Problem
Marketers could not access and download more data from the User Profile, preventing them from full data customization.
Goal
Redesign the CSV downloader to allow Marketers to pick and choose from a greater part of the User Profile, enabling them to do more with their data and increase their ability to personalize their customer's experiences
Visual explanation
Segment is a complex product so here is my simplified way of explaining how our systems work 😉
(These terms have been adjusted for confidentiality reasons)
Let's say Jane is a customer for an e-commerce business that uses Segment. Segment is able to capture all types of data fields under several categories inside the app. However, it's hard to pull that data out to download.
Current CSV Downloader
Only one data category available. There were also some wonky layout and interactions that we wanted to improve to make the experience more seamless overall.
This would essentially expand the breadth and diversity of data that customers can pull from, which is a huge value to our customers because we can fulfill several more use cases for them.
We also used this opportunity to pinpoint and redesign areas of improvement in the overall download experience because why not give our users the best? 💥
(Because of confidentiality reasons, actual spreadsheets and documents cannot be shown)
1. Created a Customer Feedback & Impact spreadsheet to pinpoint the use case/problem to solve for
Based on our analysis of product gaps, JIRA tickets, and other customer feedback, we synthesized that feedback and calculated that $9.8mill ARR is represented by customers who want this feature. This helped us validate the business impact to move forward with this redesign.
From our research, majority of customers were Marketers in these businesses and the primary use case we synthesized was to access this data for better email marketing campaigns.
2. We compiled a list of technical, UX, and general open questions and used our cross-functional partners for answers:
Asking Solution Architects (client facing employees):
"Which data categories are important to our customers in your experience?"
→ SAs told us customers continuously ask for "Segment_id" and "custom_traits" data categories. These would be the most high impact categories to include for our MVP.
Asking Engineering:
"Is it possible in the back-end to send a download email to a customer once the CSV finishes generating?"
→ We got the green-light that this could be done so we were able to improve the overall download experience with this in mind.
3. Defined our success metric
We wanted to have 5 out of the 10 large enterprise customers who asked for this feature able to successfully use and meet their use case with this redesign.
Exploring potential solutions
After mapping out the existing flow to understand what areas we could improve and compiling the exact data categories to provide (Segment_id, custom_traits, external_ids), we began the ideation process.
This helped align the team efficiently by facilitating quick decision making.
2. Translate user flow into low-fi designs
1. CSV Generation
I really emphasized the importance of giving users an indication that progress is happening. Since the CSV generation can take up to 30 minutes, I made sure to explore different options on how we could indicate that process.
V1
V2
V3
2. Table format exploration
This diagram was used as a reference point for our team members as well as distant collaborators/contributers who weren't as familiar with the project.
1. Select, filter, search from lists of data categories and relative fields from the User Profile
2. Formatting options became its own step dedicated to helping users understand how to package their final file, with summary of file size
3. A more seamless download experience
1. Successes
I demoed the interaction with each internal person and customer we talked to. The feedback was that it was very intuitive to them on how the feature worked and would be easy for the customer to navigate.
2. Does it meet our customers' use cases?
After demoing the prototype to the two customers, they both mentioned it would be more valuable to them if we included the additional data category of SQL Traits and Computed Traits. This goes against what we had originally thought. We had originally only added in the Segment_id and Custom Traits because that was the feedback we got from internal team members. Now that we got this feedback from actual customers and their reasoning, adding those additional categories will be in the plans moving forward.
3. Next steps
Next steps: Incorporate feedback and confirm at least 5 happy customers in order to ship to the public. This is planned to happen in March.