What Should Be Included in a New Cloud Dashboard Product?

My Recommendations Resulted in 3X Engagement in the First 6 Months for a New Dashboard

  • I learned what needed to be included in the launch

    • What cloud cost and usage data to display for each user segment

    • How data should be displayed for each user segment

    • A deeper understanding of information needs

      • Why each user segment needed the information that was important to them

Target Users Were Confused About Cloud Costs Related to Their Role

  • Various dashboards were spread across the cloud platform

  • A single dashboard that pulled together information from disparate dashboards was needed

The Business Goal Was to Lower Cloud Costs

  • To achieve the business goal, the approach was to build a dashboard that clearly communicated needed information to the 3 target user segments

  • I was asked to learn what to include in the new dashboard to meet the 3 target users’ needs

The Product Manager and I Discussed If There Was a Need for 1 or 3 Dashboards

  • What would meet user needs best?

    • One dashboard to rule them all?

    • A different customized dashboard for each of the 3 target user segments?

I Decided that the User Interview Methodology was the Best Approach

  • User interviews would help me understand more of the nuances within the problem space

    • I could provide detailed rationale for my recommendations

    • I could understand the problem space

Study Duration

4 weeks

Study Presented

01/20/2023

Team Members

  • Product Manager 

  • UX Designer 

  • Product Director

  • Product Engineering Lead

  • UX Director

Methodology

User Interviewing

My Goal was to Recruit N=5 Participants for Each User Segment

  • I followed the Nielsen Norman Group recruitment recommendations for user interview studies

  • Target users of the dashboard were:

  1. Software Engineer Managers

  2. Software Engineers

  3. Finance Operations

  • I interviewed:

  1. N=3 Software Engineer Managers

  2. N=7 Software Engineers

  3. N=1 Finance Operations team member

  • I wanted to interview more Software Engineer Managers and Finance Operations team members but deadline constraints prevented additional recruiting

My Findings Addressed the Business Goal and Study Objectives

Business Goal: Lower cloud costs

Metric TBA

Study Objective 1: Identify what cloud cost and usage data was important to each user segment

Across the 3 user segments, 39 types of cloud cost and usage data were identified.

Study Objective 2: Understand how each user segment wanted to see data important to them

Findings were complex, and each user segment had unique requirements for the display of data.

Study Objective 3: A deeper understanding of information needs

After gathering the why’s for each user segment’s information needs, I was able to have informed conversations with the Technical Product Manager (TPM) so that I could support my recommendations.

Study Objective 4: Why each user segment needed the information that was important to them

At a high level of understanding, I learned why each user segment needed required information displayed in ways that was helpful for them.

  • The confusion of multiple dashboard meant that Software Engineers, their managers, and finance team members were not aware of cloud usage costs

  • The new dashboard allowed improved tracking of cloud usage costs by collating in one place the information that was important to each user segment

  • Software Engineer Managers: 11 types of data

  • Software Engineers: 20 types of data

  • Finance Operations: 8 types of data

  • Software Engineer Managers needed to see data around how the Software Engineers that they managed used cloud resources

  • Software Engineers needed to see data in graphs and have the ability to drill down into cost data

  • Finance Operations needed to see trends in cloud costs that covered each fiscal quarter

  • The TPM had the technical background to help me understand what each user segment was talking about

  • The TPM and I had insightful conversations about what data and why each user segment needed to track cloud costs

  • During interviews the TPM asked questions I wouldn’t know to ask due to domain knowledge, helping me to gather the information needed to build a dashboard solution that met the needs of a diverse set of end users

  • Software Engineer managers wanted to see how much individual Software Engineers spent in cloud resources so they could better manage their employees

  • Software Engineers wanted to see cost recommendations so that they could use cloud resources as economically as possible

  • Finance Operations wanted to track cloud costs over fiscal quarters as part of the accounting process for business spend

Study Objective 5: Will 1 dashboard meet the needs of all users or will customized dashboards for each of the 3 target users meet user needs?

Based on the unique needs of each of the 3 target user segments and their data visualization requirements, I recommended that a customized dashboard be built for each.

  • I left my role before implementation of the new dashboard

  • Implementation of my recommendations TBA

I Learned a lot About How to Work with My Cross Functional Team Members During this Study

  • I began documenting a strategic approach to product design improvement that would benefit multiple

  • I strategized a plan to improve the product after launch during future sprints using:

    • Analytics

    • Interview studies

    • Card sort studies

  1. Hybrid

  2. Closed

  • Surveys

I Grew in My Ability to Collaborate with a Subject Matter Expert as a Product Manager

  • How to better lead research sessions in which the Product Manager actively participated in as a second researcher

  • I didn’t need a comprehensive knowledge of the product to make impactful recommendations based on qualitative user data