On contract - Introducing the product team to working with UX research (credible methodologies) in an Empathy-driven culture, and conducting UX Research within a politically charged UX group.
ROLE
Contracted to provide research leadership and guidance to the product team's new product suite initiative - The Product team was focused on defining a roadmap, integration into the existing customer portal, set-up, first-time use, and primary tasks (assumed from Empathy Interviews).
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
Establish a new product line that extends WEX's leadership in the Mobility space with the first holistic solution that includes both Fuel and "Beyond Fuel" support of both Fleet Management and Driving across all classes of vehicles and business sizes (Small, Mid, and Enterprise).
CHALLENGE
I began this contract in October 2023 with the flurry of end-of-year activities and internal product conferences planning 2024 which the Research team has never participated in yet the Design team was engaged. This delayed planning effective research.
This is an "empathy" culture. The Product Managers are visiting customers regularly which is great. The challenge is they only meet with 1 or 2 people at 1 or 2 large companies, but when they speak they speak "Customers say..." "Customers need...". So as we chatted I would clarify, "This is what [name] is doing or one of their coworkers?" I recommended we take those themes and establish the saliency and frequency across a representative sample of small, mid, and large companies so we have a complete understanding - that was received well.
Contacting existing customers must be done via Sales, and Marketing must review and coordinate communications to customers so we do not disrupt overall Sales and success of Marketing campaigns. The lead time for customer engagement is 4-weeks.
There are considerable politics within UX with Design wanting to drive Research. The Research team is newer to the organization and does not have all the relationships or depth of relationships as Design. Designers complete their own customer visits and conduct their own guerrilla research with various levels of sophistication and move Product forward with Conceptual Designs and then approach Research to test their Product ideas and Designs which is appealing to leadership who wants to "see" progress. With a new product suite, Design is not thinking through or giving a broad enough vision to support activities including the MVP Product Roadmap and Strategic Vision.
CONSIDERATIONS
The Considerations for this new product line were significant. Overall, broader industry research reveals that the Mobility industry is slow-moving and there is a strong brand loyalty. Although WEX is a long-time established company, the brand has very low recognition and is known for Fuel Cards - not other Mobility Solutions.
This is a "Blue Ocean" opportunity space with no other holistic solutions offered but a series of well-known brand products that support different facets of this work.
The UX Research team is established within UX - operating independently of both Product and Design - Meaning they drive the research. Research methods, plans, etc. are not dependent on Product or Design approval, but their buy-in and collaboration is essential to ensure that findings are used - and they are complete. I also prefer to work collaboratively throughout the process to ensure everyone has an in-depth understanding of the findings by the end of the project - not just learning the findings at the end.UX Research can conduct research proactively as well as in reaction to current product and design questions however the priority is generative research for Product, due to the size of the UX Research team.
The Product and Design teams refer to two "users" - The Driver and The Fleet Manager. Listening to the responsibilities of each I began to question - Are there multiple roles and hats within Fleet Management? A hierarchy? If yes, what are the dependencies and workflows between them? Tenure? What does each do? What are their tasks within the Beyond Fuel mission? What is the career progression? What is the motivation within each category of roles? What is the domain knowledge? What are the technical attitudes and expertise?
We were aware of the surge UserTesting.com was experiencing with fake participants trying to use AI to participate in research including organized rooms of people working for companies in other countries. We had to be very strategic in our screening... but that's a blog post. This added time to projects and more intense screening during moderated interviews.
APPROACH
With a focus on the Product team and a goal of establishing user mental models and needs that can drive both Product and Design decisions, I began with a review of existing research and notes from the Empathy Interviews completed by the Product Manager inform my initial engagements with the teams and studies. I extrapolated high-level themes, questions for research to answer, and capturing empathy results as assumptions. I then approached the team to discuss the direction for the end of 2023 and into 2024 for Product's objectives and challenges.
I led working sessions with Product Management and Design Team to capture questions from 3 broad perspectives and prioritize them. Introduced the idea of broad studies to establish saliency and frequency that inform priorities and higher-level questions while informing additional studies, and qualitative studies to establish depth around a topic that can drive both Product and Design decisions. This whiteboard is in Fig Jam and accessible to all.
Strategic Approach to Research
Wanting to broaden the understanding of the users in Fleet Management I developed a research strategy as time did not permit a single study just focused on the Discovery of user roles - as usual.
My approach included planning to spend the first 30-minutes of each qualitative interview focused on understanding the participant as a user and their role, then interview the about the the topic. I established a set of questions - best practices with ethnographic interviews and broad Beyond Fuel questions. This allowed us to connect findings across studies laying the foundation for a broader study to establish quantitative personas informed by qualitative findings. I created a FigJam where I captured my notes and proactively shared with both Product and Design. I translated notes into - User Needs when applicable, to start introducing both Product and Design to user needs that drive detailed decisions. Nobody had a background in working with detailed User Needs that drive both Product and Design.
The Study
The first burning question came from a critical concern. The soft launch would be to existing customers. The one requirement would be that they enter their entire fleet's VINs into the product - Would that be a hurdle? Great Question! I spun up a Qualitative Study to explore this question noting this a question we should include in a broader, quantitative study to understand the saliency and frequency of the themes coming from this study.
It was mid-December - a great time to spin up a study (note sarcasm) . I rose to the occasion giving myself more time to recruit and complete sessions. I completed sessions over 3 weeks - including the week before Christmas, the week of Christmas, and New Year's banking of the fact that not everyone observes Christmas as a holiday. Using UserTesting.com I recruited and scheduled WEX and Non-WEX participants. And completing analysis in the first two weeks in January.
Working with established research templates, I was able to quickly define a Research Plan and Guide (not visualized) for review before everyone left for vacation and holidays. This is a screenshot from the report.
True to Research Strategy - I harnessed my 30-min script to explore the participant's role and responsibilities and little bit about their background in fleet management. I also harnessed 2024 priorities from a broad study conducted by an outside agency. Using the top 3, I asked each participant about these priorities and how they related to their role, goals, and responsibilities. I then transitioned into the value of this new product suite and whether it would be relevant to their role, their objectives for 2024, and these priorities. I then discussed the concept of the holistic solution of this product line and how it relates to their role and objectives and what tools they are currently using. I ended the session by discussing the one critical requirement - entering VINs and how they would be done, the level of effort, and whether it would be worth it for this holistic solutions.
I was able to to answer the burning question and communicate critical considerations to working with both existing WEX customers and Non-WEX customers.
I introduced the Product Management and Design team to the roles within Fleet Management.
I established FigJam as a digital whiteboard to proactively share my notes and empower teams with the latest in findings and questions encouraging them to add to it including questions. I spent more time with the Design team and other researchers introducing the multiple hats and user needs trying to initiate a common, living notes collection.
Typically I would use a digital whiteboard for my own notes as I am working. I realized that this could be overwhelming to others so I started to use lists. I validated this with other researchers and Design.
[MISSING SCREENSHOT of this FigJam - this depicts 17 different "hats" within Fleet Management with notes about their tools, knowledge, technical attitudes, education, size of company, fleet, value drivers, motivations, and needs]
I identified themes for selecting tools including the roles involved in decision-making to expand Product Management's understanding of this initial engagement and how to support it for an expedited experience.
OUTCOMES
This study immediately eased the Product Management's stress-levels about the criticality of entering VINs and informed conversations about the initial engagement with existing customers about their new product suite.
The introduction of the new "hats" triggered multiple conversations about the needed flexibility in tasks as well as the integration with other Fleet tools and data sources. I engaged 1:1 with Product Managers to go over results and discuss the implications to help them synthesize the details of the new "hats".
The exploration of Value Drivers is apart of another study, but something I recommended used in deep dives.