Instant Lead Capture and Pay

Timeline

Spring 2023
Approx. 3.5 months

Industry

Software
Finance

Core Team

Sherry Yi (UX Researcher)
Or Garmolin (Product Manager)
Nir Vana (Engineering Manager)
Ronit Kaufmann (Product Designer)
Hannah Gellman (Product Designer)
Sophia Dean (Product Marketing Manager)

My Role

UX research and strategy
Benchmarking
Competitive analysis
1:1 in-depth discovery interviews
Focus groups
Qualtrics surveys
Unmoderated usability testing

Problem

A target segment of our user population, who heavily rely on leads and referrals to scale their business, weren't using HoneyBook for lead management.

Solution

Lead Form is a new feature that accomplishes two things:

1. Lead Capture: This customizable form keeps the user within Honeybook's ecosystem instead having to rely on third-party tools for lead capture.

2. Instant Booking: Enables immediate service booking and payment from the client end via a public link, eliminating the prior need to setup a project within HoneyBook. This has been a long-awaited and essential feature for growing businesses.

The First Step

The initial step was to define constraints. I sought clarity by asking Or to detail the essential success metrics and unresolved questions from the team. This exercise helped me gain a clearer perspective on the team's context. This understanding allowed me to devise a research approach in harmony with the team's core questions. Or's creation of the "North Star" document then became our shared compass, guiding our collective efforts throughout the project.

Crafting the Research Plan

With the "North Star" document in place, the importance of a comprehensive research strategy became evident. This strategy would serve a dual purpose: to benchmark success metrics across prototype iterations and to address any lingering questions.

I developed a focused longitudinal plan, emphasizing crucial variables, and presented it to other stakeholders-- including customer experience and education-- to gather insights. While I anticipated deviations from the plan, it offered a unified vision. This not only aligned the team on our future trajectory but also clarified my role and set clear expectations.

Defining Objectives

Amidst countless questions from the team, ranging from usability to broader strategic concerns, I recognized the need to distill our research objectives. Questions arose:

• Do users see a need for this feature?

• How does our prototype stand against competitors?

• Who are we targeting, and why?

• And most importantly, how will the research outcomes inform our next steps?

Research Approach

To answer these, I chose to conduct one-hour in-depth interviews with seven users, specifically selected for their alignment with our perceived ideal user for Lead Form. These sessions aimed to uncover:

• Existing strategies users employ to attract new and recurring clients.

• Initial impressions upon interacting with the Lead Form prototype.

• Anticipations regarding feature functionality.

• Potential and predominant use cases.

• User perspectives on feature naming and functions.

The involvement of the PM and designers in these sessions was crucial. I invited them to observe, ensuring they received firsthand insights.

Navigating the Unexpected

In the world of remote work, certain surprises can catch you off guard.

Design Handoff

Though deeply engrossed in our workflow, I was blindsided when Ronit, the lead designer, announced her imminent maternity leave. Due to our remote collaboration, I was in the dark about her pregnancy, receiving the news just a week before her leave.

I shifted gears to ensure a smooth transition to Hannah, onboarding her with our research findings, the rationale behind specific design choices, and ongoing assignments.

You're a Wizard, Lead Form!

Inspired by conversations the PM and designer had overseas after digesting my research report, they pursued an intuition. This led to the conceptualization of an alternative to the Lead Form: the Scheduler Wizard. Born from a hunch and based on what we knew about competitors, they sought research to validate an early prototype of this new feature. Adapting to this unforeseen development meant recalibrating our research plan. Delve deeper into the nuances and aftermath of this pivot in the subsequent "Validate" section.

Recap from "Surprise!": Challenge Introduced

An unexpected addition to the project was the introduction of the "Scheduler Wizard."

Defining Objectives

With this new element in play, goals evolved. I aimed to evaluate the second version of our initial concept and contrast the Scheduler Wizard with Lead Forms. The underlying hypothesis was that the Scheduler Wizard, mirroring some competitor features, may offer a superior user experience.

Scheduler Wizard's Direction

Findings:

Received positive feedback from target users as well as non-HoneyBook users, and affirmed the team's hunch that the Wizard competes well with competitor features.

Result: Inclusion of the Wizard in the product roadmap's later stages.

Design Enhancement Insights

Findings:

• UI improvements.

• User misconceptions.

• Feature visibility.

• Language clarity.

Result: Informed subsequent design iterations.

Lead Form Validation

Techniques:

• Focus groups.

• Think aloud sessions.

• Open-ended and Likert-scale responses.

Result: Validation of the third prototype version (its functionality, UI, and key features).

Defining Objectives

To comprehensively understand our product's evolving user experience, I aimed to supplement our qualitative findings with quantitative data. This would provide a more holistic view and benchmark our preliminary insights.

Research Approach

In total, 85 respondents participated across the groups. Given the constraints, I opted for a strategic merger of the V1 and V2 user cohorts.

By combining the cohorts, I could achieve a larger sample size, enhancing the reliability and validity of our findings. In other words, a larger sample reduces the risk of skewed perceptions that might arise from smaller groups.

Secondly, even though the cohorts were merged, I took deliberate steps in the survey design and analysis to distinguish the feedback associated with each version.

Recap: Project Goal

Lead Form is a new feature that accomplishes two things:

1. Lead Capture: This customizable form keeps the user within Honeybook's ecosystem instead having to rely on third-party tools for lead capture.

2. Instant Booking: Enables immediate service booking and payment from the client end via a public link, eliminating the prior need to setup a project within HoneyBook. This has been a long-awaited and essential feature for growing businesses.

We established these objectives at the very beginning of this project. The outcomes, as reflected in our impact data, underscore the success of our endeavors.

Impact

• Meeting Target Use Cases: The July cohort experienced a notable reduction in challenges managing one-off sessions and free consultations compared to the April group. This improvement was statistically significant.
  

• Dropping Competitors: A substantial portion of the July respondents indicated that they either completely or partially transitioned from our competitors to HoneyBook.
  

• User Perceptions: Many users from the July group believed that Lead Forms was effectively catering to their needs, allowing them to gather more information from potential clients through HoneyBook.

Explore

• Investigated user strategies for lead generation.
  

• Benchmarked against competitors.
  

• Identified user preferences, expectations, and points of confusion.

Validate

• Conducted focus groups and usability tests for the second prototype iteration and Scheduler Wizard designs.
  

• Influenced the addition of the Scheduler Wizard to the product roadmap.
  

• Validated user demand for the final version of the prototype.

Confirm

• Employed surveys to gauge user feedback from both April and July cohorts, successfully benchmarking metrics and improvements from concept to launch.
  

• Verified the enhanced efficacy of Lead Forms in boosting the target user segment's lead capture via HoneyBook.

Challenges and Learnings

Eisenhower famously said, "Plans are nothing; planning is everything."

Pre-Planning for All Scales

I learned that core metrics and key questions should be defined before initiating any project, large or small. However, the scale of the project directly influences the amount of planning required, with larger initiatives demanding more comprehensive preparation, especially in a collaborative setting.

Adaptability

The project wasn't without its bumps, reinforcing the need for flexibility. Given that this was a large cross-functional effort, clear communication and stakeholder alignment became apparent as crucial elements for success.

Stakeholder Inclusion

Midway through the project, I discovered that the engineering manager of the Product team was unaware of my research and was eager to be more involved. This led to a fruitful discussion about our respective roles and mutual desires for closer collaboration in design and development.

Understanding the need for cohesive communication, I integrated him into relevant meetings and Slack channels to enhance team alignment. This interaction was a wake-up call about the larger issue of information accessibility, which inspired the Research team to establish a dedicated Slack channel for disseminating all research findings across departments.

Tailoring Research Communication

I realized that each role values different facets of research, guiding me to customize my reports to address these role-specific priorities. This tailored approach optimized the impact of my findings across various departments.

Next Steps

Address Design Debt

Following the feature release, we've allocated time to tackle design debt, informed by my research and customer experience feedback.

Early Planning for Future Research

While I can't disclose the specifics, I'm already strategizing for the next research phase.

Early access to prototypes and tight alignment with the team will be crucial to streamline planning, data collection, and analysis.

Streamline Beta Processes

I flagged the ambiguity of roles and responsibilities to my manager. We're working on formalizing a standard process for conducting Betas, as illustrated in the image below.