My Role and Focus
Client: ALTR Solution Inc.
Team & Timeline
Project Supervisor: Jacob Wagh
Lead Engineer: Kevin Rose
Dec 2020 - June 2021
Tools
Confluence
Jira
The Problem
Companies with data governance needs have to jump through so many hoops to find the right solution to their problem. Almost all governance products on the market today require weeks of meetings and demos just to find out how wether or not a product will serve their needs. If there was an easily accessible governance product, it would allow users to gain value right away. Unfortunately, only 7% of users were able to successfully user ALTR’s governance platform without the aid of internal team members.
The Solution
In order for companies to reap the benefits modern cloud data solutions without compromising their data security, or costing them hours of vetting time, They need to ability to autonomously use, and get value out of a scalable governance solution with ease.
Results
- Increased activation rate in product to over 50%
- Increased number of daily active users by 80% within 2 months of the feature launch
Discovering The Problem
Using Pendo, a user behavior analytics tool, I gained insight in how current and prospective users were interacting with the product. I made the following discoveries:
On first attempt, the majority of users
triggered error responses on 2 or more
form fields
Over 90% of users abondonded the task
after 2 or less failed connection
attempts
Honing in on the problem
My Pendo research helped us to determine the location and severity of the problem.
I then observed users interacting with the product in the previously discovered locations to understand why they were occurring, and how we might fix them. I observed 6 users interacting with the product over zoom screen sharing sessions.
I asked them to complete the following tasks:
Users rarely struggled signing up and logging into ALTR for the first time.
Users were unsure of where to begin in ALTR. They also couldn’t determine the purpose of several features.
Users had to switch between an unclear documentation page, ALTR, and their snowflake account in order to connect their database. The process of switching between screens often caused users to lose where they were in the connection process, and find themselves unclear of what to do next.
The connect database form is really difficult to use.
- formatting had to be exact
- the entire form input would clear after unsuccessful completion attempt
- lack of clear error messaging
- lack of help messaging
The set-up steps were unclearWhen connecting their database, users did not understand what steps they needed to take;
- no progress indicators
- no summary of steps
-no introduction
- no single source of truth for information
If users can
- know where they are within that process and what they need to do next
- and interact with simple and cohesive interface throughout the process
Then
Simplifying The Process
It also walks the user through the process in a simplified and streamlined matter.
Prototyping
Low-fidelity screens were used in feasibility discussions with engineering to determine which features where possible, practical, and effective. These discussions allowed me to refine the mockups into a hand-off ready deliverable.
Take Aways
This project allowed me to recognize the power and necessity of usability analytics tools; not only did Pendo uncover a major issue, the data provided allowed me to advocate for our users, and drastically improve the onboarding experience.
Results
- Increased activation rate in product to over 50%
- Increased number of daily active users by 80% within 2 months of the feature launch