SmartX
Conceptualized CRM-like tools to enhance relationship-building efforts for Partners. This involved designing and strategizing an ecosystem aimed at assisting Partners in establishing and maintaining relationships with clients. The initiative aimed to create a user-centric and effective ecosystem, through consistent feedback to meet the needs and preferences of users.
Overview
This transformative journey from the initial challenges of adopting and adapting Salesforce to a strategic reorientation towards user-centric, modular CRM solutions exemplifies the power of user feedback, strategic pivots, and innovation. It highlights my evolution from addressing specific product enhancements to envisioning and implementing a seamless, integrated CRM ecosystem that not only meets but anticipates the needs of Partners and their clients. Through this journey, I have solidified my expertise in digital product development, focusing on creating tools that enhance user experience, foster knowledge sharing, and facilitate efficient client relationship management.
Starting with SmartShare
In Q2 2017, we introduced "SmartShare," a revolutionary product designed to facilitate efficient knowledge sharing among Partners. By leveraging Partners' networks, SmartShare aimed to make the dissemination of knowledge more engaging, efficient, and aligned with user needs. This marked a significant departure from previous efforts, focusing on targeted solutions that directly addressed specific user challenges without the encumbrances of previous platforms.
Expending the Ecosystem with SmartConnect
Continuing our journey, "SmartConnect" was launched in Q4 2018 as a networking tool to aid Partners in identifying and connecting with client opportunities within the network. This addition to our portfolio not only complemented SmartShare but also further solidified our vision for a more integrated, user-friendly CRM ecosystem, emphasizing automation and streamlined user experiences.
Unifying to CRM-like Ecosystem
Conceptualizing the Relationship Management System (RMS)
Our strategic pivot culminated in the conceptualization of the "Relationship Management System" (RMS), a vision for centralizing client contact information and integrating this with other initiatives. RMS represented a significant leap towards an ecosystem designed to empower Partners with comprehensive views of client relationships, providing critical insights, and facilitating proactive engagement utilization data collected through Partner’s interaction with their clients. RMS looked to become an automated CRM that required no manual setup or configuration.
Building and Integrating Solutions
The development of RMS and its integration within our broader CRM strategy involved a meticulous approach to improving data quality within the ClientLink Database. Our layered development strategy focused on stabilizing the database as a foundation, upon which RMS could be built and integrated with other initiatives, potentially incorporating AI capabilities to enrich the ecosystem further.
First Layer: Stabilize and clean out data
Second Layer: Build out RMS on top of data
Third Layer: Build out an integration layer on RMS
Fourth Layer: Potentially look at AI capability on RMS
Problems and the Pivot
Diagnosing the Problem
My journey began with the ambitious task of designing a mobile experience for "ClientLink for Partners" (CL4P), leveraging the Salesforce and VisualForce platforms. Despite the potential of Salesforce, we encountered significant hurdles: prohibitive licensing costs, technical limitations, and a stark gap between envisioned and actual user experiences. These challenges not only hampered user adoption but eventually led to the discontinuation of CL4P, prompting a reevaluation of our approach toward CRM solutions.
CL4P had a low adoption rate. We found one or two users logged into CL4P per week There were five main factors to the issue:
Usability of the application was poor
The effort required to receive any value was too high
The application was not part of their day-to-day flow
Too many use cases were developed at once, which lead to incomplete experience
Performance of the application was lacking
The Pivot to User-Centric
This phase of introspection brought to light the paramount importance of a user-led design philosophy. Our initial foray into leveraging Salesforce One for CRM functionalities revealed a mismatch between platform capabilities and user needs, emphasizing the necessity for a strategic pivot. This realization spurred a comprehensive research initiative, focusing on both desktop and mobile experiences, which underscored the critical need for applications designed from the ground up with user feedback at their core.