Team work makes the dream work
Our tips for creating a successful Ux partnership...an ocean apart.
We’re sure you’ve heard that starting is the hardest part of a project, or in the words of Simon Sinek” “Starting is the hardest part. Once you get that out of the way, you’ll find the rest of the journey much easier”. We’d argue that keeping momentum going and getting to the finish line can actually be the truly hard part, especially, when a project requires collaboration across product groups and timezones. Now that we’re about to cross the finish and release our new post-chat feedback experience to customers, we’d like to reflect on our UX partnership and share our tips for cross-team collaboration; how we started, kept the momentum, and successfully shipped to customers.
We’ll start by giving you a little background on the project. From a support lens, collecting feedback in real-time after a customer engages with live chat is a no-brainer. Not only does it help a support team know if they are meeting customers’ needs, but it also helps a support manager track their agent’s performance and coach them on areas of growth. As Dharmesh says “Improve the product experience, and everybody wins.”
Historically in HubSpot, the Feedback widget and Chat widget were separate tools configured and managed within different apps that were not technically flexible enough to work in an integrated experience together. With growing customer requests for the ability to show a feedback module at the end of chat conversation, the Visitor Experience (now Self Service) team approached the Feedback team to partner to bring this table-stakes functionality to reality.
So… was starting hard? To contradict Simon Sinek’s words, for us, it wasn’t hard. Both teams were excited to begin exploring this problem space and we quickly began aligning on the problem. Because Aurora Perez was brand new at HubSpot, we prioritized building a strong relationship, as we worked on conceptualizing what the experience would be like for our customers. Guided by Monique Eisenach 's experience in HubSpot, we set a cadence for the project that was relentless and flexible: relentless to build the confidence and trust that we would get there, flexible to adapt to other priorities and circumstances. Below are our tips for establishing and maintaining a successful Ux partnership.
1. Take each other along for the ride
[ TLDR: schedule regular check-ins, create a shared vocabulary, align on process ]
We started our UX partnership by just taking the time to get to know each other and what our working preferences were. We scheduled regular check-ins with each other and spent the first couple of 1:1s walking each other through our parts of the product, personas we were focused on, current customer pain points, and projects currently in flight. Giving each other this context was helpful to identify areas that needed more clarity, along with starting to create a shared vocabulary for us to use throughout the duration of the project.
We also took the time to align on how we wanted to collaborate-- what tools we wanted to use, where we wanted to collaborate, how we wanted to set up Sketch files, shared relevant pieces of the experiences, and created a shared dropbox folder. Doing this alignment early helped make sure we had strong organization throughout the months of the project evolving.
2. Keep communication constant
[TLDR: Create shared spaces to collaborate, have conversations in public places so everyone benefits ]
After aligning on what collaboration methods we wanted to use, we set up a Miroboard that served as our main shared workspace for the duration of the project. On the Miroboard we kept relevant data, flow diagrams, and wireframes. We also heavily utilized the note functionality to keep track of relevant documents, outline the next steps, and link to sketch files. Both teams had access to the Miroboard and could leave comments or add relevant information before starting the high-level designs. This helped ensure that individual contributors could stay informed of technical concerns or important data points to help inform decisions.
We also had a shared slack channel #feedback-in-chat with both teams where we shared updates on the progress we made, asked questions, shared research insights, and more. Having transparent communication in a public channel helped make sure that relevant team members could contribute ideas or raise concerns as we worked out flow details. Read more tips from @mattsumner to foster inclusive and psychologically safe spaces in our hybrid work environment here.
3. Involve the wider team at strategic moments
[TLDR: include the wider team in testing, go to each other’s design critiques and have project kickoffs ]
Just like we spent the time working on our UX partnership and giving each other the context we needed, we also made sure that both teams had the context they needed to understand the customer’s needs in order to scope the technical work. Our researchers used the #feedback-in-chat channel for threads on research studies and shared insights from participants there as well. We also did a research readout with both teams to share the insights and to have a discussion about what was needed from a customer perspective. Including Engineering in the research process helped ensure that the customer's needs were staying in the foreground.
Throughout our design iteration process, we attended both the Conversations and Campaigns UX critiques to share the options we were working through to gather feedback from our UX counterparts. Attending both design critiques offered feedback from different perspectives which were helpful as we were thinking through the joint configuration experience between the Conversations and Feedback tools.
Once we had a validated direction that we felt confident moving forward with, we took the time to create design documentation that outlined both the configuration and end-user experience. There we outlined the overall flow along with error states, PQL points, permissions, and more for the Engineering team to review, ask questions or clarify anything.
4. The turtle wins the race
[ TLDR: Be willing to be flexible, be ok with projects that take longer than expected to ship ]
Throughout this project, we learned that being flexible and willing to pitch in when needed is really how we kept the momentum going. There were times when one of us had limited bandwidth and the other person had to take lead to help us meet whatever milestone we were working on. When it came time for Engineering, conflicting priorities meant both teams could not work on the project in parallel. Instead, the work was split up and each team picked up their part when they were able to dedicate time to it. Having our slack channel and design documentation made it easy for the teams to connect with each other or the UX designers when there was a question or concern. The slower pace of this project allowed us UX designers to focus on the details like accessibility, discovery, and delight.