UX Advisory Community Relaunch
aka the rebrand of our Design Partner Program
The Project
Our UX Research team had created a “Design Partner Program” prior to my arrival that had a database of over 250 participants that could be contacted to participate in UX Research studies. However, over the past few years there had been a decrease in new sign ups, seemingly the same participants participating in sessions, and a general confusion from both within the organization and with customers about what the “Program” offered.
With our company being acquired, we felt like the perfect time to take a step back, ideate on what we wanted the program to look like from sign up through participation. It was the perfect time to reinvent and reintroduce ourselves to our customers, and get a plan in place to optimize our relationships with them.
Initial Meetings
UX Research
I started first with meeting with my team. We had all held previous roles at organizations with similar initiatives. It was great to brainstorm things we had done before that worked well and also identify what about our current process wasn’t working and we wanted to change.
Customer Success
I held a round table discussion with a number of the Customer Success team members to understand their interactions with customers. It was interesting to understand what their conversations typically entailed. We also discussed when and how we would communicate with them. In the past, Customer Success Managers (CSM) were informed if we were recruiting their customers to participate, and then a follow-up message was sent to them if a session with one of their customer’s divulged any information or situations they should be aware of. CSM requested that they not only be informed of us reaching out to their customers, but also if the customer did sign up to participate, as well as a follow-up email letting them know how the session went, their customer’s feedback on what they saw, and any other relevant information.
Product
Next, we spoke with a member of the Product team about the process his team took from feature identification through development. He walked us through his use of Jira and other products that supported him in his process. He also discussed with us at which points it made sense for UX Research to be involved, how we could better integrate with their team, and how we could better support Product Managers throughout their process with the knowledge and feedback we obtain from users.
Relaunch Plan
From there, we started the groundwork...
Ironing out touch points within the Customer’s Journey from sales to roll out that we should be targeting came first. Next, identifying how we bring awareness to our Community and then begin building the relationship upon sign up.
It was also important to solidify the communication strategy both internally and externally - not only ensuring our Community members knew what was happening and upcoming, but also making sure internal members of the organization were kept in the loop. The internal relationship building is just as critical as those with the customers, as members of Sales, Customer Success and Product are in the most contact with new customers and therefore have the best opportunity for recruiting new members.
Next, identifying what being a member of the Community meant for the customer - How often would they be asked to participate? What methodologies should they expect to complete? How would we keep them up to date on studies, results of those studies, and upcoming opportunities? Our current “program” was a bit sporadic, and it was important for us to keep in tough regularly with the customers with both active studies, but also more passive methods including surveying and maintaining a better presence within our Community site.
And then we did some research…
Because who better to to get feedback from than the people that we would be asking to sign up?
We held a round table with some of our most active current Design Partner Program members, walking them through the plan and getting feedback on what they liked, what they disliked and other things they would want to see. Overall, it was very well received.
We had also been waffling between a few different names. We really wanted to ensure the name matched the goals of the initiative. We had been running into a lot of issues with the words “Partner” and “Program”, as customers expected a certain level or control over design decisions because they were a “Partner” and apparently “Program” gave them a feeling that we would be contacting them at a pretty regular cadence. With the help of the round table participants, we identified UX Advisory Community to be the best name given our goals with this group.
Now, we are ready for relaunch!
Based on feedback both externally and internally, we were able to iron out the final details and are ready for relaunch of the program!