No one central hub to fulfill essential sales tasks
"My call sheet, meeting notes, lead searches are not in the same spot. Always jumping around."
- Realtors & Sales
Productive.ai app
AI-powered mobile calls app for realtors and sales
Role
Product development
Product strategist
Workshop facilitator
Visual designer
Product strategist
Workshop facilitator
Visual designer
Responsibility
End to end product design
project duration
3 months
Project Overview
Objectives
The team aimed to enhance the app's UI/UX to better align the platform's user experience with the workflows of realtors and sales professionals.
Roles & Deliverables
I was the product designer in this project and worked closely with the PM and two engineers. I was responsible for the end to end UX and UI design, from user researching to delivering the visual artifact.
Challenges
Only had three months to do user research, define the problem to deliver the visual artifact. It was important for the team to rapidly make precise decisions for the product team to revise on the MVP.
Outcome & Impact
Delivered better user-centric improved features for both the UI and UX aspects of the platform. Received a lot of positive feedback from users and resulted in 4.7 / 5 ratings on the App store.
Background
The MVP was underused and needed revamping to better address the needs and clarify the value for realtors and sales users.
Productive.ai is a Call Assistant app that offers effortless functionalities such as summarizing mobile calls, automatically tasks logging and automated CRM logging. This unique AI tool is designed to serve realtors and sales who juggle numerous mobile calls for work.
Back in 2021, the company had already launched their MVP with some early adopter users and received product validation. However, the product team was receiving feedback from users for having confusing experiences while using the app and unsure how the tool could benefit their work. Therefore, the platform desperately needs proper refinement for its UI and UX as the innovative features are not familiar/usable for most users.
Back in 2021, the company had already launched their MVP with some early adopter users and received product validation. However, the product team was receiving feedback from users for having confusing experiences while using the app and unsure how the tool could benefit their work. Therefore, the platform desperately needs proper refinement for its UI and UX as the innovative features are not familiar/usable for most users.
User Research
Learn what sales processes are like from interviewing 20 realtors and sales.
We conducted user research to drive our planning phase. These are the key insights that defined the revamp version of the product.
“My job heavily involves constant professional communications with new and regular clients to ensure I meet my sales goals.” - Realtors & Sales
We employed the 'A Day in the Life' approach during our interviews with each user. This method helped us gain a deeper understanding of what a typical day in sales involves.
Even though the interviews took place over Zoom calls, we made every effort to empathize with the users. We asked them to give us a tour of their usual work setup, including their notebooks, tools, and any other essentials critical to their work.
After interviewing 20 users, we found it essential to employ a journey map to outline the extensive sales cycle. This clearer overview enabled us to readily identify pain points and opportunities, which significantly aided our ideation process.
Insights
Insights into Realtors and Sales' everyday hurdles
Managing clients notes is tedious and tiresome
Realtors and sales spend up to an hour every day to log notes to their CRM systems.
Brainstorming
We spent one day together with the team (UX, PM and Dev) to talk about the goals, hypotheses and technical constraints that help align everybody and what goals we want to achieve.
During the project, every team member was really excited and eager to make the app better. To make sure every voice and idea was acknowledged, we adopted the 'How might we' technique, encouraging team members to express their thoughts through doodles or notes on post-its. This strategy proved highly effective in fostering participation from everyone."
With all the great ideas shared, we introduced a voting system for everyone to pick their favourite ones. We based the voting on how doable the ideas were and how much they would help the users. The outcomes shown above are the most popular choices from the team.
Design Explorations
Once we have decided on clear goal and hypotheses, I started exploring design solutions around them.
This sketch is to explore the app's fundamental transcription experience. I also employed low-fidelity wireframes to better communicate my initial design process and facilitate feedback from the team.
We've learned that realtors and sales professionals prioritize individual client relationships, so we want to design an user experience that mirrors this focus; featuring a dedicated profile page for each client. Within each client's page, a tab function will organize and store related files and information.
For the MVP revamp, I also took the initiation to explore into improving the overall aesthetics and branding of the app.
Here are some examples of the styles I delved into.
The Revamp
Introducing the enhanced Productive.Ai for realtors and sales
In an era where time is a precious commodity, Productive ensures realtors and sales professionals never miss a beat. By refining UI designs for optimal client profile presentation and automating tasks like scheduling and email follow-ups, we're streamlining the workflow to make every interaction impactful. Enhancements like note summarization and integrated work applications further simplify daily routines, allowing for seamless transitions between tasks. Productive not only saves time but also enhances professional confidence, enabling personalized, effective conversations with every client.
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Communicate with one client at a time
Understanding that realtors and sales professionals interact with clients one at a time, we've tailored the app's UX to align with this focused approach.
By integrating a dedicated page for each client, we mirror this singular attention flow. This client page includes a tab that organizes all related files and information about the client, ensuring easy access and streamlined communication.
Instant client briefs for incoming calls
We discovered that realtors and sales professionals are always on the go. Our goal is to design a feature that enhances their confidence and professionalism whenever they answer calls from clients.
To achieve this, we've built upon the standard incoming call notification by introducing an additional alert that provides a summary of the client's essential information.
Transfer client’s notes to CRM systems
Realtors and sales use an hour everyday to summarize their clients’ notes and log to their designated CRM systems.
To solve this pain point, the app acts like an assistant synthesize snippets of key notes about the client and auto-sync with designated CRM systems.
Centralizing all tasks into one app
We found that realtors and sales professionals rely on an array of tools for emailing, scheduling, sales tracking, and customer relationship management (CRM). This scattered approach adds unnecessary stress to their already busy workflow.
To simplify their workload and alleviate this stress, integrating these tools to create a central hub within our app is crucial for optimizing task completion and enhancing efficiency.
Outcome
Since the project only had 3-months to do user research to deliver the visual artifacts, I did not have sufficient time to get involved in the development stage. However, all the features we decided together were all eventually revamped to the app. The app has improved with a solid list of product features that are user-centrically designed for realtors and sales.
In result, the revamp of the app was very positive. It received good feedback from users on the App store and increased in downloads on Google store.
• In number
Ratings
4.7 / 5
Downloads
500+
Takeaways
The project unfolded during the pandemic lockdown, necessitating that all work be done remotely. We had only three months to conduct user research, identify the problem, and create the visual artifact. This tight timeline made it crucial for the team to make quick, accurate decisions to enable the product team to refine the MVP.
Working remotely under such constraints highlighted the importance of my role as a designer in keeping the project on track to meet our main objective. However, early in the user interviews, we noticed a tendency among team members to prematurely draw conclusions and engage in prolonged debates. To counter this, I found it effective to guide discussions using Mural boards. Additionally, preparing journey maps, mental models, or showcasing competitors' products before discussions proved to be a powerful method for directing conversations productively and sparking relevant ideas. This experience taught me that being a designer is not just about achieving visual perfection but also about guiding the product team in the right direction to meet project goals.
Another lesson from this project is the value of embracing various technical possibilities and staying abreast of the latest technological trends. As a product designer, taking a proactive stance towards technology is essential for the successful integration of innovative solutions that are in line with current trends.
Working remotely under such constraints highlighted the importance of my role as a designer in keeping the project on track to meet our main objective. However, early in the user interviews, we noticed a tendency among team members to prematurely draw conclusions and engage in prolonged debates. To counter this, I found it effective to guide discussions using Mural boards. Additionally, preparing journey maps, mental models, or showcasing competitors' products before discussions proved to be a powerful method for directing conversations productively and sparking relevant ideas. This experience taught me that being a designer is not just about achieving visual perfection but also about guiding the product team in the right direction to meet project goals.
Another lesson from this project is the value of embracing various technical possibilities and staying abreast of the latest technological trends. As a product designer, taking a proactive stance towards technology is essential for the successful integration of innovative solutions that are in line with current trends.