Designing to Decrease SLA by 72%
“Fleur played a central role in redesigning a number of our internal workflows and screens used by our internal team of 200+ citation agents that helped us reduce our delivery SLA from 18 days to just 5 — a great achievement that benefited both our team and our customers.”
Myles Anderson, CEO
Project Summary
Led end to end design process from user research to prototyping and testing
Redesigned user experience of workflow tools for remote citation agents
“Fleur played a central role in redesigning a number of our internal workflows and screens used by our internal team of 200+ citation agents that helped us reduce our delivery SLA from 18 days to just 5 — a great achievement that benefited both our team and our customers.”
Myles Anderson, CEO
Project Summary
Led end to end design process from user research to prototyping and testing
Redesigned user experience of workflow tools for remote citation agents
“Fleur played a central role in redesigning a number of our internal workflows and screens used by our internal team of 200+ citation agents that helped us reduce our delivery SLA from 18 days to just 5 — a great achievement that benefited both our team and our customers.”
Myles Anderson, CEO
Business Context
BrightLocal is a platform that helps marketers beat their competitors in Local SEO. As well as operating as a SaaS provider, BrightLocal offers a citation service which is executed by a remote team of agents in the Philippines. In late 2024, the Service Level Agreement to complete a campaign of citations had crept up to a high of 20 days and we as a team were tasked with helping to reduce this.
User Problem
Agents’ were ignoring the internal tools in favour of spreadsheets, prone to human error and slow work processes. As campaign orders rose, so did agents’ ability to keep up and succeed.
Key Constraints
01 NO DESIGN SYSTEM
After several rebuilds of our design system and another under construction, there was no source of truth to rely on between Figma and Storybook.
02 STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATION
There was a lack of conviction and understanding from certain stakeholders that a design could have a significant impact.
Timeline
Below is an overview of the project timeline and which UX/UI activities were conducted at each stage of the process.
Business Context
BrightLocal is a platform that helps marketers beat their competitors in Local SEO. As well as operating as a SaaS provider, BrightLocal offers a citation service which is executed by a remote team of agents in the Philippines. In late 2024, the Service Level Agreement to complete a campaign of citations had crept up to a high of 20 days and we as a team were tasked with helping to reduce this.
Key Research Insights
01 SPEED
What the user interviews quickly revealed was that the tools were very slow to load ~5 seconds on average, which was unacceptable for agents trying to work efficiently.
02 USABILITY ISSUES
Abbreviations and colour coding were often misunderstood and there was a lack of flexibility in surfacing priority or duplicate campaigns quickly and easily.
User Problem
Agents’ were ignoring the internal tools in favour of spreadsheets, prone to human error and slow work processes. As campaign orders rose, so did agents’ ability to keep up and succeed.
Key Constraints
01 NO DESIGN SYSTEM
After several rebuilds of our design system and another under construction, there was no source of truth to rely on between Figma and Storybook.
02 STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATION
There was a lack of conviction and understanding from certain stakeholders that a design could have a significant impact.
Timeline
Below is an overview of the project timeline and which UX/UI activities were conducted at each stage of the process.
Project Summary
Led end to end design process from user research to prototyping and testing
Redesigned user experience of workflow tools for remote citation agents
Key Research Insights
01 SPEED
What the user interviews quickly revealed was that the tools were very slow to load ~5 seconds on average, which was unacceptable for agents trying to work efficiently.
02 USABILITY ISSUES
Abbreviations and colour coding were often misunderstood and there was a lack of flexibility in surfacing priority or duplicate campaigns quickly and easily.
Solution Overview
As well as improving the speed of the internal tools, I proposed a consolidated tool with more powerful filtering functionality as well as the ability to assign campaigns to address both the problems of speed and usability.
Priority Tagging & Due Date
Tagging capability for Customer Support and Overdue campaigns and arrange order by due date.
Ability to Filter By Criteria
Ability to filter by a wide range of criteria as uncovered by the UX research.
Assign Campaigns to Users
Add ability to assign one or multiple campaigns to a user.
Cleaner, UI Design Aesthetic
Improve the overall UI Design and play into the 'Aesthetic-Usability Effect' UX Law that users have a cognitive bias for products that are more attractive in design as easier to use and more functional.
Solution Overview
As well as improving the speed of the internal tools, I proposed a consolidated tool with more powerful filtering functionality as well as the ability to assign campaigns to address both the problems of speed and usability.
Priority Tagging & Due Date
Tagging capability for Customer Support and Overdue campaigns and arrange order by due date.
Ability to Filter By Criteria
Ability to filter by a wide range of criteria as uncovered by the UX research.
Ability to Assign Campaigns to Users
Add ability to assign one or multiple campaigns to a user.
Cleaner, UI Design Aesthetic
Improve the overall UI Design and play into the 'Aesthetic-Usability Effect' UX Law that users have a cognitive bias for products that are more attractive in design as easier to use and more functional.
Before & After High Fidelity Prototypes
Campaign Tracker
An overview of all purchased campaigns with an ability to search, filter, edit and assign to users as well as spot "at risk" priority and overdue campaigns.
Team Impact
100% adoption
Efficiency Gain
88% reduction
SLA
18 to 5 days
User Survey
4.5/5
Business Context
BrightLocal is a platform that helps marketers beat their competitors in Local SEO. As well as operating as a SaaS provider, BrightLocal offers a citation service which is executed by a remote team of agents in the Philippines. In late 2024, the Service Level Agreement to complete a campaign of citations had crept up to a high of 20 days and we as a team were tasked with helping to reduce this.
User Problem
Agents’ were ignoring the internal tools in favour of spreadsheets, prone to human error and slow work processes. As campaign orders rose, so did agents’ ability to keep up and succeed.
Key Constraints
01 NO DESIGN SYSTEM
After several rebuilds of our design system and another under construction, there was no source of truth to rely on between Figma and Storybook.
02 STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATION
There was a lack of conviction and understanding from certain stakeholders that a design could have a significant impact.
Timeline
Below is an overview of the project timeline and which UX/UI activities were conducted at each stage of the process.
Research Activities
I carried out a range of UX activities outlined below from a usability review to a priority matrix.
Usability Review
To identify current pain points of the tools and opportunities for improvement.
Affinity Mapping
To synthesise research insights by grouping what could be kept, removed, added or improved.
UX Benchmarking
By taking inspiration from other popular productivity tools, I built a picture of best practices and different approaches the product could take.
Priority Matrix
I then mapped these potential avenues on a priority matrix with the PM to understand how to balance desirability, feasibility and viability.
Key Research Insights
01 SPEED
What the user interviews quickly revealed was that the tools were very slow to load ~5 seconds on average, which was unacceptable for agents trying to work efficiently.
02 USABILITY ISSUES
Abbreviations and colour coding were often misunderstood and there was a lack of flexibility in surfacing priority or duplicate campaigns quickly and easily.
Solution Overview
As well as improving the speed of the internal tools, I proposed a consolidated tool with more powerful filtering functionality as well as the ability to assign campaigns to address both the problems of speed and usability.
Priority Tagging & Due Date
Tagging capability for Customer Support and Overdue campaigns and arrange order by due date.
Ability to Filter By Criteria
Ability to filter by a wide range of criteria as uncovered by the UX research.
Ability to Assign Campaigns to Users
Add ability to assign one or multiple campaigns to a user.
Cleaner, UI Design Aesthetic
Improve the overall UI Design and play into the 'Aesthetic-Usability Effect' UX Law that users have a cognitive bias for products that are more attractive in design as easier to use and more functional.
Before & After High Fidelity Prototypes
Campaign Tracker
An overview of all purchased campaigns with an ability to search, filter, edit and assign to users as well as spot "at risk" priority and overdue campaigns.
Kanban Board
An improved Kanban Board, removing the elements that were underutilised with more advanced filtering. The user is able to track the progress of campaigns that are in progress with the ability to expand a column.
Kanban Board
An improved Kanban Board, removing the elements that were underutilised with more advanced filtering. The user is able to track the progress of campaigns that are in progress with the ability to expand a column.
Learn & Iterate
As well as testing the prototype with the team pre-production, we continued to test after the first release and made iterations that would further increase adoption and ease of use.
Impact Metrics
By improving the loading speed, reducing the need of spreadsheets from 20+ to 0 and improving usability of the two tools, over a six months period we were able to see a dramatic downward shift in the SLA from 18 to just 5. A big win for the agents! Over time, this reduction in the SLA is forecast to make a significant, unexpected improvement to the company's profit margin gained through increased productivity.
100% reduction in spreadsheet usage (from 20+ to 0)
100% tool adoption by the Philippines team
User satisfaction: 4.5/5
Reduced SLA per campaign management cycle from 18 days to just 5
Before & After High Fidelity Prototypes
Campaign Tracker
An overview of all purchased campaigns with an ability to search, filter, edit and assign to users as well as spot "at risk" priority and overdue campaigns.
“The new tools are much faster and really easy to use.”
Joe Jacinto, Remote Agent
“At last they have stopped using all of those spreadsheets and long workarounds that didn't make sense.”
Rada Daktina, Operations Manager
“Fleur played a central role in redesigning a number of our internal workflows and screens used by our internal team of 200+ citation agents that helped us reduce our delivery SLA from 18 days to just 5 — a great achievement that benefited both our team and our customers.”
Myles Anderson, CEO
Learn & Iterate
As well as testing the prototype with the team pre-production, we continued to test after the first release and made iterations that would further increase adoption and ease of use.
Impact Metrics
By improving the loading speed, reducing the need of spreadsheets from 20+ to 0 and improving usability of the two tools, over a six months period we were able to see a dramatic downward shift in the SLA from 18 to just 5. A big win for the agents!
100% reduction in spreadsheet usage (from 20+ to 0)
100% tool adoption by the Philippines team
User satisfaction: 4.5/5
Reduced SLA per campaign management cycle from 18 days to just 5
“The new tools are much faster and really easy to use.”
Joe Jacinto, Remote Agent
“At last they have stopped using all of those spreadsheets and long workarounds that didn't make sense.”
Rada Daktina, Operations Manager
“Fleur played a central role in redesigning a number of our internal workflows and screens used by our internal team of 200+ citation agents that helped us reduce our delivery SLA from 18 days to just 5 — a great achievement that benefited both our team and our customers.”
Myles Anderson, CEO
“Fleur played a central role in redesigning a number of our internal workflows and screens used by our internal team of 200+ citation agents that helped us reduce our delivery SLA from 18 days to just 5 — a great achievement that benefited both our team and our customers.”
Key Learnings
01 OFF-THE-SHELF DESIGN SYSTEM
As this project was purely for internal tools, using an off-the-shelf design system could have proved to be a faster interim solution with a more flexible, user-friendly colour palette.
02 STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
If I were to "redo" the project, I would focus on involving stakeholders earlier on in the process by sharing and discussing wireframes as well as early prototypes in order to improve the overall buy-in of the project as early as possible.