The user journey to guide software improvements: a case study
How did the tool helps us to identify pain and generate more efficiency?
by Katherine Ramirez and Laura Accorsi, UX Researchers at Sensorama Design team
The user journey is one of the most used tools in the UX world and well known by companies in general. It makes it easier for customers to understand the results achieved with a discovery. With it, we can understand people’s interactions at all stages in which they relate to the system and, in this way, identify opportunities for improvement.
That’s why when we were approached by a large industry in the beverage sector to understand the necessary improvements in their commercial agreement management software, we ended up choosing to use the user journey as one of our main tools. And in this text, we will tell you why and, mainly, how we apply it in practice.
Knowing our challenge
This industry relies on software used by account managers. The system was developed internally to respond to a general objective: to bring together all commercial agreements in a single environment. However, with its daily use, new pains appeared. The data source was still manually imported and monitoring was still laborious and time consuming, for example. In other words, there were opportunities for improvement.
When companies adapt or create their own technologies, for many reasons it is normal for some aspects of the project to be left behind and resolved later. Fortunately, innovation processes allow us to resume any project or product to make it more sustainable and efficient.
The purpose of the project was centered on this. Our client would like to have an in-depth understanding of the processes carried out in the system by account managers and, above all, reduce manual activities and the time required to keep the data source up to date. After all, it is desirable for account managers to be able to focus on strategy and system operation to be a complementary, albeit indispensable, task.
For this, it was necessary to understand the work routine of these people. What activities do you use the system for? How did they use the system? What activities were carried out outside the system that could serve as inputs for future solutions?
To answer this question, we started a discovery process. And as you can imagine, the user journey was our main tool to make the diagnosis and discover the pain that should be solved with system improvements.
Before proceeding with our story, let’s open a parenthesis:
What is the user journey?
It is a tool that presents the entire interaction of a person with a product or service. A story with a beginning, middle and end. It points out what actions it took and what points of contact there were, both with a specific product and with the other actors involved in these interactions.
In addition, it allows you to identify sensations/emotions you had when interacting with that product or service. This provides deep insight and understanding of what your experience was like.
It should be noted that, like many UX tools, the user’s journey is flexible and broad. It can be adapted to meet research objectives, generate rich insights to fix a problem, or improve the experience of anyone using a product or service.
Okay, now we can close the parenthesis and tell how we use this tool to meet our client’s needs and identify points for improvement in the system and the pains that are part of the routine of users.
The user journey to identify points for improvement
We started the first demand, which was to understand in depth the processes carried out in this system by account managers. Since then we could understand how to reduce manual activities and optimize your work and time.
We mapped the activities carried out, those responsible for each of them and the processes applied for that action. The user journey enables a broad view of the entire process, identifying other actors involved. Therefore, we include other systems and tools used.
Involving users in the mapping not only helps to identify opportunities for improvement that they have already seen. They can also be the starting point for solution hypotheses that directly impact your pain.
- We understood how people interacted with the system and how it affected the results.
- We identify the pain points of users and how these pains are connected in the different stages.
One of the pains, for example, was the need for the data used to close the month to be monitored in parallel to avoid errors, as well as the need to validate data that showed discrepancies.
The user’s journey to identify routine pain
Using the journey of the user to build a vision of what happens in the work routine allowed us to find a series of other pains that are linked to the product (although these do not necessarily occur within it and that the user is not always aware of them) .
The journey allowed us to identify specific pains and needs. With them at the center, we advanced in opportunities for improvement that at that time were not directly linked to the system, but which led us to meet the objective of being the “indispensable tool in the life of the account manager”, with efficiency and dynamism.
What do we get out of it?
From the user journey that we created in the discovery stage, we generate opportunities and solution hypotheses that would be prioritized and tested later. For us, as a UX team, it became even clearer that, when mapping the user’s journey, there were many variables that affect their relationship with the software.
Among them are:
- How a person engages with their customers and other stakeholders affects their journey and their relationship with the product.
- There are tasks that can be delegated to other people on your work team. Some pains initially pointed out were, in fact, problems faced by other actors involved in the processes.
- Understanding the routine of the main user allows identifying which other systems and tools are used by him and how they interact with each other. Do they make daily work easier or more difficult? That’s the key question.
- Journeys can be a starting point for thinking about new product, process and service solutions to improve the lives of people who use the product.
The user journey can avoid errors due to lack of knowledge about the person who will use the solution, therefore, it helps us to carry out research in a strategic way and with reduced time.
And what is the impact of the user’s journey to the customer?
During the discovery stage, we followed two equally important paths that were developed simultaneously. In one of them, our focus was on software improvements, which was a priority for the customer. On the other hand, we have a deep understanding of the routine of the people who use the system, so that the improvements were adapted to their needs.
To deliver a tool that is indispensable in the life of account managers, we must first understand what is indispensable for them.
And that’s what we did. By identifying the needs and pains of account managers in relation to the company’s systems and tools, we were able to add to the product the possibility of carrying out their tasks in a more fluid (read: efficient) way. The central demand when looking for the customer has been met. But it was possible to go beyond expectations.
We were able to identify opportunities that could be prioritized and a way to work on future solutions for any pain that may arise in the routine of professionals who are essential for the success of the business. Only then will what is indispensable today continue to be indispensable tomorrow.
