Self Service Onboarding

Reputation's onboarding has been a major source of frustration for users due to the length, complexity, and dependencies.

To alleviate some of these frustrations, Reputation developed self-service features and implemented a free trial option specifically targeting small to midsized companies. This new approach empowered users to set up a trial, onboard themselves, and promptly gain access to the platform. By streamlining the process, we were able to expedite their journey toward experiencing the platform's value at the earliest opportunity.

MY ROLE

I owned all things design as the sole designer for this project. This included user research, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and more.

TEAM

Chief Product Officer
Core PM
Core Engineering Team
Customer Success Managers
Onboarding Team
Provisioning Team

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Set Up

To begin using our platform, users can easily sign up for a free trial on our marketing website. After filling in their information, they will promptly receive an email containing a personalized link that directs them to the platform. Once they click on the link, they will be guided through a brief and efficient wizard, enabling them to provide their credentials. We have intentionally kept this process concise to minimize the chances of drop-off. Consequently, we only request the essential information necessary to get them swiftly up and running on our platform.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Dashboard

Once users have successfully set up their credentials, they will be directed to the dashboard, the central hub of our platform. At the top section of the screen, users will be greeted and presented with a set of recommended actions to try out. This valuable feature serves as a guide, helping users understand the available functionalities within their trial experience. However, we understand that some users may prefer to explore independently, and they are given the flexibility to do so. Our platform offers a seamless balance between providing direction and empowering users to navigate and discover its full potential according to their own preferences.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Solution Introduction

During the initial interaction with a solution, users will encounter a modal that appears on the screen. This modal serves as a valuable tool by providing users with a concise yet comprehensive overview of what our solution entails and how it can effectively empower their business. It offers a quick glimpse into the key features, benefits, and potential impact on their operations. This brief introduction aims to immediately capture their attention and highlight the value our solution brings to their specific business needs.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

Tooltips

In addition to providing an overview, we go the extra mile to ensure a seamless user experience by guiding our users through the most crucial workflows. We understand the importance of clarity when it comes to accomplishing tasks within our platform, such as creating a social post or sending a review request. To assist users every step of the way, informative tooltips appear, offering step-by-step guidance throughout these workflows.

QUOTE FROM ONBOARDING TEAM MEMBER

The Challenge

In today's digital age, users have come to expect the convenience of easily signing up for an account or trying out a product through trials to assess suitability for their needs. However, when it comes to Reputation, the process is less user-friendly. The company does not currently offer trials, and users cannot create accounts independently. Instead, they are required to work with the Professional Services team to gain access to the platform. This can be an extremely time-consuming process, with certain aspects taking months. Moreover, once users do gain access, there is no onboarding experience. The onboarding team holds online meetings to guide users through the platform, but this often results in overwhelming users with too much information.

REVIEWS, INBOX, AND SOCIAL

Tackling the Issues

To address the necessity for a self-service onboarding experience, I initiated a meeting with the Chief Product Officer to establish the requirements and scope. We determined that we would target small business and mid-market customers with up to 50 locations. These customer segments have historically faced limitations in utilizing Reputation due to budgetary constraints. In the initial release, we would prioritize implementing our reviews, social, and inbox solutions, as they presented the most straightforward setup process and were also the most popular solutions in our SMB packages. The primary deliverable would be to create an onboarding experience tailored to free trial customers but we would aim to create workflows that could also be repurposed for paid users.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Leveraging Collective Knowledge

While we were able to come to agreement on a lot of the requirements, there were still a lot of questions and gaps in knowledge that we had. We faced ambiguity around the logistics such as tenant set up, billing, how to maintain environments after trials, and more. We also needed to unpack how exactly onboarding was working and what were the pitfalls and areas of most frustration. To address these issues, I conducted stakeholder interviews with solution product managers, the provisioning team, the onboarding team, and the customer success manager who specialized in SMBs. These sessions involved walkthroughs and discussions to gain insights into logistical aspects, understanding necessary permissions, and pinpointing potential workflow improvements for a more intuitive user experience.

NEW REVIEW REQUEST WIZARD

Bringing Designs to Life

Conducting user research, speaking to stakeholders, and completing competitive analysis helped us to paint a clearer picture on the best way to roll out this free trial. At this stage, the Product Manager started collaborating with various cross-functional teams to establish the marketing website campaign and engage external vendors for communication needs. I, on the other hand, focused on creating wireframes.

The UI designs encompassed the initial onboarding setup, with a strong emphasis on simplicity and brevity to minimize user drop-off. Once users completed the account setup process, I designed new features into the existing dashboard and solutions page. Our priority was to introduce checklists and tooltips that would progressively introduce users to the platform.

DEMO DATA SCREENS

Overcoming Technical Constraints

One technical challenge we encountered was the speed at which data could be populated within the new tenant. Although users would be able to access the platform immediately after setup, gathering comprehensive data and insights on their company was not instantaneous. Leaving entire pages empty would result in a suboptimal experience. To address this, I made the decision to incorporate demo data. This solution allowed users to experience the data visualization capabilities we provided, giving them a glimpse of the insights they could expect in the future.

ACCOUNT SET UP WIZARD

Moving Towards the Finish Line

After presenting the designs to the engineering, product, leadership, and other internal stakeholders, we received positive feedback around how empathetic, simple, and approachable it was. The positive reception from leadership was encouraging, but unfortunately, the project encountered some unexpected roadblocks along the way.

A few weeks before the anticipated release date, the engineering team faced a significant obstacle during the development phase. Realizing the importance of delivering a polished and functional experience, we made the difficult decision to postpone the release rather than launch a flawed product.

Eventually, changes in priorities dictated by executives halted progress altogether. The company paused new feature development to focus on reducing customer churn and addressing bugs. While it was disheartening to pause the project so close to completion, we look forward to releasing this later in the year.