Elevate the UX maturity from absent to structured in one year
As the first UX hire, I turned the company’s UX approach into a core part of our decision-making. By fostering collaboration, shifting focus from features to outcomes, and aligning our strategy with business goals and client needs, we set the stage for sustainable growth.
Achievements
Creating a Shared Vision
We clarified our goals and values to improve teamwork and client satisfaction.
Foundation for Growth
We established an outcome-oriented roadmap, boosting planning efficiency and client happiness.
Client-Centric Mindset
We implemented active user research, empowering teams to gather valuable client insights independently.
Consistent Design Performance
We adopted a flexible design process tailored to our company, ensuring high-impact solutions.
Inclusive Culture
We encouraged all team members to contribute their ideas, increasing the impact of our work.
Enhanced User Satisfaction
We developed a unique design system and revamped the UI, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
The Starting Point
As the first UX hire, my goal was to transform the company’s UX culture from having no focus on
user experience to making it an essential part of our decision-making process.
When I joined, the company was in the middle of an acquisition. A small fintech with a promising
product was merging with a large financial corporation struggling with UX. We faced several
challenges:
- Losing significant deals due to an unappealing UI and a disjointed experience.
- 90% of support calls were from clients unable to set up the product.
- 30% of development effort was spent on irrelevant or overly client-specific improvements.
🚀 How could I contribute to ensure a sustainable business growth in the long term?
Building Trust
First Month
My first priority was building trust and establishing myself as a valuable resource. I conducted
over 20 one-on-one meetings across departments, listening to their perspectives on the product,
the users (investment professionals), and the challenges posed by the acquisition.
Key Insights:
- Almost everyone recognised the need for better user experience, design standards, and user
insights. This buy-in was a huge advantage - Shadowing sales pitches revealed a painful process. Sales reps were jumping through hoops
with 25 browser tabs open due to the product’s slowness and poor organisation. - Meeting with Marketing and Client Support highlighted a core issue: excessive product
customisation was driving up costs and creating a logistical nightmare.
Agenda
Quick Wins: Demonstrating the Power of UX
To showcase the value of UX, I started with a heuristic evaluation, focusing on quick wins like
improving error messages and information modals. These were simple changes with a big impact
on usability. This exercise also highlighted the need for a design system, which I noted for future
development.
A Shared Vision
Where do we stand?
Vision & Mission Workshop
How do we plan and deliver value to clients?
With our foundation set, we aligned our processes and established a shared, outcome-oriented
workflow. I created a high-level sketch linking our vision to strategy and implementation.
Outcome-oriented Workflow