Overview
Role
Timeline
Product Designer
The project took place over 8 weeks in September and October 2019
Revitalize is a B2B/CRM crowdfunding platform for small business owners and trade apprenticeships.
Responsibilities
Team
UX Research, Content Strategist, UX Design, Information Architecture, and Product Design
2 Product Designers, 1 Product Owner, and 8 Developers
GIVING BUSINESS
OWNERS THE RESOURCES THEY NEED THROUGH
CROWDFUNDING AND
CRM COLLABORATION
Revitalize is a crowdfunding platform for community projects. The two main users are donors and project administrators. These project admins were exclusively business owners who had a hard time getting funding, talent, and other resources to complete community projects.
These projects could include construction jobs restoring buildings, or maintenance jobs fixing utilities. But he wanted to make sure the web app was purpose-driven and support the local community as well.
BRIDGING THE GAP THROUGH CRM COLLABORATION
Starting this project was a challenge. The product owner wanted to build a tool to help apprentices get their trade licenses. He wanted this tool to be a crowdfunding platform for local communities where small business owners would be able to post projects they needed done, and tradecraft apprentices could find job opportunities. Product Owner wanted to do a lot. I was too eager and jumped right into building out wireframes based on what he said he wanted.
We got the feedback from developers and shareholders that this was way too complicated a project for our development team to accomplish in a reasonable time period.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM FOR YOUNG BUSINESS OWNERS
I realized then that we needed to simplify the concept and narrow down the scope. From my market research, I was able to see that the biggest pain point in this domain were business owners who could not find enough resources to complete their construction projects.
Even though anyone can create a project on Revitalize, I persuaded my team to focus on small to midsize business owners under the age of 35 that had a small budget. Interviews revealed that many business owners lacked funds and resources to fix construction/maintenance issues.
Younger business owners specifically outlined construction and maintenance related projects to be major pain points for growing
their business.
NARROWING DOWN
THE SCOPE TO A COMPREHENSIVE DASHBOARD
Project administrators(business owners) needed a way to communicate with their team in order to get projects done on-time and efficiently.
Ex: If the business owner realized their AC needed repairing halfway through the project, they needed to be able to communicate that project change to the team before it was too late to add that to their task.
The Opportunity for the dashboard:
Project admins needed a way to delegate tasks to their team so that there are no misunderstandings on what the admin wanted done
Project admins needed a way to grant administrative-level permissions to master tradesmen so that they can take over the project if the business owner was too busy to oversee everything.
Project admins needed a way to see everything related to the project as quickly as possible, so they can see everything from donors, to project status, to tasks assigned to team members, as well as notifications.
TEAM GOALS: MAKE IT EASY
TO START, MANAGE, AND COMPLETE CONSTRUCTION/MAINTENANCE
PROJECTS ON REVITALIZE.
Examples of Project Updates and Delegating/Managing Tasks
EXPLORATION - EARLY CONCEPTS AND SKETCHES FOR THE CRM DASHBOARD
It was difficult for my team to brainstorm a dashboard that would be comprehensive for our users. When we viewed the competitive landscape, It seems that we were thinking too complex and broadly for the design layout. We scaled back on intricate features and focus on the simplicity of the design.
Based on my key findings from research and interviews, I started brainstorming sketches to conceptualize the user’s journey and defined the look of the dashboard.
CREATING A SEAMLESS ARCHITECTURE FOR LEANING AND FUNCTIONALITY
While strategizing and designing, we reached a point where we needed a place to connect all users before splitting them to different user flows. Once a user donates or applies to a project, what happens next? Where do
they go next? The design for the Project Admin dashboard came from our mood-board and site map.
My team made sure the dashboard had features such as communication tools to interact with master trades, engage with other apprentices, view tasks, and monitor progress. The dashboard serves to increase interaction and communication among team members.
GIVING BUSINESS
OWNERS BACK
THEIR TIME
Once my team reached a point in creating high fidelity designs, our goal was clear: Design a seamless and concise experience for business owners. We were already taking mental note of the onboarding process, dashboard layouts, and was prime to create an unforgettable experience.
PROJECT ADMIN DASHBOARD
The final project admin dashboard design enables apprentices to easily navigate through the tasks section, view donors, meet/communicate with team members including master trades, view metrics, and manage users.
Where admins can view their donors
Where admins can view their performance and metrics. This contains information for the project and donation status
Where admins can create a roadmap guide and make sure daily goals are being met
GRANTING USERS PERMISSIONS
Admins can grant permissions for all user types that are associated with the project. This feature was crucial to the design process because based on research, it was known that most business owners did not have enough time to create roadmaps or manage users, so in return, they would need to grant rights to the master tradesmen.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR FUTURE RELEASE CYCLES?
Project admin dashboard feature was very successful and has an NPS of +91%! For future features, our team wants to focus on admins interacting with Master Tradesmen/apprentices online and offline. Due to the timeframe and complexity, the chatbot and task map was slated for the next release cycle.
KEY TAKEAWAYS, LEARNINGS, AND INSIGHTS
COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY
From the user surveys and interviews, communication was the most vital element critical to the success of the admin experience. Creating a solution that is tangible for all users should be the end goal in mind.
SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS AND DEADLINES FOR EVERY PROJECT
During the scoping process, we strived to have a plethora of features for the dashboard. However, most of them were unrealistic and not feasible for our users and developers. I learned to make sure that real value was being added for this project and that my team’s designs were feasible for the developers to build.
