Making Complexity Simple
To expedite commercial real estate deals, VTS provides landlords and its agency with the lease proposal creation platform to accelerate the lease negotiation process. A-redesigned proposal template creation platform helps the VTS implementation team to reduce tremendously the time for onboard clients, enabling the business to scale proposal products rapidly.
Mar 2021 - Dec 2021
Overview
We redesigned the proposal template setup experience and launched a proposal template creation platform, helping the implementation team reduce 81.8% of the time for each template setup on average.
Before
Involving more than seven different types of external software to set up one proposal template took the implementation team 11.5 hrs on average.
After
The newly designed workflow only requires 2 hrs on average, and the implementation team can finish everything within VTS software.
The challenge
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The previous workflow is very complex, it has lots of intricate concepts and mental models hurdling internal teams & customers to understand the functionality. Consequently, customers don’t know what to provide, leading to rework and wasted time.
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The customer onboarding process is so convoluted that VTS can’t scale proposal creation without inundating the Client Advisory (CA) and Implementation (IM) teams.
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The training takes 5 weeks vs 1 week baseline for new implementation team members to familiarise themselves with the product, but questions emerge daily.
The outcome
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We delivered an entirely redesigned and rebuilt proposal creation experience to ensure the implementation team can move toward a high-efficiency template setup workflow to serve the client group.
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The new team member's training time was shortened by using this new workflow from 5 weeks to 1 week.
My role
I lead and own proposal creation design experience end to end, partner with product, business, and engineering stakeholders to research, design, implement, and iterate user-centered, well-crafted design solutions. Fast providing design solutions to meet the dynamic needs and technical challenges emerging daily.
Discovery
In the discovery phase, I used a blend of research methods (e.g., stakeholder interviews) to learn internal and external user pinpoints. I also hosted workshops to audit and understand the previous experience and product features.
User research
By using both quantitive and qualitative research methods, my product manager and I were able to identify the Implementation team's pain points and synthesize research findings into insights.
Stakeholder interview
Quantitative insights
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On average, one implementation team member spends 11.5 hours on one client's template setup ( from Mavenlink data).
Qualitative insights
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The template onboarding process is very complex.
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Formatting the template is challenging & time-consuming.
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The current pipe + clauses setup is hard for IMs to understand, and training takes too long for new team members.
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It is unclear what tags are available and how they will look in the final proposal document.
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The current process relies heavily on the Implementation team.
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The proposal templates setup process is so convoluted that VTS cannot scale this product without inundating the Client Advisory and Implementation teams.
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Once a client's template is live, the client is not self-sufficient and relies upon VTS to make changes to their template.
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How Might We?
In the discovery phase, I used a blend of research methods (e.g., stakeholder interviews) to learn internal and external user pinpoints. I also hosted workshops to audit and understand the previous experience and product features.
How might we reduce the steps and tools the implementation team uses to setup proposal templates?
How might we create a sense of simplicity in the proposal template setup?
How might we help new hires efficiently familiarize themselves with the proposal template setup process?
Ideation
After clearly defining the problem space and statements, I developed several compelling design concepts in the ideation phase to resonate with all product stakeholders. I constantly test, validate and refine design decisions to ensure the new experience delivers a simple and efficient workflow.
Unfold proposal anatomy
Tagging experience
Previous tagging experience pinpoints
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The tag category and naming are not properly refined.
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The pipe concept is complex for the user to understand and implement.
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Switching between applications to check tags and pipes availability is time-consuming.
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Undue time wasting checking in between the template and app for errors.
Previous tagging experience in VTS
Tagging design concepts
Optimize the taxonomy and tag names.
Exploring one stop tagging solutions without leaving the app.
Visualize the format concept, and focus on usability instead of technical implementations.
Adding a preview to the tag selector can prevent tag errors before enabling the template in the app.
Test and iteration
Test and get feedback from implementation team members on the end-to-end tagging concept to refine the workflow.
Based on the IM team's feedback, technical feasibility, and our design system patterns, iterate the design to optimize tagging solutions.
Templates setup workflow
Previous workflow pinpoints
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The previous template setup workflow involved more than seven external software, and switching between applications is time-consuming.
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The format options heavily rely on Google docs which causes lots of compatibility issues with our app.
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The flow could have spent way less time tracking and correcting errors between applications.
Previous templates setup experience in VTS
Templates design concept 1
This concept explores the one-stop solution for template editing, tagging, and clause adding. Users can use the tag library to insert any tags into the template. Clause library prepopulated our white label clause content if the user hasn’t had their library setup; it allows users to easily search and drag the clause they want to add directly to the document.
Templates design concept 2
The design intention behind this concept is to allow users to focus on their tasks and improve work efficiency. We identified two user types: One wants to get the job done, quickly sets up the template, edits the content then enables it in our app. This interface allows them to do inline editing, tagging, and formatting without going to other web pages. Another type of user is more advanced; they would like to set up the clause library for future use. Then we also have more settings hidden behind the meatball icon, allowing them to do more controls.
🚀 Debut and live demo
After several rounds of user test and iteration, here is the debut of our final proposal templates setup tool to help the Implementation team to facilitate user generate their proposals. There were many technical challenges during our implementation phase due to our system constraints; I paired with our Engineers and QA to brainstorm and needle workarounds to help us move forwards and make sure the design solutions were feasible and desirable to meet our current needs and fit into the plan as well.
Go to market
In the launch phase, I help the product and market team shape the Go-To-Market strategy and tell a compelling visual story to improve customer adoption.
Proposal creation experience
Build a presentation-ready proposal in 3 easy steps, without ever leaving VTS.
Creating 2nd+ Proposal
Quickly respond to tenant reps, and watch your proposal change as you modify terms in VTS.