The one with a Super Complex Developer Platform
Warden AIOps
Warden AIOps is an Application Performance Management (APM) suite of 4 products used by developers and powered by Artificial Intelligence to address performance issues on the Salesforce platform.
Impact of this work
Helped validate the product roadmap.
Identified users' top pain points by conducting user research for a suite of 4 products.
Proposed new user interface designs addressing user pain points which will impact up to 750 scrum teams.
Role
As a Product Design Intern, I conducted user research to find user pain points. This project was in a close collaboration with my product manager. After validating the product roadmap and prioritizing top 5 pain points, I redesigned their existing dashboard and fixed the UX issues.
Team
I was the only Product Design intern. I worked with a Product Manager, the engineering and design team.
Duration
3 Months
Skills & Tools
Tools: Sketch, InVision, Google Forms
Skills: Stakeholder Meeting, Experience Mapping, Interviews, Think Aloud Studies, Data Analysis, Affinity Diagramming, Opportunity assessment matrix for prioritization, personas, low and medium fidelity prototyping, design mockups & usability testing.
How to understand, investigate and improve an extremely complex developer platform?
Design Prompt
Conduct user research and assess the current understanding of the users
Validate the Product Roadmap of the Warden AIOps product
Propose UX designs to fix any issue if found
Disclaimer:
This project is extremely complex. So instead of getting into the nitty gritty details of the system, I’d like to take you on a journey of a Salesforce Intern and what I learned from my VIRTUAL Product Design internship.
I saw a personal transformation in me when the internship ended.
First Day of the Internship I was
Po is friendly, kind, energetic, impulsive, good-natured, innocent, fun-loving, sarcastic and naive.
Last Day of Internship I was
Oogway is a wise and noble master who remains calm in serious situations, due to his strong faith in others.
The journey begins with getting to know what is Salesforce & my Product.
Understanding Salesforce
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
📣 Learning #1
It’s okay to not know everything all at once.
Understanding Warden AIOps
This was a suite of 4 products. Warden AIOps is Application Performance Management Platform. Along with complexity there were too many Salesforce terminologies. Two of them worked using Artificial Intelligence.
📣 Learning #2
My PhD feels like a cake walk now! I had never seen anything this complex before
So what is Warden AIOps? I’ll explain you in very easy terms.
The Warden AIOps is a platform used to find and fix performance degradations before they impact the customers.
One of the Salesforce service level agreement is that all of its platform will be up and running for 99.9999% time. Trust is also one of the Salesforce Values.
So there is big team of engineers. You can think of them as firefighters always ready to put of any fires (performance degradations) in the Salesforce platform.
Before directly diving into user research, first things first
I met with all Stakeholders to get a mental model of the problem and the product.
I invited all the stakeholders (6 Participants, 2 Moderators, 1 Facilitator). I had planned two activities for them. My main goal was to gather a list of assumptions the engineering team has on how users are currently using their platform.
Two activities that I had designed to gather assumptions
A list of assumptions
From this activity, I formulated my Hypothesis and entered the user research phase.
Hypothesis: Users find Warden AIOps services very useful. It is easy to use but can be improved.
📣 Learning #3
Over Communication helps especially while working from home.
Let the research investigation reveal what’s going on at the users’ side.
I conducted 16 interviews and conducted a survey of 600 users.
Qualitative Data Gathering
I asked them interview question in the first of the session collecting their WANTS and then asked the to walk me through the process of how they solve their problems using the Warden AIOps platform. This helped me gather their NEEDS.
Quantitative Data Gathering
I sent out surveys to collect generic data such as position, title, how long they have been using the platform etc.
📣 Learning # 4
Ask Questions, especially a lot of “WHYs“. Users often get too comfortable using the product that it becomes important to ask them lots of question to understand their pain points.
After the research, I had 8 hours of interview recordings, 27 survey responses and lots & lots of notes to analyze.
Matching Assumptions and Users experiences
Remember initially I had collected the stakeholders assumptions on how users use their system? During the data analysis I found whether the assumptions aligned, misaligned or partially aligned.
Sorting User Pain Points
I sorted all the pain points into these 5 buckets.
📣 Learning #5
I realized the benefits of closely working with my Product Manager.
I found 5 prominent Personas & I formulated their “Jobs To Be Done“.
Out of those 5 user pain points buckets, I focused on these 3 (UX Issues, UI Design & Onboarding) to stay in scope of my internship work
I sorted all the common pain points and came up with top 6 paint points.
The next step was to prioritize these pain points
Converted the pain points into Actionable Goals (User Stories)
And also plotted those pain points on Value VS Effort graph to identify the High Value and Low Effort pain points to fix.
This is how resolving 5 pain points will benefit Jobs To Be Done for these personas?
📣 Learning #6
Finally after a messy research phase, everything started making sense.
Understood JTBD framework and how it helps define personas
I saw the Power of Syncing up
Planning is key for conducting prioritization sessions
Iterative UX Design Process (3 Iterations)
First I met with the engineers, understood the user interface and how the data flows.
This is the Warden Dashboard. The pain points needed to be fixed were
Time Stamps
Help feature
I sketched the designs and the flow of the app.
After getting the team’s feedback, I created the low fidelity prototype
The main difference in this prototype was consistency (every page on the dashboard needed consistent data source selector) and the query selector.
This is version 1. I got feedback from the team and made version 2.
Version 2: I redesigned the query selector after getting the team’s feedback.
I tested this prototype with one user and received positive feedback.
Final Mockups of the Redesigned Warden Dashboard
This mockup address these pain points
Consistent Pages
Time input
Help Feature
This mockup address these pain points
Dynamic Query selector
📣 Learning #7
I experienced the benefit of asking for feedback from engineers on all the design work.
Findings & Learnings
What were my biggest learning of them all ?
Humbling Process
I learnt humility. This internship made me very humble. When I started this journey, I was confident that I can understand anything because I’m a PhD candidate, I’m used to dealing with complexity. But this journey made me realize that things can be complex limitlessly. In order to achieve happiness from work, it’s important to be humble.
Balanced Team
I realized the power of a balanced team. I got an opportunity to work with the design team, the engineering team and with the product manager.
Realized my Values
When I started, I was asked to do a V2MOM activity. Basically I had to write my values, vision, methods, obstacles and measures of my internship work. By doing this activity, I got a chance to reflect inward and realize My Values: Integrity, Creativity and Growth
What challenges did I overcome?
Complexity
Understanding the platform well before the research phase was key to my success. It was extremely difficult but because I did it, I was able to catch user insights and ask good questions.
Time Management
I had a hard time prioritizing things. I learned how to set goals, non-goals and manage expectations.
Staying Motivated
As this internship was a virtual one due to Covid 19, working from home was a new thing for me. After 2-3 pm, my motivation and focus decreased drastically in the initial weeks.
What I would have done differently?
Understanding Design goals of the team early on
I would have asked the design needs and goals of the team from the beginning
Group Interviews
I would have also taken group interviews of personas who used Warden AIOps as a team.
Balance
I would have balanced work and intern activities more efficiently.
What was the impact of my work?
Qualitative & Quantitative Impact
Helped validate the product roadmap.
Identified users' top pain points by conducting user research for a suite of 4 products
Proposed new user interface designs addressing user pain points which will impact up to 750 scrum teams
Presented my internship work 7 times
Because I worked with many teams, I presented my intern demo 5 times. And last 2 times was on public demand 😍
Happy Stakeholders
The teams were happy with my work, my personal growth and I made a lasting bond even after working remotely ☺️
I learned a lot professionally and personally. The users, teams and my soul were all very happy with this experience 😎
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