The Problem
Both mapping tools had unique features that appealed to their specific audiences.
Each tool met the needs of their own user base, but they were too similar to keep as separate products. The two mapping tools needed to be combined into one product that would meet everyone's needs while not alienating any existing customers.
Discovery
Stakeholder workshop and feature comparison.
I held a kickoff meeting with the new product owner, lead developer, and subject matter experts from both products to understand the needs of each client base. We reviewed existing functionality and came up with a list of features that either needed to be added to 5Maps, or existed in 5Maps and needed to be updated. We also discussed pain points for current users in both products. Based on that initial discussion, we identified a workflow and the pages needed to accomplish the most popular tasks and set that as our MVP goal.
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Basic flow
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Feature comparison
Design Sprints
Weekly design sprints to quickly design features and hand off to engineering.
The core group of lead developer, product owner, and myself met twice weekly to review ideas and iterations, with a subject matter expert (SME) present for the topic being discussed as well. The product owner or SME would typically have either sketched out an idea for discussion or brought an example from a competitor. We would discuss those as a group to ask questions related to our clients needs, determine feasibility, and discuss what it might look like in 5Maps.
After each meeting, I created wireframes based on our discussions that we would review at the next meeting. When we had completed a workflow for a particular task, I would add it to our prototype and test internally with users familiar with our clients and their tasks. They would work through real-world examples and provide feedback for continued iteration.
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Proposed feature
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Stakeholder sketch
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Design sprint wireframe
Quick Development
Regular handoffs to engineering resulted in a quicker build process.
With the lead developer involved in design sprint meetings, we headed off most potential issues early on. Additionally, because we went through our topics systematically, beginning with the most important functionality and pages, I was able to deliver annotated wireframes to development regularly so they could work as we continued to design.
Results
Exceeded business plan for client migrations and year-over-year retention
We released the MVP version of the new 5Maps to a select group of clients from both customer bases and showcased the improved version of the software at our yearly conference. When we released the new application to the full client base, we exceeded our business plan for client migrations and increased year-over-year client retention as well.