Reveal in a Box
Strategic Product Research
UX Research
〰️
Lean Product Playbook
〰️
Cross Functional Collaboration
〰️
Strategic Research
〰️
UX Research 〰️ Lean Product Playbook 〰️ Cross Functional Collaboration 〰️ Strategic Research 〰️
Taking an entire product tier from an business-minded idea to a customer-centric reality in 9 months.
Company
Verizon Connect
Role
Senior User Experience Researcher
Project Summary
The Problem at Hand:
Commercial customers of Verizon Connect could only purchase Reveal through offline sales channels with the help of a sales rep. Due to the hardwired technology, installation was time consuming and often required a professional. The business wanted to adopt the plug and play hardware used in the consumer side of the business. The task was to deliver a solution that could be bought in stores and online… in only 9 months.
Solution:
Conducted 9 waves of strategic research within the Lean Product Playbook method to determine the ideal customers for this product tier and test solutions to their unique needs.
This included foundational in-depth interviews, needs analysis, survey work, concept testing, and lo and hi fidelity prototype testing.
Impact:
Launched an entirely new product tier, Reveal Now, aimed at a specific market. The demoing solutions we designed won a Pendo Innovation Award. And along the way we created repeatable frameworks for lean research and ways of working for global cross-functional teams.
Forming a Task Force
Joined a newly formed, global team spun up for this project which means we had no standard ways of working and I felt very uprooted from all of my comfort zones.
Getting Global
Lead the team formation to define ways of working and how we would manage across time zones. We established extremely regular check-ins that felt like over communicating at first
Let’s Get Scientific
While defining the problem we relied on very explicit hypothesis tracking to ensure we were all aligned. Then we made decisions as a group and learned to disagree and commit when needed.
Foundational Research
Goal: Diverge to understand target market and customer needs.
Waves of Research:
Market Analysis: Partnered with data science and marketing to converge on hypothesized target market
Customer Interviews: Led 1:1 semi-structured interviews with current customers (n=10) to understanding who within our current customer base might be good fits
Prospective Interviews: Led 1:1 semi-structured interviews with prospective customers (n=10) - those who were seeking a new fleet management system or considering switching
Needs Analysis Survey: Ran survey with current customers (n=169) to validate findings from foundational waves of testing and convert insights to needs
Outcomes:
Developed much richer view of the target customer - not just industry and fleet size but more thematic characteristics such as business flexibility, centralization, and desire for involvement
Created shared vocabulary for identifying and targeting customer best fit for this solution
Cross-functional team used identified needs to hypothesize and rapidly prototype a set of solutions
Concept Testing
Goal: Converge on MVP from wider set of evidence-supported solutions including product feature offerings, positioning on website, and e-commerce experience
Waves of Research:
Led multiple waves of lo-fi concept testing with prospective customers (n=10, 3 waves)
Led multiple waves of hi-fi prototype testing with current and prospective customers (n=5-10, 3 waves)
Iterated on hypotheses and conducted opportunity scoring using importance vs satisfaction
Outcomes:
After 6 waves of concept and prototype testing, the team arrived at a MVP feature set we were highly confident in.
Internal Research
Goal: Understand the full customer and employee journey informed by the real life atmosphere / setting
Waves of Research:
Visited 15+ Verizon stores in a variety of markets (New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Georgia) to understand how in store agents sell Verizon Connect products
Interviewed and observed 50+ Verizon sales agents
Outcomes:
Created 2 employee personas
Richer understanding of end-to-end customer journey
Managing Constraints
Working Backwards:
Part of the solution was already in place. So, we had to deliver “bad news” when some features were not relevant to users needs
Skilled up on stakeholder management and strategic research delivery
New, Dispersed Team:
Most were in Dublin, I was in Atlanta. So, we stayed aligned with frequent standups and structured hypotheses tracking to maximize time difference
Leveled up team formation and understood power of bespoke ways of working
Self Reporteed:
Reliant on self-reported experiences. So, we tested our hypotheses with multiple customer types across various methods
Maximized triangulation of data
Impact
280+
Users/Stakeholders Reached
Across many waves of research solicited feedback from over 280 customers, prospective customers, and internal sales reps.
Defined holistic customer journey from many angles
5 year
Shelf Life of Research
Insights from this research are still being used and refined to this day.
Provided rich foundational insights on customer and internal stakeholers
#1
Winner of Pendo Award
Experience designed during this MVP creation won the Most Innovate Use of Pendo award that year.
Enriched wider UX community
1
New Team Created
After the success of this cross-functional process, a dedicated Lean Product Playbook team was created in our image.
Influenced company toward customer-centric problem solving strategies