Project Info
Portfolio Intelligence is a centralized platform for creating, planning, and tracking the delivery of the firm’s internal investments. It supports over 50,000 initiatives and serves thousands of employees across the organization.
During a design workshop in January 2024, we identified key usability challenges: users were hindered in their daily tasks by limited customization options in the main data grid. Additionally, some teams expressed the need for a unified, team-wide grid view, something that was currently time-consuming to set up and often led to inconsistencies.
(( Due to company Confidentiality some designs are approximate recreations and others are purposefully kept at low resolution ))
The Research
Workshop
In January 2024, we hosted a 3-day cross-functional design workshop aimed at aligning the product with user needs and informing feature prioritization.
The event brought together 32 participants from five different lines of business, with some traveling from as far as Europe to contribute to shaping the future of the product.
From this workshop we discovered the pain points and dug into what was needed to improve the experience.
Planning
After identifying the user pain point, we began by exploring a range of potential solutions through collaborative ideation.
From there, I defined and prioritized a minimum viable product (MVP) and developed a project plan in alignment with the product team.
Due to time and technical constraints, we couldn’t prioritize all features at once. To deliver improvements to users more quickly, I proposed a phased approach. This allows us to release value sooner and, by leveraging our listening strategy, refine future phases to maximize user benefit.
The Design
One of the requirements, the need to share custom views with colleagues, posed an interesting challenge. I began sketching concepts to explore and test various user journeys, helping to quickly identify the most effective path forward.
From there I began creating the wireframes utilizing the sketches and input from the developers as to what was possible.
(( Due to company Confidentiality the below designs are approximate recreations ))
Prototype
During the creation of the wireframes, I actually ran into a crossroads about which alert method would be most helpful for the users. I decided to test 2 versions to see which method worked best.
TEsting and Iteration
User Testing
I conducted testing with 14 users across four lines of business and a range of user groups, including a key stakeholder from the workshop. The product owner participated in all sessions and gained valuable insights into user challenges that had previously gone unnoticed.
Average Ease of Use Score: 89.1%
Main Takeaways:
· During A/B testing users strongly preferred one warning location over the other. This caused us to update warning messaging across the entire site.
· Most users were able to complete the tasks without issue.
· One user stated "It is quite intuitive and easy to use"
· Many users felt the shared link was more than enough, and didn't want or need the more advanced sharing features.
· In relation to the sharing feature, one user mentioned "...[sharing] would save me so much documentation time on confluence."
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges I faced was working within tight time constraints. Initially, I was asked to skip testing, but I successfully advocated for its importance given the high visibility of the feature. The phased approach I proposed also enabled us to streamline the sharing functionality to meet time constraints, with plans to enhance it in the future.
Final Thoughts
This was one of our most successful feature launches thanks, in part, to a well planned strategy, strong buy-in from the product team and a constant communication and inclusion of product and development.
From this success we received a lot of positive feedback and eagerness to tackle the other pain points and opportunities we uncovered during the workshop.
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