Defining product direction through user research
2020 - 2022
1.5 years
NDA
About client
A client had a web application for workforce planning and management purposes, used for providing forecasts of various KPIs, such as Headcount, Utilisation, Attrition, and Bench. The application was used worldwide by regional managers and heads of departments for reporting and forecasting.
Business challenge
The platform was created from scratch based on the ideas of one of the stakeholders, utilising only developers and didn’t have any user-focused approach whatsoever. The application didn’t solve business problems in a proper way. Users were reluctant to use it due to it’s complexity and the fact it didn’t contain features that would actually help users with one of their main tasks - forecasting.
Approach
✨ Some user research was done prior to me joining the project. It was more focused on the business processes, and provided minimal information on users’ tasks and needs.
✨ Started with small improvements in the interface and interactions to make use of this research data. Fixed UX patterns that worked incorrectly and applied a new design system the client had. While it helped to eliminate some of the friction between users and the system, this approach felt wrong, because it seemed as if some important issues were understudied.
✨ Conducted stakeholders interviews and it was agreed the project required deeper research.
✨ Created a research plan with more focus on users' problems within the product and deeper understanding of their tasks, workflows and workarounds.
✨ Prepared a concept based on the data from previous research to supplement the discovery and test the assumptions.
✨ Kicked-off the recruitment, scheduled the sessions and conducted in-depth interviews with the initial concept ideas as a stimuli.
✨ Prioritised the findings and presented them to the Project Manager to lay the foundation for product roadmap. It was concluded the application needed to be redesigned entirely.
✨ Analysed the tasks users were performing in the current application, their workarounds, goals, and gathered feedback on the concept. Identified areas for improvement.
✨ Brainstormed ideas for redesign. Elaborated on 2 options together with the Project Manager.
✨ Improved the concept based on the user feedback. Made changes to designs and worked on prototypes. Handed over the designs to development.
✨ Would participate in weekly sprints planning, backlog refining and UI reviews.
Lessons
💡 Start any project with the requirements gathering and prior research data review. Don’t rush into immediate improvements. Carefully study all about the project background, take your time.
💡 The needs of stakeholders won’t align with those of the users, therefore, it won’t bring any value implementing them.
