription keys and license bundles.
✤ Observability
Account Executives are wanting more observability into customer usage patterns due to limited audit log information and usage data.
✤ Visibility
The portal’s current layout separates related licenses, making it challenging for Account Executives to connect and assess interrelated license information, and identifying licenses that require urgent action.
✤ Consistency
The inconsistency in UI and user flow across customer-facing and internal portals creates confusion for Account Executives, hindering their ability to efficiently address customer inquiries.
Current screens:
Discussion Initiation
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Action Prioritisation Workshop
I facilitated workshops with all team members (Tech Lead, engineers, PM and designer) to discuss each key actions, and reach mutual agreement on the steps ahead.
Design Opportunity
How can we enhance the searchability and findability features on the License Management portal to enable Account Executives to quickly locate specific license information?
Defining Key Pain Points
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Jobs-To-Be-Done
Creating a JTBD diagram enabled me to understand when, where, why, and what features were needed. This helped me synthesise key points from research to be more specific and task-focused.
Ideating
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Cross-functional Ideation Workshop
I planned and facilitated an ideation workshop involving as many people as I could invite at the time. The goal was to gather a wealth of information from various perspectives.
Designing
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Wireframes & Guerrilla Testings
After wire-framing, I conducted a round of guerrilla testing, participants included 3 designers and 3 engineers. The key issue identified concerned feasibility. This experience helped me realise the differences between tactical and strategic approaches.
The End
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Design Prototypes
I designed the high-fidelity prototypes by implementing the Redgate Honeycomb MUI Design system, as well as constructing new components.
Comments from colleague:
“Abbey has an excellent grasp on design process, she planned her activities for the two key project she’s worked on at Redgate with minimal guidance.
Abbey has facilitated several workshops and discussions with Team Kirk and some wider members of the group. She is always keen to involve the team to gather engineers opinions in feasibility.
Abbey also seeks feedback and input from people outside the team unprompted.”
Lessons Learned
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Reflecting on the project
This was an intense project. I learned a lot, had lots of fun, and saw the power of initiating discussions and facilitating workshops.
01.
Cross-functional collaboration is vital to success
I became more confident in initiating approaches, particularly when working as part of a group effort in collaboration with the Tech Lead, engineers, and PM. Each perspective brought valuable insights; hearing voices from technical, business, and user sides led to more assured design decisions.
02.
Be a good research and design workshop facilitator
While I've found that arriving with a plan for workshops or discussion sessions is beneficial, I still aspire to refine my skills in orchestrating these gatherings. The 'how' is just as important as the 'what', how can I plan workshops to yield the maximum outcome is an area I want to develop.