Steele

A team-building system with working dashboard for salesperson
@ Steelcase

UX/UIProduct designDesktopMultimodel

Overview

Role

Research
Product Concept
Storyboarding
UX / UI design
Interaction design
Prototyping

Design Team

Siyuan Teng
Sunmin Ko
Yiqi Zhong
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Design Tools

Figma
Miro

Time

2022
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Platform

Web
Mobile

This project is academically sponsored by Steelcase in the fall semester of 2022 at the Institute of Design

Project Objectives

Design an experience to drive confidence and clarity with salespeople when custom Steelcase product is needed for a client request

Problems

With messy work processes and limited resource access, salespeople need help finding appropriate specialists to develop holistic solutions confidently.

Steelcase is a worldwide company with a large structure and different positions of employees working in different locations. It is challenging for a salesperson to understand the company's structure fully. Therefore, when dealing with RFP (Request for Proposal) orders from dealers, salespeople do not know which specialists in the company are suitable for their projects. In addition, because the information is not centralized, the salesperson needs to spend much time communicating across platforms, which increases the workload and time cost. Finally, there are turnovers when salespeople communicate with internal specialists and dealers, and sometimes the salespeople are not sure how to meet the needs of the dealers.

Our Solution

For the salesperson who is struggling with RFP processing of scattered info, Steele provides intelligent tech and advocates capabilities to support them in choosing the right specialists to improve their efficiency in processing the RFP from the dealers.

We designed a system to recommend specialists in the right domain to the salesperson based on RFP keywords. The system also suggests advocates for the salesperson to support the sales in making decisions and providing advice. In the project, through the project dashboard, the salesperson can get all kinds of project information and progress and can create quick chats with internal members.

we provide the value by offering
1. RFP keyword identification and processing
2. Intelligent recommendations of specialists and resources
3. RFP tracking panel with info integration for internal communication
4. Advocates consulting system

Outcome

Final delivery

We designed a team building system with 3 specific use cases including a persona, user journey, user flow, wireframe, high fidelity prototype and clickable interactive prototype.

Use case

We developed three use cases based on the concept, which are as follows.

Use case 1 - Configuring project with smart system based on RFP keywords

Use case 2 - Building a team with advocate to find the appropriate specialists

Use case 3 - Facilitating team cooperation on RFP issues and solutions

Use case 1

Configuring project
based on RFP keywords

  • Mailbox Plugin
  • RFP Keywords Identification
  • Team Requirements Overview
  • Related Projects Recommended

User Scenario

Mona receives RFP requests from dealers in her mailbox and imports the RFP into the Steele system using the Steele mailbox plugin. The system automatically analyzes the keywords of the RFP to give Mona the specialist's requirements overview of the project and similar project cases as a reference.

1. Using Steele mailbox plugin to process the RFP from dealers
2. RFP keywords extraction and information editing
3. Overview of specialist team member requirements based on RFP keywords
4. Similar successful cases recommendation

Use case 2

Building a team of
specialists

  • System Recommends Specialists
  • Advocate Consulting

There are two ways to select specialists for a project

1. Sales can select specialists for their projects themselves in the system based on system recommendations
2. Sales can discuss with their advocates to choose the suitable specialists

User Scenario

Sales ask their advocates for assistance in choosing suitable specialists

Mona accesses the team panel after configuring the project. After that, Mona selects the team of specialists for the project in the specialists' pool based on the system's recommendation. After consulting with the advocates, Mona chooses the specialist team members for the project.

1. Accessing to team panel to know the context of advocates and specialist selection
2. Getting an advocate for the project
3. Selecting the suitable specialists in the specialists pool based on the system recommendation
There are three ways to select the specialists - specialists pool, Projects-based, Network-based
4. Sending the pending list to the advocates

Advocates' perspective

Advocates can receive the sales' pending list and view these specialists' information on cell phones. They can edit the list based on their experience to provide valuable advice to the sales.

1. Project information and related projects
2. Pending lists of specialists
3. Checking the profile of the specialists
4. Selecting the right specialist
5. Searching the suitable specialist
6. Finishing the selection
7. Sending back to the salesperson

Use case 3

Facilitating team cooperation on RFP issues and solutions

  • Project status on dashboard
  • Information update processing
  • Internal quick chat

User Scenario

Mona uses this dashboard to quickly monitor the progress and status of each project. At work, she used quick chat to discuss issues about the project and advocates provided her with very useful advice. Mona finally completed the RFP order from Amazon as requested.

Project dashboard

There are 6 sections in the project dashboard. It includes the money-based section, time-based section, resources, product unit section, email tracking section, and the components section.

1. Monitoring the status of the RFD processing
2. Checking the component which has problems
3. Initiating a quick chat to discuss the problem component with the specialists and inviting advocates together to help
4. Quick chat on Team

Product Design Process

Research

Understanding the current working process for salesperson

Through Steelcase's lectures and Q&A interview sessions, we learned about the workflow and pain points of company at this stage, and we mapped out the workflow to better understand the problem space in high level.

Insights

• Salespeople need an efficient way to handle the information. Because Heavy text-based information takes a lot of time and effort for sales to process, resulting in inefficient project processing.

• A stressful and heavy work environment and back-and-forth messaging lead to low productivity and problem-resolution rates. Sales need support in processing and managing projects.

• With a Massive company structure and product volume, sales need help to reach out to the right members for the project and make the decision.

Persona

Mona, a salesperson at Steelcase

Journey Map - Identify the problem space

By mapping the user journey, we can identify the problems and emotions that salespeople encounter to define the issues that need to be solved and identify potential opportunities.

We focused the problem on
1.  Internal team organization and discussion
2. RFQ processing.

Ideas Generation

Visualize the ideas

Based on the problem space identified, we brainstormed and generated the following ideas and drew up storyboards to present to our clients and gather feedback from them.

Team building with AI: The system recommends the appropriate specialists for sales based on the specialists' tags.

Centralized resources platform: Through a centralized platform, sales can view the status of projects and share project files and information.

Team meeting with visualized components: A multi-format visualization system where different stakeholders can use different modes to view and edit according to their needs

Concept Development

Identify the final problem space - More valuable space

We got directional feedback by using storyboards to present potential concepts to Steelcase. Ultimately, we oriented our problem on how to help sales build the right team for the project to increase their confidence.

How might we assist salespeople in finding and collaborating with the right specialists, ensuring efficient decision-making?

Concept

Using the RFP keywords identification and introducing experienced advocates to help salespeople build the team and deal with RFP to make them feel confident.

We developed three prominent use cases to show our design solution. In addition, we constructed the user flow to link these three use cases and discussed the interactions in detail and how the whole system works, especially how the technology and human power work together.

Key Features

Configuring project based on RFP keywords

Using AI to identify keywords saves time for salespeople when setting up projects and provides them with relevant information. We envision having the system with two entrances: a working email plugin and a system dashboard to import RFP files manually.

Advocates system

By bringing in more experienced salespeople to act as advocates, they provide assistance in team building and valuable opinions in the RFP processing process. Advocates can provide salespeople with many soft skills, including communicating with dealers and making decisions. However, it is optional for salespeople to choose advocates.

Building a team of specialists

There are two ways to help salespeople build the right team of specialists. One is the system to filter and recommend candidates and requirements based on RFP keywords. One is that salespeople can consult with their advocates to decide on their team members.

Quickly responding to project updates

With a more intuitive design, salespeople can view the RFP processing process through a centralized panel. Integrating mailbox tracking in the dashboard, with mailbox synchronization and message recognition to keep relevant information up to date. By unifying communication channels, sales can create a Quick Chat to discuss with team members.

Use case development

Interaction Design

Information Architecture

Use IA to clearly structure the product and determine the hierarchy of features and pages

Wireframe and interaction

Based on our use case and features, we started thinking about interaction design and creating low-fidelity wireframes.

User testing and iteration

After completing the low-fidelity wireframes, we conducted user testing. We interviewed Steelcase's sales, product managers, and other internal people. In addition, we also discussed the interaction design of the interface with our classmates and professors. By collecting their feedback on our prototype, we iterated on the prototype.

"The function to identify keywords is great, but in the prototype, I am not sure what this has for my project the first time I use it."

"For sales, time is precious to me, and I want to quickly see the information that is important to me."‍

"The page needs more contextual information to let the user know where the user is and where to go next."

"There is too much content on the page, and I don't know where I should focus."

Focus & Orientation

We concluded the features that need to be revised and the principles of the modifications.

We kept thinking about organizing the information into digestible pieces and thinking what the goal of the screen is? Stand in the user's perspective and consider where I am. What can I do on this page? Where will I go?

Iteration examples

Provide clearer context and step-by-step information to give users a better idea of their stage and a sense of navigation. Add information about the recommendations of the specialist team to provide the user with a preliminary understanding of the specialist's needs for the entire project. Also increasing the user's sense of control.

We decided to separate the team members from the project content so that users would have a clearer idea of each board's goal and what features it can provide. Providing more context about advocates and specialists pool gives users information to input before they act and know the next step.

Integrate similar sections to make it easier for users to understand and make the page more concise. Highlight the essential content to the user, saving them time, giving them the fastest access to the content they want, and presenting information more visually and intuitively.

Visual Design

Visual Principles

Concise & Clear

Because this is a complex system with much content, we decided to use a very concise way on the visual side to reduce the visual pressure on the user.

Visual Style

Referring to Steelcase's identity, We used black and white as the primary colors, Helvetica as the font for the interface design, and lightweight linear icons.

Visual Identity

We want to create a visual identity for the system and add emotional design and sizzle moments to the user experience.

UI design

Be consistent with visual principles so that users clearly know where I am and what I can do on this page. Highlight the information that is most important and valuable to the user.

Mailbox Plugin

Team Members Page

Specialist Pool

Project Dashboard

Mobile Interface Design

Reflection

If there was more time

To improve the logic and structure of the whole product and make the design more complete. Optimize the interaction path, provide more contexts to guide users, and enhance ease of use. In the visual design, use a more unified visual language to reduce the learning cost and improve the simplicity of product use.

Iteration

Testing, collecting feedback and iterating through wireframes and interaction prototypes is one of the most effective ways to achieve the right design direction.

Design Delivery

Visualization is one of the best means to convey and express design concepts. It is an essential part of the project. Through storyboarding and prototyping, it is possible to make the design concept more intuitive for the user or client to understand.

Collaboration

Everyone on the team can share their ideas and understandings and draw on different perspectives, enhancing teamwork and enriching the design concept. A clear division of tasks allows for greater productivity. Keeping communication going is also an effective way to improve collaboration.

OverviewOutcomeResearchConcept developmentUX/UI Design
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