SaaS CRM for Muck Rack

Props to Eva for not only designing Dashboards over the last year but also introducing a new design process as part of this work that is already allowing us to approach features in a more collaborative and impactful way!

—Darya Roshikina, Product Manager (Apr 7, 2021)

My design process is user-centered and adapts to the evolving needs of the business. Pairing with engineering and integrating devs into design decisions is how we deliver fast.

Problem

Usage rates around pitching were low with users conducting most of their pitch efforts off-platform. It was also hard for them to report on impact of those efforts*

• 64% of PR teams reported that any form of quantifiable measurement is a top challenge.

• 71% said measuring business impact is their number one challenge.

*Internal survey of 1,000+ PR professionals.

Solution

Contextual editing and customizable data curation.

Product features:

• Deep dive into Dashboards;

• Folders to organize data;

• Email integration;

• Adding recipients to a Pitch.

Dashboards

User curated widgets through contextual editing.

Pitching

User curated media lists through contextual editing.

Hypothesis

Users were conducting most of their pitch and reporting efforts off-platform because they felt more comfortable curating their media lists and reports using excel and powerpoint. Giving users the ability to curate data in Muck Rack through contextual editing would result in higher feature adoption as users would spend less time maintaining and organizing static spreadsheets and presentations.

Test, Launch and Iterate

I designed in continuous iterations that improved the UI and user experience via incremental launches.

Data Curation

When creating Dashboards, we tested fast by launching the widget creation feature and tracking which types of widgets users found most useful.

Contextual Editing

Using drawers as a design pattern was an initial solution to give users greater visibility into contacts information within a table view.

Column Settings

The first iteration of contextual editing came in the form of toggles to control data visibility within tables via column settings accessed via a drawer.

Folders

The next iteration of contextual editing came in the form of the Folders feature, which I designed as a solution to the problem of users organizing data and tracking pitches off-platform via email folders.

Reducing manual effort

I designed pitch experience enhancements including a new search API that helps users find and curate contact data without leaving the pitch creation flow. I paired up with front and back-end engineers to prioritize a solution that scales and reduce manual efforts.

Qualitative Research

I interviewed over twenty product users to better understand their workflows off-platform and quickly test my hypothesis.

User Persona / Archetype: The Relationship Builder

The most time consuming tasks for the relationship builder archetype are researching contacts and curating pitch recipient lists.

Wow - for the first time ever, we now have user personas! Thanks for all your research involving interviewing our users and putting together our first set of personas.

—Lee Semel, CTO and co-founder (Apr 1, 2022)

Impact

Research efforts resulted in our first centralized research repository using Dovetail, our first set of user personas, and I was able to show the value of complementing rapid launches with strategic, insight's-driven decision making.

From a UX team of one, we grew to a team that included two senior level UX researchers.

Challenges

Tech debt. We were a team that shipped fast working with Bootstrap v3, which presented unique constraints when the time came to automate workflows for both internal and customer facing tools.

No testing environment. We tested prototypes and launched straight into production.

Tech Debt and Automation

All of your hard work on the pitching flow is much appreciated! Not only are you helping to repair a process that is long overdue for some TLC, but you've opened me to ideas that will help me put my thoughts about the journalist experience into a presentable visual. It's been such a pleasure to learn from you in the last few meetings!

—Sean Kiely, Manager, Media Research (Nov 9, 2022)

Mapping the Pitch Experience

Future State: Media List Import End-to-End