Capstone Project — Spring 2024
My role
Project manager & UXR - Research design interviews survey user persona journy mapping scope analysis client relation
Team
- Olivia Haung, UXR
- Helena Xiong, Data scientist
- Andrew Jenkins, Data engineer
- Ting Min Lai, Data scientist
- Shengron Jian, Data scientist
Timeline
5 months
overview
The Google Cloud Business Professional (GCBP) program is designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively leverage Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services for various business applications.
As a UX Researcher and Product Manager, I collaborated with the Data Science team to gather insights and ensure user-centric design principles were integrated into our solutions.
I was incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to join this project in collaboration with Google. Through this experience, I've gained invaluable insights into Google's internal processes and the meticulous methodologies they employ on a larger scale!
Context
Let’s lay the foundation.
Stakeholder Needs
💼
Client Needs
Identify factors affecting productivity and thus improve efficiency and effectiveness of Customer Engineers.
📈
Business Needs
Drive revenue and improve satisfaction level among employees.
💻
Customer Engineer Needs
Streamline sales approach, tool usage, and team collaboration to enhance client interactions and sales
💼
Customer Engineer’s Client Needs
Receive customized solutions that cater the platform to their unique business processes
❔
HOW MIGHT WE?
How might we enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Customer Engineers in the Cloud business by pinpointing pain points and proposing design recommendations to streamline their workflows?
Work Breakdown Structure
Below is work breakdown structure aimed at guiding the development of the project.
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
Understanding the Field.
Literature Review
🌈
Emphasis on Digitalization
The digitalization of complex B2B sales processes can both enable and pose challenges for the seller. While it enhances sales efficiency, it also requires adaptation and learning of new technological tools (Rodríguez et al., 2020).
💸
Impact of Sales Enablement Technologies
The use of sales enablement technologies aims to reduce administrative tasks and increase the amount of time spent selling, leading to improved sales performance (Franck & Dampérat, 2023).
🗣️
Integration of Communication Tools
The integrated use of social media, digital, and traditional communication tools in the B2B sales process impacts various stages, from initial contact to post-sale relationship management, and enhances engagement and relationship management (Fraccastoro et al., 2021).
The right tools and support can supercharge sales productivity
Studies highlight the significant impact of sales tools and technologies, such as CRM systems and sales automation platforms, in streamlining sales processes and enhancing overall efficiency. Moreover, scholars have identified various factors influencing sales productivity, ranging from access to quality leads and sales training programs to organizational support and goal alignment
Competitor Analysis
To better understand the market trend in the cloud services industry, We explore how top players are shaping the cloud services industry.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
What do CEs @Google do exactly?
Pilot Interview
TAKEAWAYS
🤜
We needed to get the terminology right.
Identify factors affecting productivity and thus improve efficiency and effectiveness of Customer Engineers.
😡
“Productivity” could evoke negative feelings.
The use of “productivity” may inadvertently appear to assess their effectiveness, even if that is not the intention.
✍️
Formatting matters.
Initially overlooked, the team later acknowledged the importance of proper formatting and clarifying specific aspects of the question to ensure mutual understanding and agreement.
Cognitive Interview
TAKEAWAYS
🫠
Meetings, meetings, meetings.
Our participant highlights the challenge of managing a packed schedule with constant meetings, which often leaves little time for ramping up or learning.
🧑🤝🧑
Mentors make a difference.
Our participant acknowledges the effectiveness of Google's training resources, including the rotational program and mentorship.
😱
Talk about information overload.
Our participant points out the challenges she faces in current data management, mentioning the need to resort to her own research to gather scattered data.
🌟
KEY FINDING
Participants desire to spend more time on client interaction and solution development but are hindered by administrative tasks and inefficiencies in data management.
User Persona
Meet
Sumin.
A solution-oriented, curious CE
interests
Snowboarding
Cafe Hopping
Gaming
Background
Sumin has been at Google for two years, starting in a technical role and gradually transitioning into a customer-facing position. Being Sumin’s first job after college, she is constantly looking for ways to improve client relations to deliver tailored solutions to meet their needs.
Goals
- Enhance Client Interactions: Sumin wants to spend more time engaging with clients, building rapport, and understanding their challenges to provide personalized solutions.
- Job Security: Feeling pressure to perform with recent layoffs in the field, Sumin hopes to excel in closing deals and drive revenue growth.
Challenges
- Time constraints: With a packed schedule of meetings and data management tasks, Sumin struggles to find sufficient time for client interactions, impacting relationship-building efforts.
- Evolving Client Needs: Clients' needs and preferences evolve rapidly, requiring Sumin to continuously adapt their sales strategies and offerings to remain competitive.
User Journey
💭
EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY
With Google's suite of tools, managing our large volume of data is efficient, allowing CEs to spend more time on client interactions.
Navigating through the extensive data sources poses challenges, impacting the time available for client interactions.
Survey Design
⏳
Time Allocation
How do customer engineers allocate their time across various activities, such as communication and administrative tasks?
⚖️
Effectiveness and Satisfaction with Google's Tools, Policies, and Training
To what extent are the current tools provided by Google effective and what are customer engineers’ satisfaction levels with existing tools, policies, and training?
📊
Consistency of Data
How do customer engineers rate the consistency of data across the platforms they use day to day?
😱
Volume of Communications
What is the volume of internal and customer communications sent by customer engineers?
FACTOR ANALYSIS
Customer Engagement & Responsiveness
Access to Quality Leads
Support from Leadership
Training & Development Programs
Communication Within the Team
Rewards & Incentives
Tools & Technologies
So... our results tells us a lot.
Let’s uncover them.
FINDINGS
Survey Results
Data Visualizations
Demographic analysis
Task Allocation Time Across Sectors
Self reported factors affecting productivity
ORDINAL LOGISTIC Regression
Correlation Heat Map for Top 3 Useful Tools
Correlation Heat Map for Top 3 Productivity Factors
Exploratory Factor Analysis: The 7 factors are condensed into 2 factors
FACTOR 1
Business and Management Aspect
The "training and development programs" component is moderately related to factor 1 (loading = -0.5). Potential complementary relations with "support from leadership." Rotational program help gain valuable experience addressing problems with customers, Those undergoing rotational program feel more productive.
FACTOR 2
Tool Aspect
Data consolidation and data consistency significantly contribute to tool usage satisfaction Improving data consistency may require more resources over leadership support within the team
All in all, we want to say...
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
RECOMMENDATIONS
We know. It can be hard managing data.
Demographic
🤜
Enhance Data Quality and Consistency
Implement data quality assurance measures to ensure consistent and accurate data across all platforms and tools.
😊
Data Quality Training & Awareness
Provide comprehensive training and awareness programs about how to achieve and maintain data quality. Offer training sessions on data entry best practices, data quality standards, and tools for data validation and verification.
️🤖
GenAI Spreadsheet tools
Provide comprehensive training and awareness programs about how to achieve and maintain data quality. Offer training sessions on data entry best practices, data quality standards, and tools for data validation and verification.
🎯
Data Quality Audits and Reviews
Conduct regular data quality audits and reviews to assess compliance with data quality standards, identify gaps, and recommend corrective actions.
🔮
Data Monitoring & Feedback Mechanisms
Implement a data quality monitoring and feedback mechanism to track data quality performance. Set up alerts to flag deviations from predefined data quality thresholds.
LEARNINGS
What I’ve taken away.
🌊
Learning to Be Flexible
Through this experience, I’ve learned the importance of remaining adaptable and adjusting our timelines or strategies as needed to navigate unexpected setbacks. Our client had an evolving shift in focus, and our team saw several changes in its composition
🧋
The Right Cup of Tea
As the project manager, my role involved closely collaborating with our client, Google, to coordinate efforts between our team and their representatives. This encompassed facilitating communication, managing expectations, and ensuring alignment with Google's project goals and timelines. Additionally, I recognized the importance of holding necessary but potentially awkward conversations within our team. Moreover, I prioritized fostering confidence among team members and encouraged them to justify their choices respectfully, promoting a culture of accountability and collaboration.
💌
A Heartfelt Note
I feel incredibly proud of what the team has accomplished. Receiving sweet messages from team members regarding my leadership and hearing Dr. Sharlane Cleare say, "I can see why Dr. Gilly Leshed spoke highly of you," meant the world to me.
🌟
HEAR IT FROM THE CLIENTS
Congratulations again on all of your great work!! What you accomplished and your adaptability was really impressive, considering the shift in focus and numerous people providing feedback (a very authentic Google experience) I personally got a ton of value from your presentation and shadowing the CE interview. I will absolutely leverage these insights both in the study design for our other rep personas (FSRs) and prioritization of tooling work we do for CEs. Hope it was an equally valuable experience for you all.
Katie Castagna, UX Researcher @Google
Fantastic work, team! Thank you so much for your hard work, analysis and excellent presentation. We all found it extremely valuable, and hope you did too. It was a pleasure working with your group.
Laura Granka, Senior UX Director @Google