Recent work in the UX and information science fields.
Note: Several projects listed below are currently under construction.
Also note: many of these products have yet to be released or fall under projects bound by NDA. Thus, I am only sharing here what information is legally and ethically permissible at this time.
SINGLESTORE
Always Be Testing
Sales Plays Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
An internal survey composed and sent to members of the Sales team asking which sales plays are working/not working and what to focus on for FY2022. Learn the most and least prioritized sales plays overall, and specifically with respect to Enterprise and Commercial areas of the Sales org.
Hadoop Sales Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Survey for the Hadoop takeout sales play. Rick uses questions as part of a website assessment tool but would like to send them out as a survey to existing Hadoop users as a way to tune the questions and see what the answers are. Should help build out the website assessment. Identify key traits and sentiments among Hadoop users to help build out the assessment tool. This should help build out the website assessment.
CSAT & NPS Web Intercepts
Method: Website intercept survey
Measure NPS score for users that have used our service for the last 6 months (different from trial survey). Notate branching paths dependent on service used; Software vs Helios, Paying vs Free, etc. Ask for user email if they would like us to follow up with them.
Managed Service Free Trial Experience (Sign-up & Guided Tutorial)
Method: Remote, unmoderated usability study
Conduct usability test with emphasis on areas of dropoff seen in recent user data. The primary goal of this research is to identify any major usability issues that impede or frustrate the user upon the setup and deployment. Secondarily, to gather user feedback on product usefulness, missing/unclear elements, and suggestions for improvement.
Q3 Sales Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Large survey gathering feedback from members of the Sales team (AEs & SDR/BDRs only) on the productivity of sales motions as well as thoughts on the customer experience. Identify key traits and sentiments among customers to help develop our buyer personas. Identify Sales member demographics, work habits, and areas of Sales wins and losses.
Visual Explain II: Usability Test
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
This study will focus primarily on measuring usability as well as optimizations made based on feedback from initial PoC study. Identify any major usability issues with the live feature. Secondarily, to gather user feedback on product usability, missing/unclear elements, and suggestions for improvement.
Docs Site Usability Study
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
Testing findability (tree test) or awareness of docs location. Non-customer (findability) and Customers: heavy users (ease of use survey). Gauge how usable the new docs site is with new and existing customers.
Create Cluster Credits
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Usability test measuring how well users can create a cluster using credits. Seeks to understand what a new user would want to know about credit pricing when creating a cluster and upgrading.
Buyer Personas and Journey Maps
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey, Persona creation
Large survey gathering feedback on two respondent segments integral to our buyer personas: 1.) Data-driven apps (apps with analytics at their core). Spans all our gym motions: high touch, low touch, no touch, leverage (channels). These are primarily developers who are largely migrating from an underperforming db (e.g MySQL, etc). 2. Data warehouse augmentation. High touch (and some low touch) and consists of data pros (data engineers, data architects, business analysts). Seeking to make real-time insight dashboards." "Identify key demographic and psychographic traits among the two use cases to help develop our buyer personas. Identify needs, pain points, tendencies, tech adoption, etc. Focus on work role and relationships to other qual and quant data. Check data against our current list of MySQL-migrating customers in a follow-up study.
Visual Explain User Test
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
The feature is intended to help users understand their database through a visual representation of it so they can not only understand general query structure, but also identify problems like where the biggest query bottlenecks are and when to run analysis on a table, etc. The goal is to learn whether the design is helpful and intuitive enough for study participants to understand their database visually and to identify problems.
NPS & CSAT Scoring Methodology
Method: Website intercept survey
Construct NPS and CSAT/CES questions, the answers to which will comprise benchmarks for UX. Plan is to survey gather this feedback via 3 areas: Portal, Studio and Zendesk/Forums. Find a way to query authenticated users across web and app. Gather real-time feedback via survey intercepts. Need to determine who took it so that responses are unique and we don't spam people. Ideally we'd find one service that could work via email and in app with Intercom so we message people at the right time to take it.
Managed Service Free Trial Experience (Sign-up & Guided Tutorial)
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
We put together a guide to help users integrate your BI workloads to SingleStore. We want feedback on the readability, cogency, and findability of the guide. The goal is for users to develop on top of SingleStore, with a current goal of accelerating customer lands.
Augment a Data Warehouse Guide
Method: Heuristic review, Participatory design
We put together a guide to help users integrate your BI workloads to SingleStore. We want feedback on the readability, cogency, and findability of the guide. The goal is for users to develop on top of SingleStore, with a current goal of accelerating customer lands.
Modernize an App Guide (DB Replace Use Case)
Method: Heuristic review, Participatory design
We put together a guide to help users migrate their analytical application to SingleStore. We want feedback on the readability, cogency, and findability of the guide, from preparing data from their existing database, to connecting their application to SingleStore. The goal is for users to develop on top of SingleStore, with a current goal of accelerating customer lands.
Managed Service Free Trial Experience (Sign-up & Guided Tutorial)
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
Monthly usability health check-up on sign-up and Guided Tutorial widget flows. Identify usability issues, bugs, broken items, etc. that dev should be notified about.
Biannual Customer Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Building on the "outline" phase, complete study preparations by coordinating with various company teams and administer survey. Make email template for account teams to use. Let AEs and SEs know we’re sending out survey & to follow up with c
Community Survey for Head of Community
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Creating a survey for the community forum. Learn what our users are saying about us over social media
Managed Service Free Trial Experience (Sign-up & Guided Tutorial)
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
Monthly usability health check-up on sign-up and Guided Tutorial widget flows. Identify usability issues, bugs, broken items, etc. that dev should be notified about.
Free Tier QuickStart Flow Usability Study
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
This study seeks to understand database professionals’ experience using the QuickStart user flow for Free Tier DB. Specifically, whether installing on their own platform using Docker is easy and intuitive. Understand the concept’s overall user experience, gather feedback on ease of use, usefulness and clarity/arrangement of information.
Churned User Research
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
The primary purpose of these templates is to reach out to users who started a free trial but eventually never responded to any of our outreach emails (sent by the BDR, sales team). Our goal is to initially get a response from them if any, the ideal scenario would be for them to do at least one of the following (depending on the type of template we use): 1. Schedule a call, 2. take survey, 3. response to questions within email.
BI Market Research
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Large (but not too large) survey to gauge market needs for 3 segments: business analyst, org BI teams (those who build dashboards and analytics) and software devs (building for use cases). Determine market opening for SingleStore-type solution for those using BI tools on top of cloud databases. Identify needs, pain points, and usage. Focus on what they would pay for such a solution and check data against our assumptions/personas.
Field Survey Questions for Product Team
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
The Product Team has in mind quarterly surveys to send to present customers gathering feedback on NPS. I'm asked to assist in helping compose survey questions and see they are built with SurveyMonkey and implemented as part of relevant marketing campaigns. How well did the product fit your needs? How easy or difficult was it to perform basic tasks? How would you rate the completeness of product features and information? How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the onboarding help and technical support?
Rebrand Survey (from MemSQL to SingleStore)
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
With the name change to SingleStore a certainty, management requires assurance that the name will not be received poorly by database management professionals. This survey is intended to gather data on that population's feelings about the name overall, the name as a company in the computing/database space, reactions to two differing logos, and characteristics (words) they would associate to the name. As opposed to a dive dive, this survey is intended simply to determine whether the overall reactions to the SingleStore are so negative as to give pause to the ideas of rebranding. The hypothesis is that this is unlikely, however, other insights could prove useful; i.e., whether respondents expect qualities from SingleStore that happen to coincide with those expectations currently from MemSQL customers.
SingleStore/Former Helios Free Trial Survey v2
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
An update of the SingleStore/Former Helios Free Trial survey from 4/2/20, this survey has been restructures to specifically targets Helios users, and for SingleStore trialers, 30-Day Enterprise users and Free Plan users. Additionally, many of the questions have been omitted, new questions added, rephrased, or asked in such a way that gathers more targeted data in order to receive data that will help us better understand those experiences. Gather data from each free trial experience, obtain deeper knowledge of the path to purchase, and give a more accurate snapshot into the user experience at a particular moment (or snapshot) of the health of the product.
Onboarding Help Usability Study
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
An in-app, self service module within Studio (SQL Editor) to help new user onboard themselves: load data, create a database, load tables, establish a pipeline, test pipeline, etc. Learn whether it is helpful, easy to use, intuitive, flow in line with user mental models, etc.
Database & Dashboard Use Cases Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
More and more companies are trying to provide analytical dashboards to internal users as well as their customers. These dashboards need to be low-latency enough to support a good user experience, while still having the capability to scale up to large volumes of data. SingleStore wants to provide a solution which starts off small but can grow to massive data volumes and extremely tight latencies; customers can get started for little money but know that they can scale Helios up with their workload. We hope to satisfy their needs until they are big enough to warrant moving to a dedicated SingleStore Cluster which may also run on Helios. Learn what the industry needs are, what market segmentation or prospective customers we should be targeting, and what taglines they would respond to.
Current Helios Customer's Decision-Making Process
Method: Moderated, Voice of the Customer usability study
Understand current Helios customers’ experience in the broader managed cloud DB shopping experience. Learn about their trial experience (if any), what other databases they were considering/evaluating, and more. Understand how the current set of customers who decided to pay for Helios made their decision to purchase. Gather feedback on POC, trial experience, initial perspective of the product, what would have made it easier to onboard and workloads. Understand the demographic: Are they early adopters? More willing to experiment and try new things? Are they indeed our customers or are there other unifying factors?
SingleStore/Former Helios Free Trial Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
We composed a survey to gather free trial users of both SingleStore DB and MS in order to learn their thoughts on their experience. We received their feedback their use cases, why they chose SingleStore and why they stopped short of buying a full license. Understand the pain points in the free trial experience and formulate ways to help optimize the conversion of free trials users to paying customers.
Brand Messaging Survey - Phase II
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Gather database professionals’ thoughts on a collection of names which might potentially mesh with the expectations of customers of managed cloud databases. Aid stakeholders in determining deciding whether any of the names tested may be a viable alternative to SingleStore.
Brand Messaging Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
Better understand what prospective customers think about SingleStore and how they describe our company. Additionally, we received their feedback on several competitors’ taglines in relationship to our “database of now." Aid in reaffirming or augmenting our current brand trajectory and improve its brand awareness.
Helios Competitors' Free Trial Experience
Method: Competitive analysis
Matrix of free trial details (what they offer, what you get, for how long, etc.) User flows shared with Design team in Figma. Competitor Ranking (histogram of direct, indirect, potential) Radial chart for each competitor (comparing products of competitors based on various characteristics). Company overview, profile, industry, flagship products, competitive advantage, etc. Recorded scores based on walkthrough observations based on various benchmark heuristics. Entered each company's free trial experience, recording my path/observations. Competitive analysis charts, recorded scores, produced charts w/ conditional formatting, etc.
Helios Sign Up & Payment Flow
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
The Helios sign up & payment flow was designed to help pave the way for a smooth transition of users to customers. We have observed a large drop off from sign up to deploy cluster and run queries. Moreover, we have only logged one conversion from trial to paying customer through this flow. Learn how we might optimize the path to conversion; to gather user feedback on workflow effectiveness and suggestions for improvement.
Deploy UI
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
“Easy Installer is a new GUI that allows users to check hosts, deploy SingleStore nodes, create a cluster, without having to use a command-line interface. Identify any major usability issues that impede or frustrate the user upon the setup and deployment. Secondarily, to gather user feedback on product usefulness, missing/unclear elements, and suggestions for improvement.
TEN-X COMMERCIAL
Marketing Dashboard for Private Label
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
“Private Label” is our idea for top 7 brokerages putting up listings quickly with their name/brand but with our tech platform. Needed to understand how brokers typically pay for 3rd party listing/marketing/transaction services like Ten-X, which will inform the kinds of product features needed for the payments app we have on the roadmap.
Lookbook Automation: Should it stay or should it go?
Method: 1:1 Moderated, discovery-based feedback sessions
Seeking to understand the value behind the Lookbook to both our sales team as well as our customers. We surveyed select members of the ~400 high value customers who receive the print Lookbook. We first contacted relevant CMs and ask for 2 or 3 customers they could recommend for a 30 min 1:1 session. Sessions comprised an open-ended exploration around any prior experience with Lookbook, participants’ impression, how they use it, whether a digital-only Lookbook would suffice. See: https://commercial.ten-x.com/lookbook/
Many, Many Surveys…
Method: Remote, unmoderated via site intercept and email functions in GetFeedback.
Using various UX metrics to gather feedback on: 1. user flows, ex. downloading due diligence items from the Document Vault, 2. the effectiveness of recent web/mobile revisions particularly sort, filter, and 3. the auction registration experience, buyer property preferences, and many more.
Chatbot Expert Workflow Interviews
Method: 1:1, Moderated usability sessions
Query Ten-X team members that use LiveAgent to assist customers to learn what their use cases and pain points are and how the tool fits within their workflow. Determine what level of support the chatbot should provide users before escalation to an agent.
Chat with an Expert/Chatbot discovery
Method: 1:1, Moderated discovery-based feedback sessions
In tandem with enhancements to current chat, team wants info on how it works, how we store data, and how we can leverage chat and that data to provide content and better service our customers. Considering chat bots, pro-active chat, and any other placement/design requests.
Post-Auction Experience
Method: Remote, unmoderated surveys
Measure the auction bidding experience with two user groups: those who bid on both Aug and Sept 2019 auctions, and those who registered to but never entered a bid.
Salesforce Lightning/Live Agent Survey
Method: Remote, unmoderated survey
UMUX (Universal Metric for User Experience) . questionnaire for members of Product team to help make the new Salesforce iteration more useful and fit better within team member’s workflow.
Leads Management & Buyer Profile Dashboard
Method: Focus group
Helped Product team conduct JAD session with broker-aligned Ten-Xers, usually CMs, many of whom are former brokers themselves. Their insights helped inform early design concepts for the new buyer dashboard for Private Label.
U.S. BANK
2018 Highlights
NextGen Teller System (Part III)
Method: Moderated usability study
The Common Transactions team did quick and dirty guerrilla study with 3-5 tellers at the Meridian branch. Explained to them the scanning process, went thru quick deposit and check and make sure mental model doesn’t fail catastrophically to get at real UX issues. As a result, they have a fairly solid design to hand over for more testing. This study focuses on micro usability; terminology/labeling hierarchy, progressive display of cash frames (denomination control), is “credits” to cash back” more intuitive?, etc. In addition, we want to see how well the revised scanner process i(along with the elimination of multi function) integrates into tellers' workflow.
Overdraft Protection
Method: Primary research, Questionnaire, Usability Study
This study seeks to test user experience in finding and understanding information on Overdraft Protection. The purpose of the project is to establish a baseline usability study of the current experience to aid in an effort to redesign the page at a later date. Project stages include: 1.) Access primary and secondary sources on overdraft protection, 2.) Remote, unmoderated questionnaire with 100-200 participants via UserZoom, and 3.) Remote, moderated sessions with 8 participants via UserZoom
“Praise for the New USB Mobile App!” (video)
Method: Video editing
Using footage taken from several mobile usability sessions, composed a 5-minute long mini movie with backing soundtrack detailing improvements made to the mobile app in 2018 and presented at the December 2018 Board meeting.
AEM 6.1 DAM
Method: Tree Test
Rebrand team requested a usability study to help improve the AEM 6.1 DAM experience. Visual designers and content authors—or those who have familiarity with AEM—served as participants and a tree grid will serve as the concept to test. Research goal was to measure the findability of assets within the tree; are they quickly found, easy to find, and are they nested within the correct buckets.
Consumer Deposit Simplify
Method: Remote, moderated usability study
Do hero images impede mobile app readability? As part of the planned reduction in the number of consumer checking products being offered to consumers, UX is reformatting the main Checking Accounts landing page to be more like the Savings Accounts page. Marketing says that the Savings page doesn't convert well on mobile, and we need to understand why. In particular, we need to know if the large images or other design elements make it difficult for users to understand the products when viewing the page on their mobile phones. Conversion is the ultimate goal, so users need to (1) understand their options and (2) get enough information about the products they want so that they can (3) apply online.
NextGen Teller System (Part II)
Method: Moderated usability study
The Common Transactions team has several design concepts representing a refresh to the Orion UI, the integrated system which Banker Chat and telephone help operators use to handle customer inquiries. They’d like user feedback pertaining to the placement of the toolbar, clarity of the icons, and the usefulness of a customer profile search tool. The goal is to learn what Bankers think about their current Orion UI experience and whether the redesign concepts might make their workflows easier and more efficient.
NextGen Teller System (Part I)
Method: Moderated usability study
A study to help branch bankers complete customer transactions more quickly and efficiently. The Common Transactions team at U.S. Bank is gathering feedback on a new application that will replace our existing in-branch teller software. Test participants will be drawn from our own ranks—tellers in the metro Minneapolis area—who will interact with a prototype of the application, offering thoughts on their experience. The insights we gather will help us improve and deliver the software that will ultimately be used by all tellers across all U.S. Bank branches.
Simple Loan Apply - Mobile
Method: Moderated usability study
Test user experience within the current Simple Loan application flow vs. a UX-proposed application flow to determine which is more user friendly and easy to navigate to the customer.
Contact Us
Method: Moderated usability study
Measure the usability of the “Contact Us” help feature within mobile app. Three task scenarios were chosen to represent those with the most value and which places the user in a sense of urgency: 1.) unknown charge, 2.) card declined and 3.) log on help. Goal is to utilize feedback as direction in creating final designs for the feature.
Contextual Help
Method: Moderated usability study
Measure the usability of three versions of the contextual help overlay in mobile app within three scenarios: reactive (user summons help), proactive (app steps in offering help) and escalate (user not satisfied by help, asks to speak to banker). Get reference on user preferences for multiple design variations of features therein.
Show/Hide Password
Method: Moderated usability study
Help answer the question of which language to use in sign-on “Show” and “Hide” words or and “Eye” icon, providing usability metrics describing effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction as well as qualitative feedback.
Travel Notifications (Part IV)
Method: Moderated usability study
It is a short usability test to determine what language should be used within the main and sub menus that will allow users to find the feature quickly and easily. Goals of this research is to learn which of the three possible heading combinations leading to the travel notifications setting users prefer, and to measure the locatability of the feature within the main menu.
Travel Notifications (Part III)
Method: Moderated usability study
Retest the “Travel Notifications” feature in deeper context (mobile) and reexamine the appropriateness of its name to users. In addition, we perform discovery to determine under what heading(s) within the main menu this feature should reside. Test user preference for one of five possible alternative names for “Travel Notifications,” its findability within the main menu, and user preference for content category names of menu subtitles. Goals of this research is to Reduce/eliminate calls into call centers, help customers identify their transactions, and educe transaction disputes.
Travel Notifications (Part II)
Method: Moderated usability study
Follow-up study to the first; setup, edit, delete. A more quantitative study. Currently, no way of setting up travel notifications online exists. Customers have to call the 800 number on the back of their card. RPS UX team has developed prototypes of a feature to allow customers to setup travel notifications from the Mobile App and/or OLB. Goal of this research is to help enable users to set up and control their travel notification online, to control their finances while traveling, and improve their overall card digital experience.
Travel Notifications (Part I)
Method: Moderated usability study
When customers attempt to use their card while out of state or at a suspicious location (along with other risk factor criteria), they sometimes experience a card freeze due to the bank’s customer-protection measures. We want to know how customers would opt to let the bank know when they’ll be traveling to avoid such issues.
Credit Card Transactions
Method: Moderated usability study
Customers aren't getting the information they need through OLB/mobile when reviewing their transactions to determine whether it is fraudulent and are instead calling the U.S. Bank call centers. RPS team has designed mobile and desktop prototypes with additional credit card transaction details containing possible solutions for testing. Help reduce/eliminate calls into the call centers and help customers understand that additional transaction details can be accessed via OLB/mobile.
Credit Card Autopay Setup
Method: Moderated usability study
When customers enroll in automatic payments, the plan doesn’t actualize until their next payment statement. The current experience makes users aware of this. However, it’s not completely obvious that the user still owes their current minimum payment after autopay enrollment. Depending on the placement of the “payment-still-due” alert, we’re concerned it could compete with the message that the customer’s automatic payments have indeed been set up. This could potentially be confusing. We tested mobile and desktop prototypes with confirmation screen overlays of varying designs to learn which most informs the user. Do customers understand the automatic payment setup was successful?; Do they understand the alert letting them know a minimum payment is due, or is it confusing?; Does it make users unsure the automatic payment setup was successful?
Global Nav Naming Test
Method: Moderated usability study
Determine what wording should the eastern-most content category of the global navigation menu feature by gathering feedback on 8 category candidates developed by GMR team. (Which to use: Products & Services or some other title for content category?) Can users quickly and easily find what they’re looking for from the global navigation bar?; Can they surmise what items nest within those content categories?; Where will users click first?; How confident are they in their choice?; Does seeing the secondary navigation bar increase users’ confidence?; Which of the 8 category candidates do users prefer and why?
Mortgage Microsite
Method: Moderated usability study
A prototype of the home mortgage section of the U.S. Bank website was built in InVision and shared with participants to interact with, giving feedback on navigation, content, and usability. Can users discover what they need to inform them? Do they understand the latest content?; Can they navigate around the landing page?; Does the content provide them enough info; are things missing?; Do they feel comfortable in moving forward? Do they understand what they’ll be getting?; Can they get through the flows with minimal friction? Are they funneled easily into the shop?
Rename Our Chatbot (Part III)
Method: Unmoderated usability study
In previous tests, we measured how participants felt about the name “Answers” and what alternative names they would approve of. We had participants view 21 names of our own invention at random that could be substitutes for Answers to learn which name attributes were most appealing to them. Using this feedback, we generated our own list of potential names. In this survey, we showed participants a revised list of 12 possible names. We used participant feedback on those names to help create a Top 3 list of names that square with our brand identity.
Rename Our Chatbot (Part II)
Method: Unmoderated usability study
Queried users for alternate names for Answers. Tested 25 sample names to determine key attributes to preferred names. Final test on 10 approved names with those attributes in round robin fashion. Composed methodology to employ CXReplay in GSS testing.
Guided Self-Service (Chatbot I)
Method: Moderated usability study
Queried users whether they understood concept and what questions they would ask chatbot. Compiled keyword and concentration data on frequently used words to pose queries to aid in building chatbot logic.
Appointment Scheduler
Method: Moderated usability study
BookingBug pilot usability test in Denver vs. Bank of America’s booking feature. Interviews with U.S. Bankers on how they handle appointments with customers. Baseline usability test on early prototype. Follow-up usability test. Two more usability tests of revised prototype.
Branch Pages
Method: Unmoderated usability study
Icons metaphors test, findability of services info
Autopay Setup
Method: Unmoderated usability study
Minimum and PLUS payments.
Zelle Reception
Method: Moderated usability study
Minimum and PLUS payments. What’s New design concept; banner vs pop-ups, people vs. art).
Mobile Credit Card Payments
Method: Moderated usability study
Send money and deposit.
BMC SOFTWARE
RACKSPACE
OTHER EXPERIENCE
"If someone else can do something that I'm doing, they should do it. And what I want to do is find things that would represent a unique contribution to the world--the contribution that only I, and my portfolio of talents, can make happen." - Neil deGrasse Tyson