New cloud dashboard product for cloud usage tracking

* Note: Product is under NDA, specific details are not included below

Team

My Role:

  • UX Researcher

Collaborators:

  • Product Manager

  • UX Designer

  • Product Director

  • Product Engineering Leader

  • UX Director

Timeline

Duration: 4 weeks

Study Presented: 1/20/23

Methodology

  • User Interviewing

For a full case study explanation, including study process, please schedule a case study review with me either through the contracting agency that is representing me for the role you are hiring for or via my email.

Problem Space

Based on user and stakeholder feedback, a new product was needed that displayed customized information in a dashboard used by software engineers, managers, and finance stakeholder user segments.

The current dashboard used by these user segments contained too much information, and the new product would simplify the user experience to only include information of interest to the target user segments.

Discovery research was requested to understand the needs of the 3 user segments before design and development work would take place, and I decided that an interview study would be the best methodology.

One main question was whether the dashboard needed to cater to 3 different user segments based on needs of each segment- and if 3 different dashboard views were needed, what information was important to provide for each user segment.

The dashboard was made up of 3 different domains of information, and it was important to understand what information should be displayed for each of the user segments related to each domain, including cadence of updated information and how the information should be displayed.

Study Impact

I communicated all findings and recommendations by presenting a formal share out deck.

It was confirmed that 3 dashboard views were needed to meet the needs of each user segment interviewed during the study.

Software Engineers (N=7)

  • I made 12 recommendations across all 3 domains based on Software Engineer participant feedback

  • Software Engineer participants identified 20 filters that would be helpful for them in order to manage information views in the dashboard

Manager Stakeholders (N=3)

  • I made 7 recommendations across all 3 domains based on Manager Stakeholder participant feedback

  • Manager Stakeholder participants identified 11 filters that would be helpful for them in order to manage information views in the dashboard

Finance Stakeholders (N=1)

  • I made 7 recommendations across all 3 domains based on Finance Stakeholder participant feedback

  • The Finance Stakeholder participant identified 8 filters that would be helpful for them in order to manage information views in the dashboard

Approach

The new dashboard product had not been designed yet, and the UX Designer assigned to the project asked me to run an interview study to understand the needs of the 3 user segments identified by the Product Owner that would benefit from a more focused dashboard product.

User Segments:

  1. Software Engineers

  2. Manager Stakeholders

  3. Finance Stakeholders

The main objective was to understand from each user segment what information was important for them to see in order to their job, and how to display that information including whether they needed to dive deeper and see the information in greater granularity.

In order to better understand the problem space, I was given images of the main dashboard to familiarize myself with the information that would be available for the new dashboard product.

Armed with an understanding of the current product and which pieces of the main dashboard would be transferred to the new product, I wrote a study plan that would define what information each user segment found important to visualize and how it should be displayed.

I wrote interview questions based on the research questions I had come up with in the study plan and put a moderator guide together that would help me run interview sessions with participants.

I ran all sessions with the Product Owner, as they had a deep understanding of the problem space and use of the main dashboard product- they were able to guide the discussion and ask important follow up questions for what I had prepared.

I synthesized all data by separating findings into each of the 3 user segments of interest.

One issue was that I was not able to recruit the minimum N=5 participants per user segment, as recommended by NN/g.

The participant pool for 2 of the user segments- Manager Stakeholders and Finance Stakeholders- had a limited number of participants to draw from.

In order to meet deadline and provide user data to team members and stakeholders, I synthesized the data I had collected from participants, calling out that 2 of the user segments had fewer than N=5 total participants.

I synthesized all participant data in Miro.

I was able to recommend an initial list of information that is important for each of the 3 user segments, including what filters would be helpful.

I presented my findings and recommendations to the product team in support of how to build the new dashboard product with 3 views that would provide customized information to each of the 3 user segments.

What I Learned

As has been the case with most of my previous studies, recruitment was challenging. Although the potential participant pool was internal, I was given a handpicked list of names and contact information by the Product Director. Response rates were low.

Also, I was not knowledgeable about the product, and relied on the Product Manager to ask a lot of questions during sessions.

I learned:

  • I had a better understanding concerning how to work with a Product Manager that provided a handpicked list of potential participants

    • There were some participants who I invited that the Product Manager later realized were not a good fit for the study and I was told to cancel those sessions

  • I grew in my knowledge the product as I moderated sessions and grew in my ability to ask better follow up questions as the study progressed