A multi-billion dollar IT consulting company reached out to our team to transform the way they collect revenues and design an optimized UX on desktop and mobile platforms.
An award-winning UX effort to transform the way a multi-billion dollar IT consulting company collects revenues and design an optimized UX across web and mobile platforms.
Huge Gaps in Target vs Estimate Revenue:
Until now, critical functions in the revenue collection process were siloed and inconsistent. KPIs indicated unrealistic gaps in the target revenue (from corporate) and estimated commitments (from account owners).
Aligned & Transparent Experience:
We designed a brand new enterprise dashboard for web and mobile app integration with simplified architecture, effective data visualizations and intuitive interactions that equip account owners to confidently make decisions.
To be added
You are the bookkeeper of a beautiful bakery (not so exciting perhaps, but roll with it).
A local restaurant places an order for $500 worth of cheesecakes. You fulfill the order, and they promise to pay you within 30 days. So you go ahead and commit the $500 in revenue to your bakery owner. However, at the end of 30 days, the restaurant fails to pay you the outstanding amount.
What do you do?
Whether you are a loyal friend, an accountant at a local bakery, or the CFO of an $85 billion company, collecting the money owed to you - while maintaining relationships - is a tricky business.
Starting from the ground up, I took charge of:
1 - mapping user context and needs
2 - sharing domain knowledge within the team
3 - syncing with tech architects to design user flows
4 - translating research into dashboard concepts
5 - handing off wireframes to visual designers
6 - infusing business goals into UX iterations
7 - collaborating with business analysts to develop user stories
8 - identifying & storyboarding opportunities of differentiation
9 - driving user testing/feedback sessions
10 - pitching the UX outcomes & impact to CFO executives
Starting from the ground up, I took charge of:
1 - mapping user context and needs
2 - sharing domain knowledge within the team
3 - syncing with tech architects to design user flows
4 - translating research into dashboard concepts
5 - handing off wireframes to visual designers
6 - infusing business goals into UX iterations
7 - collaborating with business analysts to develop user stories
8 - storyboarding opportunities of differentiation
9 - driving user testing/feedback sessions
10 - pitching the UX impact to the CFO executives
With these many stakeholders involved and such complex business problem at hand, it was important to progressively map and communicate all the UX decisions at each step to stay aligned.
I initiated research at two levels to be familiarized with:
- system processes
- problem space
- user mindset
- business priorities
Motive: Understand jargon, user groups, tasks, timelines, & dependencies
Medium: Orientation meetings
Mapping: Phased Workflow and Process Lifecycle
Motive: Understand users’ current and aspirational mental models
Medium: Qualitative interviews & focus groups using this Discussion Protocol
Mapping: Affinity Diagram
Picture this:
/ Logging through VPN to access 8-10 different apps to source data
/ Crunching numbers across 5+ excel sheets
/ Rummaging through MS Outlook / MS Teams to access past emails & chats
/ Putting together all this info in your head with some puzzle pieces still missing
/ Justifying your estimates to your team and other stakeholders
and doing this in parts, several times a week, on your work laptop, while traveling, or in and out of client meetings - only to hear that your numbers are radically off!
Quite frustrating, isn't it?
From this initial assessment, it was clear that current system's challenges spanned across:
- Unpredictability of time or amount in client payments, leading to 'guesstimates'
- Lack of intuitiveness, & hence, lack of accountability
- Unorganized progress & timelines
- Hesitation to communicate / delegate due to unreliable data
While these were all useful inputs to refine the user experience, it was still not fully established WHY account owners were conservative in estimating their revenue potential.
There was more to the story than just unifying all the data on to a dashboard. This motivated me to lead another round of research, with sharp focus on behaviors and attitudes.
Motive: Get to the root cause of hesitance among users in committing higher numbers
Medium: Focus Groups (ensuring anonymity)
Mapping: User Archetypes
Through these interactions, the underlying pains started to come to light:
- Rationale behind the expectations being a mystery
- Workflow inefficiencies snowballing into inaccurate estimates
- Pressures of organizational hierarchies
Bam! Beneath the surface of a mismanaged process was a power dynamic issue, leading to a shared sense of skepticism and overarching anxiety.
But how would UX address this imbalanced power dynamic?
Hang tight, because this fascinating (and also a bit concerning) discovery led us to shape our core problem statement and UX goals.
How might we empower account owners to confidently set higher & more accurate revenue goals for their teams?
Framing the problem this way helped us reset the focus while allowing for an open-ended exploration of ideas.
Visualizing the users' current experience was challenging, as every team had a different set of tools and internal processes.
Few rounds of abstraction later, I had a versatile version that exposed gaps and potential opportunities to streamline, enhance and delight.
We picked critical moments from the deconstructed journey, and remodeled them using research insights to generate user value. This proposed journey served as the blueprint for iterative design and testing.
All this analysis set us on a path to design a solution that optimizes for:
Must Have
/ Reduced user friction
/ Streamlined navigation
/ Positive reinforcement
/ User engagement
/ Two-way trust
Good to Have
/ Palatability
/ Visual appeal
/ Personalization
/ Mobile app integration
/ User feedback loops
To validate the effectiveness of our designs, we coded in these indicators:
Design Metrics
/ Number of handoffs
/ Number of clicks to key CTAs
/ Navigation steps
/ Task performance time
User Analytics
/ DAU (number of hits)
/ No. of users checking forecasts vs committing
/ Time spent on pages (Lostness score)
/ Was this helpful?
Standard KPIs of Revenue Collection:
/ DSO - Days of Sales Outstanding / AR180 - I seem to be forgetting :) / GT180 - Greater Than 180 Days
While translating research findings, I ensured that every single UX proposition eliminates the long drill and guarantees confidence in users.
Below is a simple matrix that I used to map each user insight with UX proposition in order to arrive at our features:
Creating comic-strip like stories was a great way of visually communicating the user pain points + potential features + benefits
I thoroughly enjoyed creating these storyboards as they not only gathered interest but also aligned everyone on the vision.
Given the fixed timelines on this project, it was necessary to scope the design effort so that we deliver solid impact.
We convened with key stakeholders to collectively prioritize features for the MVP version.
Users' core tasks involved intensive analysis of trends, forecasts and a dozen revenue metrics. For them to accomplish multitasking and collaboration efficiently, a desktop-first approach made sense.
Mobile played a part of further enhancing this experience, delivering contextual benefits to the user as well as completing urgent tasks with utmost convenience.
/ Intuitive
/ Layered access to information
/ Proximity of Contextual Actions
/ Engaging
Once the web screens took off, I brought focus back to the unparalleled flavor that mobile features would add to this new experience. Through quick illustrations and contextual placement of features in users’ day-to-day scenarios, we were able to convince the stakeholders to invest the resources.
This are a few snippets from the deck, packaged as ‘Mobile Magic Moments’ that I pitched to senior leadership and business executives.
Motive: Understand jargon, user groups, hierarchies, tasks, timelines, processes & dependencies involved in Revenue Collection.
Medium: Orientation meetings
Maps: Process workflow, Revenue Collection Lifecycle
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Problem: Scattered data across multiple systems adds friction, inefficiency, and frustration to Walter and his teams' day-to-day lives.
Solution: Walter efficiently analyses the data under one single roof, making a sound decision on the quarterly commitments. The Dashboard enables to view the health of his accounts. This helps in building clear and effective communication with other teams.
Problem: Jenny faces difficulty in keeping track of her time and causes lag in addressing any unexpected delays in the invoicing cycle.
Solution: The personalized calendar helps Jenny in monitoring key checkpoints & milestones so that she can plan and keep a track of time-sensitive tasks. The calendar also prompts her to take certain contextual actions depending on the events.
Problem: Jenny has no visibility in scenarios like delayed submissions, high cancellations, deferred billing, spike in overdue etc that directly affect the potential and timely collection of revenues.
Solution: Push notifications for proactive tracking of issues & probable risks in the accounts, plus a snapshot of potential impact of these issues help Jenny prioritize and take necessary steps for remediation.
Problem: Long navigation paths, dependency on VPN and work laptop discourage Mike from checking information or performing his respective tasks.
Solution: Mike can now quickly view up-to-date insights and check progress instantly. Single tap on widgets can land Mike to the precise area within the app, eliminating manual navigation in the app, thus saving a lot of time.
Problem: Going back and forth on Teams, Outlook and shared Excel sheets for clarifications of commitment setting or collections tracking is a hassle for Paul.
Solution: The solution devised helps Paul to mitigate this back-and-forth process and brings a collaborative feature integrated on top of the dashboard for quick resolution. Comments and tagging can be initiated to get a better clarification or delegation of tasks along with ‘Voting' feature for collective agreement.
The inspiration for Zoflora is light, refreshing and colourful – content is aspirational, inspiring and engaging, with a touch of playfulness.
/ Bulk testing with broad set of users
/ Track discoverability and lostness score
/ Prioritize mobile app features
I am proud to look back at how much me and my fantastic team was able to accomplish.
Starting from the ground up, I took charge of:
1 - mapping user context and needs
2 - sharing domain knowledge within the team
3 - syncing with tech architects to design user flows
4 - translating research into dashboard concepts
5 - handing off wireframes to visual designers
6 - infusing business goals into UX iterations
7 - collaborating with business analysts to develop user stories
8 - storyboarding opportunities of differentiation
9 - driving user testing/feedback sessions
10 - pitching the UX impact to the CFO executives
I love making connections, so feel free to reach out and say hello!
Need a systems thinker who can drive business outcomes?
Or have thoughts to share on my work?
Either way, I love making connections. Let's get talking!
I love making connections, so feel free to reach out and say hello!
Need a systems thinker who can drive business outcomes?
Or have thoughts to share on my work?
Either way, I love making connections.
Feel free to connect via LinkedIn, email me, or schedule a time on my calendar.
Let's get talking!
