Onboarding research
25 September 2023
What we tested
The purpose of this round of testing is to:
- Expose a wider group of high growth account managers who have not been part of the core team to the service
- Familiarise them with the process to enable the next stage, which will involve real customers
- Get some early feedback from them on what could be improved before Beta
Who we talked to
12 Scaling Services Account Managers in 6 sessions. Sessions were held remotely using MS Teams
What we did
- Each session involved 2 account managers
- We asked one participant to play the account manager role, the other to play the client role
- Sessions were a hybrid demo/research as it is entirely new to this group
- Participants were led through the AM interface, but left to act independently as far as possible on the client side
What we were trying to find out
- Does the AM interface fit with their mental model?
- Would they be happy to invite a real client to use this right now?
- Is the client interface intuitive and learnable enough for clients to use unguided?
- What training needs for AMs could we identify?
What we learned
- Feedback was mainly positive
- The signup process caused confusion and pain
- This could be compounded by the fact participants already had SE accounts
- Position of the ‘Next’ button on start page caused participants to believe that Financial
information would be next step because of proximity (Gestalt)- This has been resolved by a subsequent update
- Customer edits need to be highlighted in AM interface
- The banner warning that content would be seen by client is not noticeable enough
- The phrase ‘Funding needs’ could invite misunderstanding and should be rethought
Discovery research
18 May 2023
What we tested
- The Platform team have developed an Axure prototype to assist Scaling Services account managers onboarding new clients
- The outcome of the onboarding process is a record of the decision to commit to working with this business
- Data gathered during this time will also be used in the ongoing relationship with the business
- Scaling Services’ offer is essentially a 1:1 relationship based on multiple conversations
- The goal of this work is not to automate it, but rather to enable and support that relationship, and to increase client engagement
Who we talked to
- Who: Scaling Services account managers
- Number: 3 in person, two remote
- Medium used: In person, scenario-based walkthrough and group discussion
What we did
- We prepared a scenario to use in the research, to give the session structure and purpose
- Team Leaders confirmed in advance that the scenario was realistic and credible
- We asked for 2 volunteers to role-play the client and the account manager
- This was a follow-on from the session held on 4 May 2023
- We picked up from where we left off on that session to explore the back office experience for account managers
What we were trying to find out
- What features and functionality does the prototype lack to support the onboarding process?
- What information could we ask the client to provide? What should be in control of the account manager?
- If the account manager edits or amends information provided by the client, how (if at all) should that be fed back to the client?
What we learned
- Process needs to begin with Account Managers providing an initial draft
- Some (or all) of that draft is then played back to the client
- Client can suggest/amend some (or all) of the data played back to them
- Consider use of ‘annotations’ as per Online Grants System
Discovery research
4 May 2023
What we tested
- The Platform team have developed an Axure prototype to assist Scaling Services account managers onboarding new clients
- The outcome of the onboarding process is a record of the decision to commit to working with this business
- Data gathered during this time will also be used in the ongoing relationship with the business
- Scaling Services’ offer is essentially a 1:1 relationship based on multiple conversations
- The goal of this work is not to automate it, but rather to enable and support that relationship, and to increase client engagement
Who we talked to
- Who: Scaling Services account managers
- Number: 5 in person, one remote
- Medium used: In person, scenario-based walkthrough and group discussion
What we did
- We prepared a scenario to use in the research, to give the session structure and purpose
- Team Leaders confirmed in advance that the scenario was realistic and credible
- We asked for 2 volunteers to role-play the client and the account manager
- The volunteers were asked to walk through the scenario using the prototype to capture the necessary information
- They were also asked to think out loud as they went
- The rest of the group observed, took notes, asked questions, and raised observations
What we were trying to find out
- What features and functionality does the prototype lack to support the onboarding process?
- Where might clients potentially struggle to provide the information we asked for?
- What information do we actually need?
- What information could we ask the client to provide? What should be in control of the account manager?
- If the account manager edits or amends information provided by the client, how (if at all) should that be fed back to the client?
What we learned
- Overall, the onboarding process should be regarded (and feel) more like a conversation than an application
- That said, at the point the onboarding is complete and the decision to engage made, the available needs to be ‘frozen’ in some form to create a record of the evidence for the decision
- More work is needed to consider how the account manager triggers the process, what ‘seed’ information they could provide based on their conversations with the client
