Process change — Changing how the business sells and delivers its software solutions
The Problem
As a software consultancy a lot of the projects the business is hired to do are for a fixed price contract with a predefined function specification. However when it comes to delivering these projects they can quite often go over budget, making them less profitable for the business.
My role
- Workshop facilitator
- Designer lead
— Background —
I noticed that the business quite often overspent on software projects, delivered products with bugs, and failed to meet the clients' expectations. This resulted in complaints and dissatisfaction from both customers and the senior management.
The common belief in the company was that they underquoted projects and failed to spot scope creep which customers should be charged for via a change control process.
I wanted to find out if this was the problem and if there was a way we could improve and avoid these issues. To do this, I decided to run a customer journey mapping exercise with the senior management and leadership team.
— Research —
To gain more insights into the customers' needs and expectations, I organised a workshop on customer journey mapping. I used this workshop to identify the pain points and opportunities along the different stages of the customers journey when they undertake a new custom software project with Etain.
My Goals
• Understand customer needs
• Understand customers expectations
• Identify pain points
• Identify opportunities to improve or add value
• Align business goals
• Identify priorities
— Workshop —
To facilitate the group's understanding of the customer and their needs, I guided the group to develop a user persona that reflected our main customer segment.
User persona exercise
To create a user persona that reflects our customers' needs, behaviours and goals, I guided the team through a collaborative exercise.
First, we defined the core business problem that our customers are trying to solve and I printed it out and stuck it on the wall. Then, we used a user persona template that had different sections to fill in with relevant information. We then brainstormed and discussed the characteristics, motivations, pain points and goals of our ideal customer and added them to the template.
Journey mapping exercise
To enhance the group's empathy and insight into our customers' needs and challenges, I facilitated a customer journey mapping exercise for the scenario of initiating a new digital transformation project. This involved identifying the key stages, actions, emotions, pain points and opportunities that a customer would experience when engaging in a new digital transformation project.
We agreed on the following stages of the journey:
• Researching
• Choosing
• Purchasing
• Delivering
• After sales
For each stage, I added four insight sections:
• Doing
• Thinking
• Feeling
• Opportunities
Next, we engaged in a collaborative ideation session and used sticky notes to capture the group's insights on the customer journey. We considered what the customers are doing, thinking, and feeling at each stage, as well as what opportunities we have to enhance their experience. The group wrote down their ideas on the stickies and placed them in the appropriate category.
— Analysis —
Based on the information gathered during the workshop, I created a report that included a user persona and customer journey map. It illustrated the customer experience and highlighted their pain points and opportunities for improvement.
User Persona
Customer Journey
Insights
The report revealed some problems that originated from how we sell and design our products. I examined the findings carefully and came to this conclusion.
The sales process
To understand this better I talked with our sales and engineering leads to get a clear picture of our current workflow and identify the root causes of the problems we were facing. I then mapped out a new workflow that would improve the teams coordination and prevent us from offering unrealistic solutions that lead to technical difficulties and cost overruns.
Design systems
I proposed we create a design system for the company, because I wanted to improve the quality and efficiency of our products. The customers expected us to match the standards of Microsoft, Google and Apple, which are very high. A design system would help us to achieve consistency, reduce errors and save time in the development process. However, this also meant that we had to communicate clearly with the customers about the scope and limitations of projects, and how we would approach the design.
Unfortunately it was not as straight forward I had hoped. When I discussed the idea with engineering it became apparent that we would need to support multiple tech stacks as engineering needed to use these resources in order to stay financially competitive in the market.
My final proposal is illustrated in the diagram below:
— Outcome —
After reviewing the insights from the workshop, I presented a report to the senior leadership team that summarised the main findings and provided suggestions on ways we could enhance our performance and coordination.
My two key recommendations were to change the sales process and introduce an in-house design system. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in obtaining a separate budget for the design system initiative, however I secured agreement to allocate some funds from the next major software project to start building the design system.
They also agreed to modify the sales process to ensure design and engineering are fully engaged in all sales pitches and aligned on the technical approach. As a result, I became part of Etain's New Business development team, which gave me an opportunity to influence how we design and deliver solutions before they are sold.
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