Sales Automation with AI-Powered Solutions
Overview:
SAILES is an AI startup focused on revolutionizing sales by automating routine and tedious tasks, allowing our customers to concentrate on closing deals. Our flagship product, Starboard, enables customers to onboard, instruct, deploy, and train their unique Sailebots to enhance sales efficiency. Starboard also provides insights into potential leads, delivering actionable data to significantly accelerate the sales cycle.
My Role:
As the sole in-house UX designer, I advocate for design throughout the product development process, collaborating closely with product and engineering teams to maintain open communication and deliver timely results during sprints. I integrate both qualitative research and data-driven insights into the decision-making process, ensuring that our designs meet user needs and drive business outcomes.
Duration
6 Months+
Client
SAILES
Team
1 UX Designer (me) + 1 PM
TL; DR
The Problem
Starboard was facing a major challenge with low customer engagement following initial onboarding.
Despite initial interest, many users visited the platform only once a week or less, limiting their ability to optimize Sailebot performance. Our Success and Support teams frequently reported this issue, emphasizing the need for improvement. Through qualitative research and data analysis, I identified key usability issues hindering user engagement, such as confusing terminology and a lack of actionable insights.
The Solution
The new design provides visually engaging and intuitive metrics with clear, actionable insights.
The redesigned Starboard visually explains and breaks down complex concepts like Digital Labor and Contact Targeting in an engaging way. This clarity helps customers better understand their AI-powered Sailebots' activities behind the scenes, enabling them to optimize performance for better sales results.
The Impact
Frustration rate dropped by 37%, and user retention grew modestly.
Over the past six months, Starboard has seen significant improvements in user engagement metrics, including unique visitors, frustration rate, and total session count. Comparing data from February to late July, weekly unique visitors increased by 28%, frustration rate decreased by 37%, and total session count rose by 80%. Additionally, user retention (stickiness) increased by 2.6%.
My Three-Prong Design Approach
My design decisions are informed by three key sources of input. First, I gather indirect feedback from stakeholders, specifically team members from the Success and Support teams, which helps identify the key pain points of our customers. Second, I conduct quantitative research using data analytics tools, such as frustration counts, heat maps, and Sankey diagrams, to pinpoint gaps and usability issues. Lastly, I incorporate direct feedback from the CEO on the strategic direction, ensuring that my designs align with Sailes' long-term goals.
Highlight 1
A More Intuitive Dashboard Interface for Both Captains and Sailors
The previous dashboard faced several usability challenges, with frequent dead and frustration clicks around metric numbers and terms, as revealed by heat maps. Interviews with stakeholders indicated that customers found the terminology confusing and metrics ambiguous, leaving them uncertain about performance indicators and improvement actions.
The updated dashboard resolves these issues by dedicating sections to each performance metric. Users can click "select more" for detailed information and hover over terms for definitions. Additional sections like "Sailbot Intelligence" and "Deliverability Score" provide a visually engaging overview of Sailbot performance.
Before
After
Highlight 2
Empowering Users to Control Their Targeting Strategy
To enhance Sailebot performance, it's crucial for users to specify the types of companies, industries, and job titles they want to target. The previous design didn't emphasize the impact of customization on performance, nor did it clearly show the relationships between different targeting criteria.
The updated interface uses a "bullseye" design, placing the most critical criteria, like job titles, at the center. Users can easily fine-tune their targeting strategy by toggling different levels of criteria, balancing their need for volume versus accuracy.
Before
After
Highlight 3
Ensuring that Users Seize Every Opportunity to Close Deals
Our Sailors not only need to receive leads from Starboard but must act on them promptly to confidently walk into meetings prepared. Previously, the design lacked clear guidance on what steps to take after receiving a qualified lead.
The new "AiQL" section addresses this by providing clear calls-to-action when a qualified lead is received. Users first get an email prompting them to log into Starboard. Once logged in, they can choose from options like “Meeting Prep,” “Get Phone Number,” or “Reply to Signal.” These straightforward actions help users understand their next steps, driving engagement and ensuring success.
Before
After
Foundational Research
Leveraging Product Analytics to Reveal User Behavior and Patterns
To gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by moped riders, our initial approach involved deploying a range of models to analyze the problem space thoroughly.
Our investigation led us to the streets, where we engaged in Guerrilla Research, directly interviewing moped riders to capture their experiences and identify common issues. We discovered that the U.S. street infrastructure is not optimally designed for mopeds, highlighting significant safety risks and the difficulties of integrating micro-mobility vehicles into the flow of conventional traffic.
Building on these insights, we proceeded to conduct Semi-Structured Interviews with moped riders to delve deeper into their safety concerns. These discussions revealed key issues, such as the riders' limited reaction time, their visibility to other drivers, and the necessity to maintain focus on their surroundings while navigating the streets.
Finding 1: Users struggle to identify clear actions within the "Campaign" section.
Sankey diagrams reveal that users often become stuck in a repetitive loop within the "Campaign" section. After navigating to "Campaign Details," they explore various subsections but eventually return to "Campaign Details" without taking any meaningful actions. This pattern is further validated by session replays, indicating that users either lack the understanding or motivation to perform crucial tasks, such as editing targeting criteria or replying to signals, which are essential for optimizing Sailebot performance.
Finding 2: Users frequently engage in dead clicks and rage clicks on performance metrics.
Heatmaps indicate that users often click repeatedly on performance metrics such as "Positive Engagement" and "Outbound Emails." This behavior suggests that users are seeking additional information or feedback related to these metrics. Subsequent customer feedback confirmed this, revealing that users desire more detailed insights into the data, including how the metrics are calculated and how they evolve over time.
Finding 3: There is a significant drop in engagement when users are required to scroll for information.
Analysis of the scroll maps reveals that the majority of users (75%) do not scroll beyond the initial view of the page. As a result, key sections such as the “Efficiency Performance Graph” and “Leadership” are largely unseen by most users. To enhance accessibility and user engagement, I recommend implementing visual indicators for vertical scrolling or utilizing horizontal navigation.
Job-to-be-Done
Understanding User Archetypes and Their Goals
To gain a deeper understanding of the underlying needs and goals of our primary user archetypes, Captains and Sailors, I collaborated with our Product Manager and members of the Success team. During this session, we focused on crafting "Job-to-be-Done" statements, which were crucial in identifying the key tasks that both Captains and Sailors seek to accomplish within Starboard. These tasks include identifying underperforming Sailbots and receiving concrete, actionable steps to improve their performance.
Next Steps
Conduct Formal Usability Testing to Evaluate Design Updates
The next step is to conduct structured usability testing with five of our real customers, if possible. During these sessions, participants will be asked to perform key tasks, such as responding to signals or checking key performance metrics. This will allow my team and I to evaluate whether the updated UX effectively meets user needs and enables them to accomplish their goals.