LDJ Strategy &
Quick Actions Palette
Part 1: Prioritized new features for Launchpad's product roadmap through a Lightening Decision Jam (LDJ).
Part 2: As part of our first LDJ objective, I created the Quick Actions Palette to enhance operator navigation in Launchpad's web app.
Company
Launchpad
Timeline
Q2 to Q3 2023
Team
CEO
CTO
1 Designer (Me)
3 Engineers
Role
I led a LDJ strategy workshop, and owned the design part of the quick actions palette in the roadmap
Problem
The team at Launchpad had a lot of great ideas on how to improve existing and new features. However the scope of certain projects were too big to take on for a lean team, and so prioritization was a struggle.
Opportunity Cost: Taking on projects with large scope without customer impact were costly for a lean team
Conflicting prioritization: Multiple high priority items were detrimental to the output quality
"We don't have a clear vision on what problems to work on next"
-CEO
Goal
Align the team by identifying and prioritizing solutions for existing customer problems.
-80%
Less customer service calls
-50%
Time saved from strategy/ scoping meetings
7
User workflows with interactions
1 Defined Roadmap
Templated approach to define and prioritize future customer problems, enabling us to design targeted solutions effectively
Two Part Strategy
Launchpad’s product centers around 3 pillars: scheduling, payments, and communication.
For this workshop, we aimed to solve for scheduling issues with studio operators. Operators are individuals responsible for managing and overseeing the operations of a martial arts studio.
Part 1: Lightening Decision Jam (LDJ)
I prepared both the physical board for the in-person attendees and the Figjam board for our hybrid participants, and co-facilitated with the lead engineer to ensure features were technically feasible.
Starting with a broad scale view of the app
Since it was our first team workshop, I aimed for a broad perspective, seeking perspectives about operators from various team members. During the brainstorming session, we noted:
Positives: Operators found AI particularly useful for communication, and the schedule and calendar view were highly intuitive.
Friction Areas: However, operators struggled with event navigation throughout the app, compounded by inconsistencies in naming conventions.
How might we reduce the number of clicks on the most common operator workflows?
As the LDJ was meant to establish the roadmap's direction, we opted to identify three opportunity areas instead of just one. This approach allowed us to effectively plan for our short, medium, and long-term objectives. For brevity, I'll concentrate on the first opportunity area.
Provide operators with immediate access to frequently used actions, and accelerate their workflows
The quick actions palette came out as the winning solution as it benefits the operator with a more accessible way to navigate their most common actions, and resolve findability issues we've identified in the design audit.
An expandable agenda with action buttons that adapt to individual user behavior over time
Given that this was a new feature, I designed the operator palette in stages, considering what we know about our customers today and their expected usage once it's implemented. Each version was aligned with the changing needs of operators to ensure it's practical.
Take
Attendance
Collect
Payment
Add
Person
Schedule
Trial
Book
Appointment
Issue
Membership
Add to
Class
Send
V0: MVP Assumptions
CTAs were identified on what we think is the most common workflows from past customer calls and analyzing app usage (Posthog)
Quick Actions
Collect Payment
Schedule Trial Class
Take Attendance
Enroll Member
Add a Person
Send an Email
V1: General usage
After 1 month of usage, CTAs will be distilled and re-identified based on what is most commonly used across all operators
V2: Customized usage
After 3 months of usage, each action item will be changed dynamically based on individual's usage for a more customized approach.
Tradeoffs: Dialogue Box vs Full Screen Overlay
My engineers and I discussed the use of dialogue boxes for context-focused experiences and full-screen overlays for immersive, task-specific interactions. We ultimately adopting a hybrid approach for user flow continuity and focused experiences as needed.
Taking Attendance Flow
Adding a Person Flow
Adding to Class Flow
Issue a Membership Flow
Adding subsequent versions to ur roadmap
The LDJ workshop proved instrumental in shaping our product roadmap, laying the foundation for planned features, as well as generated a templated approach to define and prioritize for future customer problems.
As for the palette, we introduced the quick actions palette in its V0 MVP stage, with plans for iterative improvements in V2 and V3, contingent upon user feedback.
