stephchung.


activate glow up at lexer.



SENDING DATA ACROSS INTEGRATIONS FOR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS



THE BASICS



COMPANY: Lexer, data analytics startup ROLE: product designer
WEBSITE: lexer.io TIME: 4 months





THE CHALLENGE



As part of a wider business strategy to increase data flexibility, I was charged with updating a core feature in the software that hadn’t been given any love in 5+ years. While this overall project had multiple phases to it, the main chunk of design work was modernising the workflow end to end to align with current UX best practices while streamlining the UI to the software’s design system patterns with considerations for scalability to hit the next delivery milestones.


I had 2 weeks to make the design, 2 weeks to action early user testing, and 2 weeks to implement any user acceptance feedback during QA testing before the feature was released to production to hit the deadline.


Adding to this project’s complexity, the product manager & 2 developers resigned during this time frame, I was still collaborating with the other product development team to finish designs for an AI messaging feature, and in the midst of hiring then mentoring a junior designer.


Defining the problem:

  1. Marketers in retail who want to send personlised and targeted communications to their customers using customisable event triggers need a method to consolidate their customer data and have it securely delivered into a software that has more specific marketing campaign building features.


The main challenges were:

  1. Understand the highly technical solution design enough to make scalable UI patterns
  2. Implement fast user feedback cycles to find usability quick wins
  3. Prioritise, document and address opinionated stakeholder feedback
  4. Juggle context switching between two major features and different team cultures


Here's how I took on these challenges.



Activate - before (the glow up)



Activate - after (post glow up)





CHALLENGE #1: Understand the highly technical solution design enough to make scalable UI patterns



At its core, the Lexer software takes in data from multiple sources (ex. Mailchimp, Shopify, Klaviyo, etc) to build a complete customer profile for people in retail marketing by focusing on a snapshot of singular data points, like average order value or date of last purchase. When it comes to demonstrating insights based on a specific event, like buying a top as part of a purchase made on Black Friday in 2023, the software breaks.


This project shifted the fundamental data structure in the backend and needed the overall workflow to account for this technical change without alienating users to how the flow previously worked.


Given the short timeline, there was also no room to create completely new componentry for the interface even though the user feedback asked for better data visualisation methods. This limitation also meant any UI elements that were not crucial to the feature to be usable or caused too much excessive dev effort would be removed.


SOLUTION

  1. Ask for help from the developers to understand the backend changes
  2. Study technical documentation and common interface patterns from competitors
  3. Assess and audited the existing workflow and design patterns for continuity opportunities
  4. Scour the existing design system for ways to update the feature with limited new component creation
  5. Set a minimum acceptable and usable workflow with clear indications of stretch goals




CHALLENGE #2: Implement fast user feedback cycles for usability quick wins



Even though this section of the software has one of the highest levels of traffic, from initial design to being handover ready, I only had 1 week to gather feedback and implement it in the designs without pushing out the tight project timeline.


Once there was a testable branch, QA testing and user acceptance testing was allocated 2 weeks which included implementation to fix any bugs or major usability faux pas.


SOLUTION

  1. Conduct initial testing with the Success team during their weekly team meeting
  2. Implement Mixpanel tracking to gather targeted feature evidence
  3. Work with the Head of Product to define tasked based testing with internal users
  4. Coordinate with marketing on Intercom banner notifications and usability surveys




CHALLENGE #3: Prioritise, document and address opinionated stakeholder feedback



Since the original feature had little UX/UI updates over the past 5 years and is an integral part of the software, a lot of eyes were on this project including the leadership team and senior figures across multiple teams outside of the product domain.


The feature also has a wide reach of user personas and customer business types from small retailers, like the Upside, to large enterprise clients, like Optus.


SOLUTION

  1. Create a Decision Register to document the impact of key design & technical decisions
  2. Organise and facilitate meetings with key stakeholders to discuss major decisions
  3. Communicate details on technical limitations, known risks and design concessions made
  4. Update the feedback process using a modified RICE model to prioritise valuable feedback




CHALLENGE #4: Juggle context switching between two major features and different team cultures



As the only product designer company wide when this project started, I was shared between the 2 product development teams. Unfortunately both teams were working on large features at the same time with very similar deadlines.


To help unblock both teams, it was agreed that I would only stay with a team for 1 sprint (2 weeks) at a time and dedicate my entire focus to the team I was on during that sprint.


SOLUTION

  1. Set mini goals to achieve each sprint that moved the project forward
  2. Work with developers to smooth out a “design review” process that complimented my workload
  3. Regularly signpost with the product managers design progress and estimations of remaining effort




conclusion



Even though this was a massive project with a lot of technical complexities, a challenging peripheral workload, and high in stakeholder management, I really enjoyed being able to find the usability nuggets that we could implement within that tight time frame.


The main theme that arose during user acceptance testing was: “This is so much easier than before. Why didn’t we do this sooner?”. That was incredibly validating for me to hear and meant that despite the challenges I faced, I helped deliver a measurable impact to each person who uses the platform.

Next steps:

  1. Follow up on the deprioritised work (ex. some tool tips & component generalisation) for the next delivery milestone
  2. Check Mixpanel data against assumptions made during this phase
  3. Find opportunities to address feedback that required more time to solve


steph chung - UX/UI/PRODUCT DESIGNER


MELBOURNE, AU | WHATSUP@STEPHCHUNG.COM