Role: Design Manager + UX/UI Designer

Telephony

Multi-phase project

Project Overview
The current product allowed inbound calls, but lacked the capability to make external calls. To become a multi-channel customer service platform, the product needed to handle inbound calls, especially for schools with high call volumes. The product team needed to create a call center-style feature with automated call routing, call recording, and real-time analytics to streamline schools' customer service and support operations. The aim is to enhance the efficiency of call centers and provide schools with tools to monitor their call center performance.
Deliveralbes

Project Requirements

Outbound calls

Develop a call center system capable of efficiently making outbound calls to schools for student enrollment and engagement purposes, with features for call tracking, call scripting, and automated data logging.

Queue Management

Design a call center system with call queue management capabilities to efficiently handle incoming calls from schools, prioritize urgent inquiries, and ensure a seamless and organized communication process.

Performance Analytics

Create a performance analytics dashboard, enabling real-time monitoring of key metrics such as call volume, average response time, agent performance, and customer satisfaction to facilitate data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.

Timeline

To overcome this challenge, the team had to start building features while they were still being designed and reviewed

Challenge

Delivering on time

The biggest challenge of this project was meeting the timeline set by a high-profile client's contract. The project was a large build and had a tight schedule, which made it difficult for the engineering team to complete all the necessary tasks within the allocated time. To overcome this challenge, the team had to start building features while they were still being designed and reviewed, which required them to work efficiently and effectively to meet the deadline. This necessitated the involvement of multiple designers, along with myself as the design manager, adapting to a different setting to ensure the deadline was met. Despite the challenges, the team was able to complete the project on time and deliver a high-quality product to the client.
Painpoints

Truth and Consequences

Struggles faced by the Design Manager:
  • Presence of a project plan that was too large and conceptual, lacking specificity.
  • Difficulties in effective collaboration among design, project management, and engineering teams.
  • Frequent back-and-forth discussions due to the lack of specificity.
Consequences after the project launch:
  • Essential parts of the experience were missing, including screens.
  • Internal weaknesses within the company were exposed to the client.
  • Embarrassment and damage to the company's reputation.
success

Crossing the
finish line

Delivering the project on time involved overcoming a few challenges, but the analytics piece of the project stood out as the most successful and smooth aspect. Although it required additional time in the design phase, this extra effort proved valuable. I dedicated significant time to conducting comparative analysis, examining various call center metrics, and determining what worked and what didn't. Moreover, I advocated for a smaller and more focused segmentation of the analytics component, which streamlined the design reviews and minimized the number of approval rounds needed. Overall, despite some hiccups along the way, the project was successfully delivered on time, with the analytics portion standing out as a particularly well-executed and efficient component.

Lessons Learned

The main lesson learned in this situation is that spending too much time reviewing designs with a contracted client can lead to a laundry list of wish list items that are too specific to that client's needs. This can cause the project to lose sight of what is best for all clients, not just one specific client, and result in a less valuable product for company-wide clients. This approach is not cost-effective and can lead to a missed opportunity to create a product that serves a broader market. In the future, it is beneficial to focus on creating a product that meets the needs of a wider range of clients, rather than prioritizing the demands of a single client.

Avoid excessive customization for individual clients
Maintain a focus on company-wide clients
Emphasize cost-effectiveness and market opportunities
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