Marketing Analytics Tool
​Overview
The Marketing Analytics Tool was designed for a commercial bank to help them analyze their clients' distribution and personas, ultimately discover potential business opportunities. The key features include a dashboard, advanced search, and a tag management system. I participated in the project from the very beginning and was involved in every stage of the early project. Our clients and GM were very satisfied with the product proposal and signed a $1.5M contract for the first stage of design and development. The key features of the Marketing Analysis Tool will be integrated into the Tencent Cloud Service. Now the product is under development.
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Team of 7
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Project Manager, Data Scientist x 2, Front-end Developer, Designer manager, Interaction Designer (me), Visual Designer
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Timeline
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12 weeks | June - July, 2019
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Responsibility
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Did research to learn more about the commercial bank's business, marketings, and similar products.
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Worked closely with clients to understand their workflow and needs. Timely communicated with clients regarding product progress and related questions.
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Consulted analytics professionals about analytical skills and the problems they encountered.
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Cooperated with the product manager to finalize project scope and feature breakdown.
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Composed interaction design specifications for graphic designers and developers.
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Made a product proposal PowerPoint with the product manager and iterated it many times.
Delivery
Process
Project kickstart
The client of the project is a commercial bank. I joined the team at the very beginning.
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Meeting with clients
Our team had several meetings with the client to discuss their needs and requirements. I participated in all of them. I started to know more about financial industry.
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Competitive analysis
Due to the high-level confidentiality of the financial industry, it is difficult to get access to other marketing tools for banks. I did research on similar marketing analysis tools used in the advertising and gaming industries.
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Interview stakerholders
The main stakeholders are marketing analytics, account manager, and general managers. Our client conducted interviews internal their company and handed over notes to us.
Create personas
I created 3 personas for marketing analyst, account manager, and managers per interview notes.
Finalize MVP scope
Our product manager worked with the client to ​finalize the MVP scope and prioritized features for the first stage.
Define feature structure and key user flows
I worked with my mentor and product manager to define ​the feature structure and key user flows.
Initial wireframe for MVP
I started wireframing MVP. I recorded all questions I had for clients and communicated with them promptly.
Internal review
I presented my wireframe to my mentor and other team members. I clarified design concerns and improved the design based on feedback.
Wireframe presentation with clients
User testing
Prepare user testing tasks and invite two or three users from client to test low-fi/high-fi prototypes.
Iterate wireframe based on feedback
Finalize wireframe
After 3 main interations, we finalized the wireframe.
Create design specifications
Hand over specs to visual designers and developers
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Meeting with visual designers and developers
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Support the implementation of design
Project Highlights
Dashboard
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Goals:
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Synthesize complex information in a concise and easy to understand format.
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Conduct preliminary analytics on the dashboard.
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Identify the key variables that influence the outcome of the analytics
Challenges:
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Understand how professionals analyze marketing data.
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How to effectively organize all the information including filter type, filter parameter, results of each filter, and their relationship.
Demo:
​* Data used in the demo is a sample, only to show the interaction.
* The original language is Chinese, I used Chrome to translate it to English, so some layout might not be very clear.
Interactive Dashboard
All charts are connected, data analysts can start preliminary analysis directly on the dashboard.
Process of Analysis
Visualize the process of preliminary analytics and the impact of each step.
(3 iterations)
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Iteration History
Project Highlights - Advanced Search
Goals:
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Search by tags.
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Organize 3-level 700+ tags, search and locate tags effectively.
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Boolean algebra (AND, OR, NOT) among tags.
Challenges:
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Make the interaction of Boolean algebra clear and easy.
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Work with developers to understand the logic and limitation of the database search engine.
Demo:
* Data used in the demo is a sample, only to show the interaction.
* The original language is Chinese, I used Chrome to translate it to English, so some layout might not be very clear.
Organize 700+ Tags
Side navigation bar, hover to direct to the category
Effective Boolean Algebra
Visually input complex search conditions. It is friendly for both new users and experienced users.
(4 iterations )
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Iteration History
Search Condition Preview
Preview complex search conditions in a SQL-like expression, which is more friendly for data analysts.
Outcomes :D
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Clients signed a $1.5 M contract for the first stage design and development.
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The Marketing Analytics Tool will be a module integrated into the Tencent Cloud Service.
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The design of the dashboard and advanced search will be components that will be used for similar features.
Takeaways
Work with clients
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During the project, the most valuable thing for me was getting a chance to work closely with clients. We held many meetings to clarify the scope of the product and features. It was a long process, but it was very important for later product design. I was lucky to participate in every meeting. Under the guidance of my mentor, I learned what to pay attention to during the meeting:
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Learn from clients
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It is necessary to understand the clients, but don't accept all their requirements without critical thinking
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Ask smart questions, also ask silly questions.
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Learn to evaluate the cost of implementing features.
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Iteration is the key
No one knows what the product will look like from the beginning. Every iteration and testing is valuable, even if there is much back and forth in the process. When I was designing the advanced search function for the Marketing Analytics Tool, I tried three different versions and iterated 4 times until the final solution. But the final solution is still not perfect, more iteration is needed.
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Be a strategic thinker, not just a designer
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I participated in the design of four SaaS systems. It was always interesting to learn new knowledge from different fields, but it was also challenging to understand the business and produce high-quality designs in a short time! The design of SaaS seems very similar, but there are many interaction details to be considered when it comes to specific business scenarios and functions. Only being a designer is far from enough, it is important to thoroughly understand business strategies. I encountered many difficulties at the beginning of designing the Marketing Analysis Tool because of a lack of business sense. I can't design a good product if I don't understand the goal of the product.