Generative research and ideation - A UX case study

Overview

As a product designer for one of the products at EndGame , I was given a task to explore and implement the best methods to understand user needs and optimise the product. The UI kit for the product had already been design and the product was all set to launch. But, there were some hurdles to cross before the big release. The web app was only released to beta customers at that point in 2020, and we had to go through several iterations to get it market-ready. So, the team had to use new tools and techniques to quickly test our work.

#1 One too many use cases to handle

The problem

The application was built based on a regular SaaS template. It followed the same user flows like a user landing on a dashboard which had options to do all the CRUD operations in the app. User testing revealed that not all the pages were discoverable by the user, because there were too many ways to reach a page from the dashboard. The value proposition of the app was to provide content that could be used as reference for running business meetings. But, a user had to cross through so many steps just to sign up and reach the content page.

The solution

Ideation sessions were held to identify the key issue of lack of discoverability. It was seen that there were many user roles involved in the user journey and the app was built based on a generic flow. A list of the users and their use cases were taken. Iterations of user flows were done with some low-fi prototypes and tested with stakeholders and a few beta users. The results revealed that team based users were more and their use cases weren't handled well in the existing user flows.

So a new feature was introduced in the app to make things simpler for team users.

#2 Customer outcomes overshadowed by business outcomes

The stakeholders tried to achieve their business outcomes with the product, losing sight of the customer outcomes. The buyer is important. A design sprint was run to identify the customer outcomes and communicate it to the stakeholders. We used the journey map as a tool to understand the goal of each user. But, as a B2B app, we understood that the "customer" is not necessarily the "user" of the app. Hence, we needed to find out our Ideal Customer Profiles and distinguish them from the user personas. The holistic view of the journey of the app helped understand the customer outcomes better.

#3 Customers weren't ready to hire the product with the available subscription plans

It was identified that the different user needs had to be covered by different plans since customers weren't ready to buy the product as thought. So the different pricing plans were tested using a generative research approach. This was a technique taught to us at an internal training by Revealed.

The ability to understand a user's JTBD helped improve the app. Customer's JTBD was identified and a storyboard was built. This showed the customers the value proposition of the app and asked them how much they would be willing to pay for the different pricing plans. The results were very interesting to see, as it showed us how different the customers' thoughts were in comparison to our assumptions.

Customer's JTBD

Testing the pricing

Conclusion

In spite of the product not reaching the market due to other reasons, a lot of ideation was put in the development. The application was left in a state where it could be transformed into a better version in the future.