App Flow Overhaul
Benchmark Email
SaaS
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B2B Digital Marketing App
Consolidated two complex multi-step processes into one flexible workflow.
Background
Benchmark Email, now owned by SaaS company Polaris Software, is a B2B digital marketing product serving SMBs in 9 languages across US and international regions.
Research during the product’s redesign uncovered customer pain points in the app’s core email workflows and an opportunity to drive impact by improving key experiences as well as new sign up activation.
Gaining stakeholder buy-in, I aimed to replace two four-step email processes with one flexible workflow that allowed customers to create, manage details, and schedule or send from a single page while maintaining a separate workspace for their email’s content design.
One of the old multi-step processes
Challenges
In addition to its high visibility, this project was complex because I needed to design for 2 email types, seamlessly embed supporting workflows within the main flow, account for multiple languages, and safely remove technical dependencies that forced customers into a fixed sequence, allowing them to work in whichever order they preferred without losing any data or feature power.
New flexible workflow in a single page
My Role
As a senior product designer, I was co-lead and the sole designer collaborating with a team of engineers, a researcher, and stakeholders across different time zones. Involved end-to-end from concept to launch, I also coordinated across departments to drive transparency and touchpoint alignment.
Identified Pain Points
I analyzed customer support tickets and partnered with a researcher to pull product analytics, combining qualitative and quantitative data to get a more complete picture of where customers struggled and identify opportunities.
Information Overload
Customers filled out email details on three pages, and each contained too much information. While sometimes useful for new customers, it also looked overwhelming, cluttered and affected readability. Paragraphs could look even longer in other languages supported by the app.
Information appeared lengthier in supported languages like Portuguese
Stop Light Experience
In a four step process heavy with content, it was common for users to see one or more errors when saving information on each page. This create a frustrating stop and go experience.
Errors commonly experienced
Too Much Movement
Customers used a lot of energy traveling between pages in the step process. We found this was also true for elements on individual pages. For example, customers expended a lot of time and energy finding table items to select and deselect. Since most people weren’t using search, it felt like finding a needle in a haystack.
Excess scrolling to complete legacy step process
Single Page Solution
Since the new page was API driven, I could safely move most pieces in the interface with minimal rework and focus on improving customer experience.
Centralized Details
Removing the rigid step process, I simplified the workflow so that all email details could be managed from a single page. This reduced excess movement from the legacy process and allowed customers to build from a central location. The page also doubled as a checklist so they could easily track their progress.
Customers could manage all their email details from a single page
For each section, I simplified complex workflows without removing any functionality. For example, I used a multi-select component to handle the contact lists customers wanted to email. I centralized selected items where they could easily see, remove and search any items with minimal scrolling. It also allowed for secondary actions such as creating, viewing and adding to lists.
Centralized information into a single component to minimize excess movement
Bite-Sized Information
To minimize visual and information overload, I created familiar sections that showed small amounts of information at a time. This created better focus while helping customers feel accomplishments faster. Sections also allowed me to group related fields together that had felt very far away in the step process.
Same information displayed in legacy step process (left) vs. new single page (right)
Reduced Clutter
Keeping information accessible, I also simplified options, grouped related items together and moved information to show contextually.
Simplified options but kept information accessible
I moved information from showing all the time to appearing contextually when customers needed it. Since they were based on specific conditions, they didn’t bother people that didn’t need them.
Contextual messages showed when customers needed them
Pre-filled Information and Minimized Error Friction
To reduce the amount of errors customers could experience, we auto-filled their information whenever possible and used the UI to guide them so they could no longer trigger certain error states. This was especially helpful for onboarding customers.
Pre-filled redundant account information
Validation and Impact
To minimize risk for existing customers and gather validation data, I created a phased rollout strategy to test and refine the simplified workflow with new customers first before launching to all accounts across 9 supported languages.
Customers consistently rated the new flow as easy
In addition to product analytics, I created post-completion surveys to gather direct feedback from new sign-ups and measure the new flow’s ease of use. New customers rated the experience as an average 5.89 out of 7 in the first 3 months, exceeding expectations against a goal of 5+. It sustained a consistent strong performance of 5.84 average over 6 months.
Existing customers sent feedback after the new flow was released to all regions:
This isn't a support issue, just wanted to say that the recent change to the [email checklist] UI is a big improvement, makes it much easier to input a mailing's settings and review them for accuracy all on one page.
Irene Nash
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Aug 2019
We love your new look and interface feel for sending bulk email. It’s user friendly, avoids errors and easy to make changes just before sending. Kudos to your technical team and the rest of the team!
Sylivia Spencer
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Aug 2019
Reduced maintenance cost by streamlining the flow
By collaborating closely with engineers, I was able to streamline business logic and simplify maintenance by consolidating 7 pages into 1. This workflow also created a scalable foundation that enabled other teams to later launch the app’s landing page feature.
Created a more accurate baseline for product data
Additionally, the product analytics from the simplified flow launch established a more accurate data baseline to measure time-to-first-send and insights into activation patterns that impacted future product decisions and growth strategies.