The 30% User Rise of A B2B SAAS Workforce Monitoring Solution
Introduction
After launching the Landfriends app, many enterprise-grade big corporations contacted us to build a Work-Force Monitoring Solution for their internal use. They liked the map functionalities, location sharing features, and activity features we did in the “Landfriends” app and wanted the same for their Work Force Monitoring Solution or in short WFMS. So, we all called for a meeting to decide how can we go further, what to do next, how can we launch it, how can we package the solution, make it market-ready, and most importantly, who will pay for this solution.
I realized this has a huge potential. Instead of building only for “one enterprise customer”, how about, we build it for Banks, FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Multinational Companies, and Distributors? It will be a customizable Workforce Monitoring Solution for any scale companies who want to monitor their field workers. That’s how “Landknock Field Force Monitoring Solution” a B2B SAAS product was born.
My Role
As the product idea was mine, this time the company made me “Product Owner” for this product besides my “Product Designer” role. Being the only “Product Designer” in the company I was already taking on a lot of responsibilities. So when the company assigned me the “Product Owner” position also, I started taking the business side decisions for this product such as, how will the customers pay, how it will be making money, who will be our primary customers, etc.
Throughout the whole project, I worked with the marketing team, developers, and project managers in all the steps of designing the product from scratch.
Problem
Most of the managers/supervisors who have field working human resources working outside of the companies have no clue whether or not the field workers are visiting the assigned sites and doing the job perfectly or not. There is no transparency.
Having no input systems for the field workers create unproductivity and make the organization heavy paper-dependent.
Due to paper dependency, field data are not available in real-time. This creates a delay in management decisions which in results brings revenue loss to the company’s income.
One of the core reasons companies fail to their revenue target is because of the field workers’ productivity loss which happens due to the lack of a transparent automated system to keep the field workers on track.
Goal
Achieving More Transparency Between Field and Head Office
By automating every manual touchpoint and converting all input points to forms that can be filled up with a mobile application, the goal is to improve transparency between field workers and the head office.
Providing a High Level of Productivity
Every field worker (salesmen, deliverymen, survey agents, technicians, etc.) has a set of particular tasks to perform within a time which can be increased if most of the manual, redundant tasks are completed by an application. Their daily tasks can be on a to-do list within the app, their visit list can be serialized by the app’s auto-routing system which can save their time, thus increasing productivity.
Providing Access to Real-Time Data
Real-time data availability can be highly accessible instantly because, the visit, task accomplishments, and form fill-ups will be done via a smartphone app. That way, through the system, we aim to provide our customers access to real-time data which was not possible previously.
Increasing Trust
With real-time location tracking, geo-fencing, etc. features, now the validity of the data source is assured. The conflicts between supervisors and field workers will go down to zero. Management can rely largely on the Work Force Management Solution, knowing that all information within the system is truly done by the field workers.
Impact
After launching Landknock Work Force Monitoring Solution, we did numerous testing and multiple free trials run by some of our customers. I iterated the whole project 30+ times and relaunched it again and again. I along with my team, kept getting feedback from customers and improved it. In a span of 18 months, this is what the result looks like:
Target Customer
Based on our research, there are four kinds of users/organizations who would be interested in our offerings.
Process
The process for creating this application was a little bit different than all my previous projects. The first difference was with the “interviewing users”. It was not easy to interview the target users. The second problem was, in all my past projects, I could check the competitors’ websites/apps to get some ideas about the industry. But this time, we were targeting different industries and other available similar applications were not helpful for me to experience. However, I really enjoyed the journey this project offered me from start to finish.
User Interview
As our target customers were enterprise people or company owners, it was not an easy task to reach them. A simple, google form or “survey monkey” form was not helpful for this kind of customer. What I did was, I tried to reach people I know who could connect me with all those company owners, department heads, etc. I tried to set up an appointment with them. This is how I would reach them, “Hey Mr. X, I am Mahir, a Product Designer from Landknock Ltd. We are working for a product for your industry that would solve some serious problems you are having with your field workers/workforce, I just need a few minutes of your time to learn some important matters regarding what happens to the field, what are the problems and how using technology and automation, we can solve the problems. Can I get a time of yours to sit with you to learn more?”
Most of the time, the person would say things like “I am busy, can you call me later?”. Very rarely, the person would agree to sit with me. I remembered, that in order for me to get 1 person to agree with me, I had to call at least 30 people. Anyways, with the support of my colleagues, and other friends who work at reputed organizations, I could find 3 top-level executives who agreed to sit with me and help me with information.
Although the discussion varied for different persons, there were some fundamental questions that I would ask all the 3 persons I sat with. Here are the questions below:
Although I actually asked more questions based on the discussions, the above 5 questions were common for all the 3 interviews. Discussing with these 3 persons, I could already realize how serious the matter is. I could also learn some competitors’ names from them but they are not using those solutions because of very high pricing.
Design Sprint
So far, I have performed over 30+ iterations for this project. The more iteration I did, the more mature and improved the product became. Needless to say, all the feature development was not possible in the first launch. We had to keep releasing again and again for a good amount of time.
Brainstorming
During our design sprints, we did brainstorming sessions to share information on other similar products offering similar kinds of solutions. From these sessions, we could shortlist many important features which already matched the problems I found during the interviews. In the brainstorming sessions, all the stakeholders were present. I did not like to omit any single person from the Brainstorming session. Even a junior executive whose responsibility was to document the product journey was also involved in the brainstorming session.
User Stories
I was lucky enough to be able to talk to the real users of this product even before initiating the interface design. For our Work Force Management Solution product there are 4 fundamental users of this product:
This is the story of each different user in their own wordings:
Super Admin:
As a super admin, I want the privilege to be able to change settings and add/edit/remove any users. I want to be able to view any data from any area regarding any activity. I want to see a summary of the overview of tasks and field activities. I want location-wise, date-wise, area-wise, and field-worker-wise reports. I also want to be able to download reports in pdf format so that I can show them to the higher authority
Department Head / National Sales Manager / Regional Manager:
As the department head / national sales manager / regional manager, I want to know all the field activities of my department in my area. I do not want to see any reports or information from other areas and departments. I want to see summaries, and graphs, of the tasks, field activities by date, location, field workers, etc. I want the feature to add managers/supervisors and field workers in my department with edit and delete functionalities.
Supervisors/Managers:
As the supervisor/manager, I want to see today’s works that are supposed to be done in my area. I want to see how many of my field workers are present and absent. I want to see a real-time update of the tasks in the progression. If any task is canceled, I want to be notified so that I can directly contact the field worker to know the reason. For immediate reasons, I need to be able to create tasks and assign them to any field workers. I need to see the map to see the field workers’ real-time location to make sure they are on site.
Field Worker:
As a field worker, I need a fast, easy mobile app that shows my today’s tasks. I want an easy interface to update my tasks. Oftentimes, I deal with customers and am occupied with my surroundings, so I need the app to be very fast so that I do not have to spend much time there. The app should not track my location when I am not on duty or on a break. For ease of work, it is better to navigate my site’s location with the app. I also want to see my past work history and achievements with the app.
Information Architecture (IA)
After having the initial level discussion, brainstorming, idea sessions, and especially learning the user stories from all the different kinds of users, I could already relate to how the Information would be accessed within the system. I did 20+ iterations to finally come up with this final Information Architecture.
Sketching & Wireframes
A sneak peeks of the sketching and wireframing I did do to finally build the product that our end customers will love.
Usability Testing
After designing an initial level prototype, I presented the product to some of our “potential” and “interested” customers who were very much interested in our product. (One of them was already interested in paying for the product). We gave them access and did usability testing by doing close observation and note-taking. I also installed hotjar to track heatmap and get videos of how they use the product.
Final Design
After doing 30+ iterations and improving for 12 months, we’ve found a somehow stable solution that our customers could use with ease. Although, the journey does not end here. A new beginning actually starts from this step, but that’s a different story. Let me show you what the final version looks like. There are around 100+ different screens. But I would like to show you the most important designs here:
Evolution of The Overview Page
The Map
The map was one of the most important pages in the application. During the interview and the usability testing sessions, I learned what the users are looking for in the map section. After many iterations, this is what the final version looked like:
The Team/Departments
The team/department section was important for mostly the super admins and department heads to manage teams within their departments.
The Task Page
The team/department section was important for mostly the super admins and department heads to manage teams within their departments.
The Product Page
The team/department section was important for mostly the super admins and department heads to manage teams within their departments.
Mobile App Screens
The mobile app was designed for field workers. I was lucky enough to have a conversation with them and also learn their side of the story.
Task Flow
The field workers had to perform different types of tasks such as sales, visits, delivery, survey, etc. Different types of tasks involved different types of work flows. Here, I would like to show one kind of flow:
Other Screens
The field workers had to perform different types of tasks also. Among those, “Add Bill” (for their travel expenses) was very crucial. Would like to show some screens for some miscellaneous activity.
Learnings
This project was very complex because this was an enterprise product. In an enterprise, there are many roles, many regulations, and of course, there are so many requirements. I had to do back-to-back meetings with different departments to get the perspective of different kinds of users. For every page of the applications, I had to think about the users. However, I would like to share 3 learnings:
A B2B SAAS product designed for enterprise takes a longer time to launch than any other kind of product because new decisions may come from the management when the work is in progress. I learned to communicate with all the stakeholders to stay on our goal so that the focus does not shift in the meanwhile.
In Enterprise, they care more about “how much money or time” the product saves than its look. If the application’s interface is very dull looking but it solves the problem, they are very happy.
The top-tier management people always want every option alterable. They are not only confided with a simple “edit” option. They want full “functionality” edit option, “task flow” edit options etc. Basically, they need a lot of “freedom” within the app.