Meleigha Holt
Online Add Product
July - December 2016
Senior UX Designer
Overview
Contractors Sales Reps (CSRs) who financed energy efficient products with Renovate America were required to call us and describe the exact products they were installing. This call could be long and most often took place during a critical time in the sale. Meanwhile, our competitors required less information and had a less intrusive online solution. We were behind the times.
My Role
Lead and conduct research across product teams and systems
Align SMEs and stakeholders on design approach
Justify why the problem was hard to solve and use quantitative data to support extended timelines
Develop a phased approach to promote testing and iteration
Milestones
Formulate an objective argument
Identify and collect the necessary data to drive focused solutions. Demonstrate the complexity of the problem and articulate to stakeholders why various hypotheses oversimplified the problem space.
Demonstrate value on the first use
Drive adoption by persuading the business to invest in the design and development required to deliver value in the first release.
Justify lengthy development time while proposing a phased release to promote testing and iteration.
David Panarelli - Sr UX Designer, HERO Pro
"Despite a lack of direction on prioritization, Meleigha has single-handedly taken on the discovery effort for online Add Products, far exceeding what should be expected."
Milestone I
Forming an Objective Argument
Hypothesis I
We have a product lookup tool, let’s just use that
Argument against
The Product Lookup Tool could return hundreds of thousands of results within a product category
Risk
Increases the chances of Contractors selecting a qualified product but not the actual product being installed
Evidence of risk
We saw this behavior already with our phone conversations:
Call Center Rep: What is the SHGC rating for that window?
Contractor: What is the range?
Sales rep: 1-20
Contractor: How about 10?
Current risk avoidance
A conversation like this one would be flagged by the Call Center Reps to be reviewed by Compliance team
Opportunity
Make it easier for Contractors to select the right product than any random product.
Hypothesis II
They know what they're looking for, just give them search
Argument against
Renovate America required information about products that was not common knowledge to Contractors.
Risk
If given a search bar, Contractors will not know the terms we use to define our products.
Evidence of risk
An average call to add products lasted 7 minutes. On the high end of this average, calls could last 40 minutes. Different requirements for different product types caused contractors to be "unprepared" with the right information when calling in product.
Supporting data
Documented the required information for each product type to illustrate that contractors would need to learn specific search terms to find their products.
Opportunity
Guide contractors with filters rather than an open search field.
Hypothesis III
What if we gave Contractors "Packages"?
Argument against
We cannot agree on a definition of packages/bundles which indicates we are uncertain what problem we are solving.
Risk
Spending our limited resources on a feature that solves for a narrow use case.
Evidence of risk
Interviews with our top contractors revealed differing definitions of Packages.
Supporting Data
In a case study of HVAC packages, it was evident that the time describing a package would be more time consuming than the current process.
Opportunity
All contractor companies I interviewed about packages shared a common goal of quickly adding frequently used products. This shed light on an opportunity to provide contractors with a list of recently used products.
Cartic Natraj - Senior PM, HERO Pro
"One of the last projects Meleigha worked on required months of research and buy in from numerous stakeholders. Meleigha knocked it out of the park and set the entire team up for success."
Milestone II
Demonstrate value in the first release
Sears Southern California Regional Manager
"You have one opportunity to get them to use something new”
Challenge
Contractors are cautious to adopt new technology and processes. If the tool did not solve a real pain point the first time they tried it, they would revert to old habits. I had to persuade the business to invest in the design and development time required to deliver value in the first release.
Supporting Evidence
When we released our new B2B platform adoption was slow. Contractors did not see the value in the MVP release; they required extensive training on the new platform; and ultimately still had access to the old platform so had no reason to adapt.
Interviews with our top contractors reinforced what we knew to be true. Our audience was hesitant to adopt new technologies even when the feature was something they requested.
“You have one opportunity to get them to use something new” -- Sears Southern California Regional Manager
Opportunity
Eager to not repeat history, I doggedly researched what drove call length; found opportunity in my peers proposed solutions; and identified an online solution that spoke to contractor and company needs.
For our large contractors who sold the same 10 or fewer products, we would provide them with a list of recently used products. For smaller contractors, they would be able to narrow down to a single product using no more than four filters.
Milestone III
Develop a phased release
Deliver sooner without compromise
Throughout the research and discovery phase, we were pitching the end vision to stakeholders. When I neared the end of the design phase, the next question was “When will we have this?” The answer was 6 months and, to many stakeholders, that was quite the sticker shock.
Their surprise was understandable. As I moved from research and discovery into design, the complexity of the systems supporting the design were replaced by simplified interactions. Discussions moved from “how do we do it today” and “which teams support each action” to a series of screens for Contractors to select and price products. The team that felt this most acutely was Business Development.
Business Development was eager to deliver a long awaited feature to their customers and were the most removed from the internal politics and systems required to bring it to life. Business Development also had the ear of executive stakeholders and applied pressure downward for a greatly reduced delivery date.
Phased Approach
As I was rolling off this project, I moved into an advisory role working closely with the PM to recommend how to deliver value to Contractors with each phase. Phase one was an exercise in identifying customer and product segments that would benefit from selecting from recently used products. The subsequent phases each grew to a larger customer base with more diverse products. As I left the project, the first phase was a sprint away.
Project Conclusion
A month into phase one I met with the team to ask about adoption. It was slow. We were heavily dependent on the sales team to promote the product and train contractors. At this time, the sales organization was going through layoffs and changes to management. Their focus was scattered and it greatly impacted adoption.