GODADDY
V1 Release International Business Email for Emerging Markets (Brazil, Mexico, Turkey & India)
Productivity Solutions for Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) plus Mid-Market (MM) Customers
BACKGROUND
V1 Release International Business Email (Mobile only) for Emerging Markets.
Productivity Solutions for Small/Medium Business + Mid-Market Customers.
GoDaddy offers a variety of productivity solutions for Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs), plus Mid-Market (MM) Customers. Offerings range from IMAP and Office365 Exchange email, to cloud-based Office365 applications (i.e., Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), and Web Hosting.
I was scheduled to fill-in for a UX Designer/Architect who would be out on Maternity Leave. There was to be a 2-week orderly transition at the onset. Those "best laid plans" went out-the-window when she had the baby 5-weeks early. No transition, I was plunged into a very active product launch only weeks away--V1 International Business Email for Emerging Markets (Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and India). Fortunately, I quickly adapted, having extensive experiences to draw upon. Successful, on-time product launch!
Other initiatives, Productivity Solutions for SMBs & MM included:
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InApp/Mailbox Upgrades (Office 365 Plans)
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Value AddOns (Encryption, Archiving, HIPAA compliant)
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Inorganic Migrations (customers from acquired service providers)
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Workspace Upgrades (to Office 365)
As a small business owner myself, I was able to bring additional insights--combined with my UX expertise--in recommending specific improvements to the User Experience.
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
Five-months, fill-in for Designer out on Maternity Leave (had baby early); no transition, plunged into chaos. Quickly adapted!
MAKE OF THE TEAM
I was a Lead UX Architect serving 3 Product Managers: 1 in Sunnyvale, and 2 others + Engineering in Greater Phoenix (where GoDaddy is HQ).
KEY GOALS
V1 Release of International Business Email (Mobile only) for Emerging Markets.
Productivity Solutions for SMBs & MM Customers.
MY ROLE
UX STRATEGY
Lead UX Designer/Architect Consultant serving teams in Sunnyvale & Phoenix
Collaborated with 2 Product Managers in Phoenix and 1 in Sunnyvale regarding Business Requirements on separate initiatives.
Worked with Engineering Team in Phoenix. Also served as liaison between Engineering and "super creatives" (i.e., Visual Designers and Copywriters) for JIRA requests.
Occasionally traveled to Phoenix.
Majority of meetings were video-conference, because it was guaranteed there would be some meeting attendees in another city or state.
UX Design Improvements
Sometimes it's the little things that can make a big difference! As an outsider, I'm looking at these applications with a fresh perspective. While it may not seem like much, some well-placed icons make all the difference for the user being able to easily discern at-a-glance which types of accounts these are. Sure, the example below only shows 3 accounts--but what if the user had 30 accounts?
One of the things I'd learned during my time at Walmart Global eCommerce was, "Solve for the Edge Case Scenario--you're covered."
ICONS FOR EMAIL TYPES
I'd stared at the "Before" for easily 10-15 minutes, trying to determine which accounts were Office365 (Office + Email) and which were Office365 Office Only (no email). It wasn't until one of the Product Managers pointed out that the "Office Only" accounts had a long "dummy" email assigned to them.
I thought, "We can do better than this!"
Because otherwise, the only way for a user to know which accounts were which email types was to go into Settings for each and every account--a very cumbersome process.
In the "After" the user can easily see they have:
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Business Email (green briefcase icon)
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Office365 Email (red O365 icon)
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Office365 / No Email (black O365 icon)
Sure, this example has only 3 email accounts, but what if there were 30 or more.
Solve for the Edge Case Scenario, and everything else flows downstream.
Note: These are wireframes, not finished visual design comps. Visual designs at GoDaddy were done by dedicated Visual Designers.
UX STRATEGY
Design Thinking + Business Acumen =
My Domains are not missing
I refer to "information gaps" as missing information that prevents users from making informed decisions.
When a user went to setup a new email account:
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User selects Email Type
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User selects from their available domain names
However, the ONLY domain names that would display were those either:
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Already assigned to that specific email type
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Unassigned to any email type
Domains assigned to a different email type would not be displayed.
When I asked about this, Engineering said, "Oh, you can't mix & match different email types on the same domain."
I knew we could do better!
First, I conferred with Product about my proposed solution. He said it was fine with him, but to run past Engineering, as they would be the ones implementing this change.
Next, I approached the Head of Engineering, outlining the problem and proposed solution. I said, "Engineers are going to know about not being able to mix & match different email types on the same domain. However, as a Small Business Owner, I'm too busy running my small business to know technical restrictions like that?" Imagine a scenario where the user owns MULTIPLE domains. They come here and see half their domains are missing with no explanation?! Panic and call Customer Service. It's not good.
However, if we were to display those domains--along with an explanation WHY they can't select them. They don't panic; all their domains are there. Plus they learn something new (can't mix & match different email types on the same domain). No need to call Customer Service!
Engineers are creative problem solvers, just like Designers, except they're more technical. If you present a logical argument to Engineers, neatly outlined, chances are you'll get buy-in. And that's exactly what happened here. The Head of Engineering's response was, "You're right! Wondering what the heck happened to half of their domains is NOT good! Great idea! We'll gladly implement your solution!"
Recommended we show “ineligible domains” (the term we came up with) BELOW the action button, along with an explanation.
Small Business Owner: no panic (domains intact) + learns something new!
Product & Engineering LOVED IT!!!
Small effort by Design & Development = Big Impact for User! Win-win!
SETUP NEW EMAIL ACCOUNT
V1 International Business Email
for emerging markets (Mexico, Brazil, Turkey & India)
Issues:
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No way of knowing if domains unassigned, or assigned to a a particular email type?
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Domains assigned to different email types wouldn't appear; no explanation likely to cause concern for small business owners unaware of technical constraints.
Solutions:
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Icons designating whether unassigned or assigned to a particular email type.
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Ineligible domains appear--below the action button, with an explanation as to why.
"Before"
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No way of knowing which domains are assigned or unassigned?
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No indication on WHY some domains they own are missing?
"After"
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Clear distinction of assigned (icon) and unassigned domains (no icon).
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Ineligible domains explained and displayed below action button.
Note: These are wireframes, not visual design comps. Visual designs at GoDaddy were done by dedicated Visual Designers.
In the After example, user selected "Int'l Business Email" for email type. Thus, domains previously assigned to Int'l Business Email (green briefcase icon) appear, along with unassigned domains (no icon).
Domains assigned to Office365 email type (red O365 icon) are "ineligible" and appear below action button.
Small effort by Design & Engineering = Big impact for the user.
DESIGN PROCESS
The Design Process
Collaborated with Product Managers in Sunnyvale and Phoenix on Business Requirements for separate initiatives. Brainstormed with Product on solutions to complex problems. User Task Flows helped map out processes to complex issues. Being a small business owner myself was something extra I brought to the table, beyond my core UX expertise.
Wireframe screens exported to InVision for interactive prototypes for Product & Engineering--which allowed comments, subsequent revisions, and iterations.
Worked with Engineering in Phoenix and served as liaison between Engineering/Product and Visual/Copy for JIRA requests.
V1 Int’l Business Email for emerging markets (Mexico, Brazil, Turkey & India) was Mobile only (no Desktop or Tablet).
Other products were typically Mobile First, then Desktop/Tablet. In the case of complex products Desktop was first (to work out the issues) then translated into Mobile.
UX STRATEGY
Brainstorming Sessions with Product:
Mapping a solution for O365 Upgrades
Encouraging existing O365 customers to Upgrade to a higher O365 plan.
The Product Manager had some ideas--but rather than hand me a dry Product Requirements document, felt it was better for us to brainstorm with some whiteboard sessions. I concurred.
During the course of our brainstorming whiteboard sessions, it became evident that a hybrid design solution would work best.
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Detailed information of features | Top Tabs
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Simple comparison | Bottom Chart
And with corresponding shading of rows (features that tie-in with active top tab) and shaded column (their current plan), it would be easy for the customer to see:
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What they currently have
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What they could have
In the example (below):
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Customer's current plan is Email Essentials (base tier plan) @ $4.99/mo.
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They may not necessarily be interested in Business Premium (top tier plan) @ $14.99/mo.
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However, they may be interested in upgrading to Online Essentials (mid-tier plan) @ $9.99/mo, as 2x the cost gains them 10x the amount of email storage! That's a decent ROI.
Please note, this is a rough wireframe sketch that was later "polished to perfection" with colors, fonts, images, etc., by one of the dedicated Visual Designers.
UPGRADES WITHIN O365
This rough wireframe was the result of 1-on-1 brainstorming sessions between myself and the Product Manager in Sunnyvale. He knew what the Business Goals were, but since it was so complex, better him and I brainstorm together to arrive at a starting point from which to iterate the designs from.
Encouraging current Office365 customers to upgrade to a higher O365 plan required a balance of:
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Detailed information (top tabs)
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Simple comparison (chart below)
Thus, we have the top tabbed section (detailed info) that dynamically corresponds to specific shaded rows in the comparison chart (simple comparison) below.
The shaded column is of their Current Plan. Thus the customer is able to easily see
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What they have
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What they could have
This is just 1 of the 4 screen variations. Wireframe sketches were later given a polished makeover by a Visual Designer.
UX STRATEGY
Voice of the Mac user
Email Upgrade campaigns from IMAP to O365 were very Windows-centric. Since GoDaddy is a Microsoft Partner, this wasn't surprising.
However, as a Mac user myself, I looked at the campaigns and thought,
"This doesn't speak to me."
I knew we could do better!
When the summer intern who was conducting Usability Testing, reached out to the team regarding her script for Email Upgrade, I suggested she include the following questions to determine more about users (and therefore, their later responses):
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What OS do they use?
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Windows
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Mac
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What Email Application do they use?
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Outlook
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AppleMail
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etc...
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Where do their emails reside?
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all server/online
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combination of online & downloaded to email app (IMAP)
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don't know?
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The "4 Easy Steps" email upgrade campaigns worked only if a user were on Windows + Outlook + emails all exist on server/online. Any deviation would not make for "4 Easy Steps" (i.e., Mac, AppleMail, combo of online & downloaded emails).
Thus, small business owners were understandably reluctant to Upgrade their email from IMAP to O365 if not being an EASY transition and risking the possibility of losing any business-related emails.
It's one thing to lose personal emails. It's entirely different to lose business emails--especially small business (when there's no IT Dept to call for help).
Sure enough, Usability Testing results revealed:
Mac users responded with, "This doesn't speak to me."
Given...
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GoDaddy is a Microsoft Partner
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Apple/Mac is best handled by experts
Therefore, I recommended that GoDaddy take the approach of listing out some Apple Resources--and let the Customer decide which option(s) might best suit them. This way, GoDaddy didn't need to deep-dive into the intricacies of Apple, and could put Mac customers into good hands for their Mac specific needs.
The BEST of these options is the Certified Apple Consultants. These Apple Consultants are able to do things even the Genius Bar can't/won't do!
My firsthand experience with Certified Apple Consultants
As a Small Business Owner, I have professionals (i.e., CPA, Corporate Attorney, etc.) I'm able to turn to on an as-needed basis. I'd often thought, "Why can't I find the proverbial IT Guy/Mac professional on an as-needed basis, too?" When I'd stumbled upon the Certified Apple Consultants Network, it was golden!
All of my Software Engineer friends are primarily in the Windows world; thus they couldn't help much with my Mac issues. This Apple Consultant not only totally understood my voicemail outlining the problem, but knew exactly how to fix it. Made a house call to my Home Office and fixed everything! I then had him make a second trip to install & configure a SSD. What a lifesaver!
Every single person I've told about Certified Apple Consultants respond with, "Really? Apple has Certified Consultants that will make house calls?! I didn't know that?! THANKS!!" And I'll respond with, "I know! It's like Apple's best kept secret!"
For Small Businesses (and Consumers) on Apple/Mac, those Certified Apple Consultants are a lifesaver! You're welcome. ;-)
VOICE OF THE MAC USER
Email upgrades from IMAP to O365 Exchange
BETTER OUTREACH TO MAC USERS
Enticing small business Workspace (IMAP email) customers to Upgrade to Office365, proved challenging, despite the "Four Easy Steps" upgrade campaigns.
Issue: As a Mac user myself, I looked at this and thought, "This doesn't speak to me?" Rather, this speaks to:
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Windows users
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Outlook email client users
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Emails on the Web/Cloud only (vs. downloaded to their computer)
Any deviation from the above, and the "4 Easy Steps" upgrade process doesn't apply. User Testing verified this when ALL Mac users responded, “This doesn’t speak to me.”
Solution: GoDaddy is a Microsoft Partner. Therefore, I recommended offering links to Apple resources, including:
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Apple Chat Help
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Apple Phone Support
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Apple Certified Consultants (They are THE BEST! Make house calls and do things the Genius Bar can't/won't do.)
And let the customer decide what options might be right for them.
This way GoDaddy could put Mac customers "in good hands" with Mac-centric options that address their Apple-specific needs. And in doing so, achieve higher Upgrade rates from IMAP to Office365 by Mac users.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Wrap-up
Despite the unplanned early start (vs. the planned orderly transition), the new product launch of V1 International Business Email for emerging markets (Mexico, Brazil, Turkey & India) went as scheduled--a success!
Great group of people to work with! Remote days were a nice perk, as were the catered lunches.
Despite outward appearances (i.e., pool tables, video games, polished concrete indoor racetrack the perimeter of the office with Formula 1 pedal go-karts), behind-the-scenes, actual serious work gets done! The "playground" amenities were GREAT for those occasions when someone needed to bring their kid into the office (i.e., summer camp booked that day). Instead of fidgeting around, kids could go "blow off steam" riding the Formula 1 cars, then have lunch, then relax in the afternoon with their newly made "friends" playing video games or watching movies. Therefore, IF someone needed to bring their kid into the office--GoDaddy was THE BEST office to do so!
Beyond my core UX expertise, being a small business owner (and one of GoDaddy's target customers) was something extra that I brought to the table.
Insights us small business owners know firsthand--helped make for better product development.
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PHONE
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