SMS Management Tool
A critical component of the Relay Network Experience
Client's customer data is a critical part of the Relay Network Infrastructure, and is the gateway to the entry point of the Relay Experience. Users are sent SMS messages with links that direct them to the feed. There are critical regulatory processes in place that require Relay network to have automated text messages in place when a user responds to one of these SMS entry points such as "stop" "help" or if they are an unknown number responding to the system, or respond with a keyword that is unrecognized.
I frequently had the opportunity to speak with the CMSs and IMs about their experience using the CXB. A frequent complaint I would hear had to do with problems facing client onboarding. I became very focused on this issue for a few reasons.
- Failing to onboard new clients meant losing contracts
- some of the most complex systems in the CXB revolved around client onboarding. If we could do this right, we could solve a lot of interaction design issues upfront.
"Clients are overwhelmed when they first interact with the CXB, and if something goes wrong during those critical moments, we'll lose momentum... and worse, lose a contract."
Confusion from Critical failures combined with slow paced product improvement system
I had the opportunity to tackle a critical business problem faced by Relay Network. The challenge was simplifying the SMS configuration feature and reducing technical errors while reducing the time to complete a configuration. By doing this, we could help chip away at some of the core issues with our clients
- Reduce Client Churn
- Increase Client Engagement
To find out what was really confusing to a system for many internal users seemed simple, the only place we could go is to connect with our clients.
This wasn't an easy challenge as our clients were extremely busy and already allocating too much resourcing to utilize the CXB.
Some research is better than no research.
This was a consistent theme with some of my projects at Relay Network. We couldn't always get access to our clients, let a lone speak to their customers. However, later I did have an opportunity to get some facetime with our core users
Finding the route of the problem with analytics and interviews.
I had the chance to identify the issues with a meeting with one of our clients. In this scenario, I was able to really listen to where people were having problems.
- Even though users were sending messages, it was as if no message were sent. In the clients analytic reports, no customers received messages.
- The SMS configuration was not client facing. This presented a huge problem for our clients trying to trouble shoot for themselves, often requiring multiple departments at Relay to intervene.
- Clients really wanted the ability to create their own automatic response keywords without going through multiple layers of Relay Staff
- Clients needed the ability to show previews of the experience of sending and receiving these text messages, as well as what happens when users respond help and stop. This wasn't just for their internal legal reasons, this was FCC required practice.
After these conversations, I started making some wireframe sketches in Figma to get some of my ideas out. I showed this work to the CMS, IMs and the VP of design to get approval to quickly move on to finalizing this solution.
Knowing I didn't have too much time, after going through the system, I asked both the client and the CSM user to complete a SUS survey to get some benchmark Metrics. This would be valuable data to use to validate my new designs.
Unifying the SMS management tool and making features client facing.
Simplified SMS configuration feature with new user-friendly features and improved design
- Consolidated information architecture to create a single, one-stop shop for all SMS configuration needs
- Added valuable new features such as automatic response keywords, form validation, and user guidelines
- Improved design for help site editing tool with easy-to-use rich text editor and template form editing tool
- Made adjustments based on user feedback to ensure mental model match
Simplified SMS configuration feature with new user-friendly features and improved design
- Consolidated information architecture to create a single, one-stop shop for all SMS configuration needs
- Added valuable new features such as automatic response keywords, form validation, and user guidelines
- Improved design for help site editing tool with easy-to-use rich text editor and template form editing tool
- Made adjustments based on user feedback to ensure mental model match
To validate the designs, I created a test plan to gather a SUS metric.
Making a quick research plan for a usability test and measuring the quality of interaction with a SUS score isn't always the best method, but when you are short on time, it can be useful.
I put the new designs in front of some CMS's and IMs and asked them to complete the new SUS survey. The users were very connected with the old design, so I had to keep in mind that while it would be new and unfamiliar, the time to complete the task wasn't as critical as true usability standards. We wanted to have a unified system that would be easy for the clients to use on their own.
We learned a lot from this test and found that
The old SMS Tool: scored a SUS of 65
The new designs: Scored a SUS of 89
This was evidence enough that this could work. The real win was finding out that the designs matched the users mental model, and having the ability to have some of the client configuration at the fingertips of the people that worked with the system could easily save Relay Network tons of money.
Conclusion
In the end, I found ways to create a design with limited feedback from our end users - the clients. I started working on a survey to send out to all of our clients. If I could conduct some unmoderated test to find out what our clients thought of the new way to customize the CXB to their needs and get visualizations of legal requirements, this would easily make its way into the product roadmap. At the time of creating this, many UX projects were being considered and the roadmap for the new year was being design.
When combining user research, analytics and being open to pivot and be flexible to your working environment, you can still gather valuable data and create great designs that deliver on users needs.
SMS Management Tool
A critical component of the Relay Network Experience
Client's customer data is a critical part of the Relay Network Infrastructure, and is the gateway to the entry point of the Relay Experience. Users are sent SMS messages with links that direct them to the feed. There are critical regulatory processes in place that require Relay network to have automated text messages in place when a user responds to one of these SMS entry points such as "stop" "help" or if they are an unknown number responding to the system, or respond with a keyword that is unrecognized.
I frequently had the opportunity to speak with the CMSs and IMs about their experience using the CXB. A frequent complaint I would hear had to do with problems facing client onboarding. I became very focused on this issue for a few reasons.
- Failing to onboard new clients meant losing contracts
- some of the most complex systems in the CXB revolved around client onboarding. If we could do this right, we could solve a lot of interaction design issues upfront.
"Clients are overwhelmed when they first interact with the CXB, and if something goes wrong during those critical moments, we'll lose momentum... and worse, lose a contract."
Confusion from Critical failures combined with slow paced product improvement system
I had the opportunity to tackle a critical business problem faced by Relay Network. The challenge was simplifying the SMS configuration feature and reducing technical errors while reducing the time to complete a configuration. By doing this, we could help chip away at some of the core issues with our clients
- Reduce Client Churn
- Increase Client Engagement
To find out what was really confusing to a system for many internal users seemed simple, the only place we could go is to connect with our clients.
This wasn't an easy challenge as our clients were extremely busy and already allocating too much resourcing to utilize the CXB.
Some research is better than no research.
This was a consistent theme with some of my projects at Relay Network. We couldn't always get access to our clients, let a lone speak to their customers. However, later I did have an opportunity to get some facetime with our core users
Finding the route of the problem with analytics and interviews.
I had the chance to identify the issues with a meeting with one of our clients. In this scenario, I was able to really listen to where people were having problems.
- Even though users were sending messages, it was as if no message were sent. In the clients analytic reports, no customers received messages.
- The SMS configuration was not client facing. This presented a huge problem for our clients trying to trouble shoot for themselves, often requiring multiple departments at Relay to intervene.
- Clients really wanted the ability to create their own automatic response keywords without going through multiple layers of Relay Staff
- Clients needed the ability to show previews of the experience of sending and receiving these text messages, as well as what happens when users respond help and stop. This wasn't just for their internal legal reasons, this was FCC required practice.
After these conversations, I started making some wireframe sketches in Figma to get some of my ideas out. I showed this work to the CMS, IMs and the VP of design to get approval to quickly move on to finalizing this solution.
Knowing I didn't have too much time, after going through the system, I asked both the client and the CSM user to complete a SUS survey to get some benchmark Metrics. This would be valuable data to use to validate my new designs.
Unifying the SMS management tool and making features client facing.
Simplified SMS configuration feature with new user-friendly features and improved design
- Consolidated information architecture to create a single, one-stop shop for all SMS configuration needs
- Added valuable new features such as automatic response keywords, form validation, and user guidelines
- Improved design for help site editing tool with easy-to-use rich text editor and template form editing tool
- Made adjustments based on user feedback to ensure mental model match
Simplified SMS configuration feature with new user-friendly features and improved design
- Consolidated information architecture to create a single, one-stop shop for all SMS configuration needs
- Added valuable new features such as automatic response keywords, form validation, and user guidelines
- Improved design for help site editing tool with easy-to-use rich text editor and template form editing tool
- Made adjustments based on user feedback to ensure mental model match
To validate the designs, I created a test plan to gather a SUS metric.
Making a quick research plan for a usability test and measuring the quality of interaction with a SUS score isn't always the best method, but when you are short on time, it can be useful.
I put the new designs in front of some CMS's and IMs and asked them to complete the new SUS survey. The users were very connected with the old design, so I had to keep in mind that while it would be new and unfamiliar, the time to complete the task wasn't as critical as true usability standards. We wanted to have a unified system that would be easy for the clients to use on their own.
We learned a lot from this test and found that
The old SMS Tool: scored a SUS of 65
The new designs: Scored a SUS of 89
This was evidence enough that this could work. The real win was finding out that the designs matched the users mental model, and having the ability to have some of the client configuration at the fingertips of the people that worked with the system could easily save Relay Network tons of money.
Conclusion
In the end, I found ways to create a design with limited feedback from our end users - the clients. I started working on a survey to send out to all of our clients. If I could conduct some unmoderated test to find out what our clients thought of the new way to customize the CXB to their needs and get visualizations of legal requirements, this would easily make its way into the product roadmap. At the time of creating this, many UX projects were being considered and the roadmap for the new year was being design.
When combining user research, analytics and being open to pivot and be flexible to your working environment, you can still gather valuable data and create great designs that deliver on users needs.
SMS Management Tool
A critical component of the Relay Network Experience
Client's customer data is a critical part of the Relay Network Infrastructure, and is the gateway to the entry point of the Relay Experience. Users are sent SMS messages with links that direct them to the feed. There are critical regulatory processes in place that require Relay network to have automated text messages in place when a user responds to one of these SMS entry points such as "stop" "help" or if they are an unknown number responding to the system, or respond with a keyword that is unrecognized.
I frequently had the opportunity to speak with the CMSs and IMs about their experience using the CXB. A frequent complaint I would hear had to do with problems facing client onboarding. I became very focused on this issue for a few reasons.
- Failing to onboard new clients meant losing contracts
- some of the most complex systems in the CXB revolved around client onboarding. If we could do this right, we could solve a lot of interaction design issues upfront.
"Clients are overwhelmed when they first interact with the CXB, and if something goes wrong during those critical moments, we'll lose momentum... and worse, lose a contract."
Confusion from Critical failures combined with slow paced product improvement system
I had the opportunity to tackle a critical business problem faced by Relay Network. The challenge was simplifying the SMS configuration feature and reducing technical errors while reducing the time to complete a configuration. By doing this, we could help chip away at some of the core issues with our clients
- Reduce Client Churn
- Increase Client Engagement
To find out what was really confusing to a system for many internal users seemed simple, the only place we could go is to connect with our clients.
This wasn't an easy challenge as our clients were extremely busy and already allocating too much resourcing to utilize the CXB.
Some research is better than no research.
This was a consistent theme with some of my projects at Relay Network. We couldn't always get access to our clients, let a lone speak to their customers. However, later I did have an opportunity to get some facetime with our core users
Finding the route of the problem with analytics and interviews.
I had the chance to identify the issues with a meeting with one of our clients. In this scenario, I was able to really listen to where people were having problems.
- Even though users were sending messages, it was as if no message were sent. In the clients analytic reports, no customers received messages.
- The SMS configuration was not client facing. This presented a huge problem for our clients trying to trouble shoot for themselves, often requiring multiple departments at Relay to intervene.
- Clients really wanted the ability to create their own automatic response keywords without going through multiple layers of Relay Staff
- Clients needed the ability to show previews of the experience of sending and receiving these text messages, as well as what happens when users respond help and stop. This wasn't just for their internal legal reasons, this was FCC required practice.
After these conversations, I started making some wireframe sketches in Figma to get some of my ideas out. I showed this work to the CMS, IMs and the VP of design to get approval to quickly move on to finalizing this solution.
Knowing I didn't have too much time, after going through the system, I asked both the client and the CSM user to complete a SUS survey to get some benchmark Metrics. This would be valuable data to use to validate my new designs.
Unifying the SMS management tool and making features client facing.
Simplified SMS configuration feature with new user-friendly features and improved design
- Consolidated information architecture to create a single, one-stop shop for all SMS configuration needs
- Added valuable new features such as automatic response keywords, form validation, and user guidelines
- Improved design for help site editing tool with easy-to-use rich text editor and template form editing tool
- Made adjustments based on user feedback to ensure mental model match
Simplified SMS configuration feature with new user-friendly features and improved design
- Consolidated information architecture to create a single, one-stop shop for all SMS configuration needs
- Added valuable new features such as automatic response keywords, form validation, and user guidelines
- Improved design for help site editing tool with easy-to-use rich text editor and template form editing tool
- Made adjustments based on user feedback to ensure mental model match
To validate the designs, I created a test plan to gather a SUS metric.
Making a quick research plan for a usability test and measuring the quality of interaction with a SUS score isn't always the best method, but when you are short on time, it can be useful.
I put the new designs in front of some CMS's and IMs and asked them to complete the new SUS survey. The users were very connected with the old design, so I had to keep in mind that while it would be new and unfamiliar, the time to complete the task wasn't as critical as true usability standards. We wanted to have a unified system that would be easy for the clients to use on their own.
We learned a lot from this test and found that
The old SMS Tool: scored a SUS of 65
The new designs: Scored a SUS of 89
This was evidence enough that this could work. The real win was finding out that the designs matched the users mental model, and having the ability to have some of the client configuration at the fingertips of the people that worked with the system could easily save Relay Network tons of money.
Conclusion
In the end, I found ways to create a design with limited feedback from our end users - the clients. I started working on a survey to send out to all of our clients. If I could conduct some unmoderated test to find out what our clients thought of the new way to customize the CXB to their needs and get visualizations of legal requirements, this would easily make its way into the product roadmap. At the time of creating this, many UX projects were being considered and the roadmap for the new year was being design.
When combining user research, analytics and being open to pivot and be flexible to your working environment, you can still gather valuable data and create great designs that deliver on users needs.
