Before starting the design, we thought it was crucial to gather concrete evidence of users’ pain points. We outlined a diverse range of research topics we wish to uncover and corresponding methodologies. We then refined the topics into 3 themes, which later became our research's objectives.
We conducted a series of interactive stakeholder engagements across all levels of agency employees.
🎯 The goal was to understand agents’ current end-to-end workflow, including technologies and tools in use, processes, and cultures across each WME department or team.
We sent out surveys and conducted department-level 1:1 interviews. In the end, we received 50+ survey responses and conducted 21 interviews.
“Across core business lines, departments act entrepreneurially to solve problems for their team and clients.”
Despite belonging to the same company, WME departments operate independently to a large extent due to cross-department information sharing and communication inefficiency.
Many agents expressed that this “isolation” caused increased costs in day-to-day operations and higher business loss. The following six primary insights were identified through our research.
We then mapped out WME agents’ workflow into journey maps and discovered there are actually two main workflow pipelines: the Project-based pipeline and the Client deal-based pipeline.
🤔️ This presented a new challenge of how to include two different pipelines into one standard process. I created the following diagram to show how we can consolidate and streamline their existing workflows.
After consolidating the workflow, we agreed on the direction of creating an information-condensed platform with features that help agents sort through data to view and find targeted information quickly. We brainstormed 3 feature areas where we should focus on:
With another round of detailed features-level brainstorming, I plotted all the ideas on a 2x2 matrix based on Value to Overall UX and Effort to Implement to find which features are prioritized for our MVP.
With the help of the product manager and engineering team, we were able to discuss, test, and iterate the design until we felt confident in our design decisions.
We then sent a multitude of prototypes to our stakeholders and a selected group of members from the core team to test the designs.
🙌🏼 83% of users reported an easy and seamless experience.
🏆 100% expressed they will use the new platform for client search, talent sourcing, and project submission.
Moving on to designing the high-fidelity interfaces in Figma, my goal was to focus on up-leveling Pulse’s visual identity along with making sure our new updates were intuitive and easy to use.
We tested out different color themes and typographies and created the Pulse style guide, which became our design's backbone.
It’s important to keep things as seamless as possible by providing clear documentation, such as style guides, annotated designs, and asset libraries, that can help bridge the gap between design and development. It’s also helpful to communicate with the engineers throughout the handoff process to answer any questions and ensure everyone is on the same page.
While using Pulse’s brand guidelines and design system, we also created custom components that proved to be crucial in the process.
Before handing the final designs off to the engineering team, we conducted more usability testing with target user agents, focusing on testing functionalities, detecting errors, and refining user flows.
From the results and feedback we got, most agents can understand the dashboard and navigate smoothly within 5 minutes after being introduced to the Pulse platform. And 80%+ of them expressed that the project creation feature with multiple entry points would greatly reduce their daily workflow friction by allowing them to organize data inputs, which they originally needed to source from different platforms, in one place.
The engineering team is currently building out the Pulse platform, and I’m confident the new and improved system will provide WME’s agents with exceptional work experience on a daily basis.
Drop me a message at siachang.work@gmail.com