GoAhead is trying to build a smart CRM serving real estate agents in Singapore. As a solo product designer cum product owner, I own the whole design process in 3 main projects: CRM web, CRM Lite version (PWA), company website
Duration
5/2024 - Ongoing
Contribution
- Primary research
- PRD creation
- Product design
- DS contribution & maintenance
Stakeholders
- CTO
- CEO
- CRO
- Customer services
- FE engineer
Who GoAhead serves
Real estate agents in Singapore, with main characteristics include:
Needs
Close more deals, earn more commisions
Concerns
How to gain more leads, close more deals, and increase productivity
Tech savviness
Low to mid-tech
Familiar tech products
WhatsApp, GoogleSheet, Excel
I apply Lean UX as a key process
As GoAhead is an early stage startup, time and resources for fancy UX processes is a luxury. I apply Lean UX (think, make, check) to all projects and collaborate closely with CTO, CEO, Customer services, and engineers to deliver outputs. What I am most proud of during the time i work here can be divided into 3 big themes:
I translated complex concepts into easy-to-digest informative UI
I practiced abstract thinking in problem solving
I tried learning animation
TRAnslated complex concepts into easy-to-digest UI
Explanation popup about Meta Messaging Limit
I turned a lengthy, complex technical doc to a short yet precise explanation popup to help agents understand 2 simple things:
- What Messaging Limit is
- How to upgrade their messaging limit (aka how to send more messages in a day)
TRAnslated complex concepts into easy-to-digest UI
Increase sales for our WhatsApp API numbers providing service
I conducted primary research, gathered and summarized information and put them into a doc that could answer below questions:
- How many WhatsApp types are there?
- What are the differences between them?
- Why should agents use WhatsApp API numbers?
PracticeD abstract thinking
Enhance filter system
Enhancing the filter system is one of the problems my team decided to tackle after I presented my findings after doing heuristic evaluation for the CRM.
Problem
All filters look visually indistinguishable, thus causing confusion. This issue falls under the "Recognition rather than Recall" heuristics, as users are unable to easily recognize which filter they need.
SOLUTIONS
- Aid in quick recognition: I added color codes to distinguish between filters of features, add icons to distinguish data type
- Redo orders of filters: I grouped all filters into 5 categories based on the Frequency of usage: Mostly used, Often used, Sometimes used, Rarely used. Depending on the user data, the most used filter would be placed on top, and the rest would follow one after another. I conducted meetings with stakeholders to settle down on this.
PracticeD abstract thinking
Action plan feature
An action plan is a sequence of automated emails and messages that are triggered by stages and tags. This feature helps agents to automate the communication process to nurture leads.
Problem:
Many of our competitors offer this feature solely in a whiteboard format. However, drawing from our domain expertise and insights, we have found that the whiteboard can be challenging for low-tech users. Currently, inside sales agents are needed to assist end users in navigating these tasks.
SOLUTION
Leveraging on “what you see is what you get” concept and based on the fact that our users are Excel heavy users, I created a "busier" timeline UI showing all available information.
Learned animation
Test phone number - enhance usability through interation
An agent has several WhatsApp API numbers and needs to verify their functionality. This feature allows testing of the WhatsApp API numbers by sending messages to the agent's personal WhatsApp account.
Problem of first few UI drafts:
Users hate reading, and get confused about their supposed next step due to misleading illustrations.
SOLUTION
I used animation to describe the flow step by step.
