Groove is a sales engagement platform that makes sales teams more efficient and effective at finding, landing, renewing, and expanding revenue.
Role
Senior Product Designer
Year
2018 - 2019
Groove was acquired by Clari in 2023.Actions
Situation
Product support received feedback about the platform's slow performance. To investigate, I used LogRocket to observe users who reported the issue and noticed patterns related to long loading times. I also observed our internal sales team using the platform to better understand the frustration. After pinpointing the area causing the most trouble and reviewing our yearly roadmap, we decided to develop a feature called "Actions." The idea was to consolidate tasks from different parts of the app into one unified view—a sort of "global to-do list" for users.
Obstacles
Our goal was to get this done by the end of 2019, with a kickoff in May of that year. After deciding on our goals, we determined our existing parts of our infrastructure would need to be rewritten to support the ideas we had, so Engineering got started on experimenting before design. I had a tight deadline, and a lot of perspectives on how to execute from various stakeholders. We also ended up cutting a large part of the project out last minute to focus on one primary user goal, so we lost some time to that.
Action
I interviewed and observed our three main user groups: Sales Reps (SDRs), Account Executives (AEs), and Customer Success Managers (CSMs). After analyzing the feedback, we decided to prioritize designing solutions to help SDRs save time, as it would have the biggest impact on their workflows. I then developed user flows and sketches to align with stakeholders on the direction. Collaborating with the internal sales team, I gathered quick feedback on hi-fi designs. "Actions" could be accessed through multiple platforms, including our WebApp, Gmail, and Salesforce. Our success metrics were to have 100 beta users by October and 100 daily active users completing an action by the end of December.
Results
After launching our tool internally, we felt that it was ready for the Beta users. We continued to iterate and add some customization to better fit the primary users’ goals. While working on this project, I also introduced a new table pattern and updated existing patterns and the visual design of our product.
What did I learn?
For this project, I learned a lot about sales processes. I had no idea how many hand-off points there were. I learned how complex and powerful Chrome extensions are. I gained experience with getting stakeholder buy-in, not just from executives but from core team members. I also gained more experience with designing for unique experiences that span across more than one product.
At Groove overall, I learned more about my blindspots as a designer and some tools to improve my communication skills. I also learned the importance of collaborating with Customer Success Managers, Product Support teams, and how I can position design’s role in a company.