Journey Mapping: Self-Serve Onboarding
Building a scaleable, usable system to automate complex retail network digital presences
date and role
Experience designer
2017
summary
The organization was trying to pivot from being custom-implementation-focused into a SaaS platform the could automate customer data and front-end experiences without the need of an engineer. I was tasked with creating user flows of what that experience could be, and what the system would need to execute at each step, to make that happen.
challenge
For lack of a better phrase, the organization prior was a database structure with custom code on top implemented for each individual customer. Over time, that data structure mutated and supplemental data types existed on some customers and not others. We had to prioritize the universal experiences and data types needed to build out a customer in the system, and make that complex system very simple to that end-user.
solution
I collaborated with the Director of Product and a system engineer to understand what the core data structure was, what our automation system needed to create front-end experiences, and what gaps we needed to fill to be a self-service system (ex. a centralized billing structure).
These facets were included at a high-level in the preliminary user flows, then narrowed into three user flows to make the system work: an onboarding tool, a site builder, and a library manager.
results
Aspects of the onboarding experience were developed by engineers into an alpha proof-of-concept. As well, these user flows were the foundation of a site builder tool used by implementation to get the organization out of custom code and into a proprietary site builder tool. These larger efforts helped transform the implementation arm of the organization.
