Overview
Context
The product was a mobile application for personalized financial management. In advance of building a roadmap for the next year, leadership wanted us to clarify our product's critical user journeys (CUJs). CUJs are a single use case with a specific goal and include the surrounding context for the user.
As a UX researcher, I was responsible for planning and conducting the end-to-end research with a small task force team that included a data analyst and the UX manager.
Challenges
This was a unique form of research that has not been done before. Moreover, there was not enough resource and time to run a large size of investigation solely for clarifying CUJ within a quarter. Few internal stakeholders were familiar with the concept and effective communication was required to achieve a consensus and advance the project.
Before jumping in, I set up a framework to guide the overall direction of CUJ research. I chose a dynamic approach, utilizing mixed-method research to ensure fast-paced and efficient collaborations.
First, we reviewed a collection of qualitative and quantitative data related to current user journeys with the help of our customer experience team. As a team, we selected and evaluated user scenarios of each journey. I then briefly conducted user interviews to incorporate the latest perspectives of our new and current users into the app development.
Through further iterations, we were able to finalize a set of critical user journeys of our product. At this stage, we regularly shared the process and preliminary findings with stakeholders.
Results
I presented the finalized CUJs and successfully demonstrated their importance in guiding our product's future development at an all-hands meeting. I also documented the slides as a reference.
Impact
Everyone in the company recognized the importance of using user journeys in our product. Leadership successfully incorporated these journeys into the process of building a future roadmap. For example, CUJs are now actively used to make decisions about which features should be included on our product's main page.
Research Process
1. Setting up a framework
As the nature of this project was novel, establishing a framework to guide the research direction was imperative. Lean UX design was decided to use, considering the limited amount of resources and time as well as the agile and fast-paced company culture.
For the research methodology, I chose a dynamic approach of mixed-methods research in order to effectively combine both qualitative and quantitative user data to determine the most popular user journeys while maximizing the efficiency of the research process on a tight timeline.
Atif, A., Richards, D., & Bilgin, A. (2013). A student retention model: empirical, theoretical and pragmatic considerations.
2. Reviewing a collection of user data
During the first two-week phase, the data analyst and I reviewed a vast quantity of both qualitative and quantitative user data collected by the company.
For qualitative user data, we analyzed a research collection stored in the company's Google Drive. With the assistance of customer experience (CX) team, I reviewed a series of NPS surveys, brand index research, pain point maps, and voices of customers on each product feature.
For quantitative user data, the data analyst extracted Weekly Active User (WAU) and data on the retention of the entire product as well as each product feature.
We created a Notion page to organize the data that that showed which product features users considered necessary and used the most.
3. Selecting candidate user scenarios
Based on this outcome, the team manager and I drafted a list of 20 user scenarios including users' age, gender, motivations, goals, needs, frequency of use, etc.
Throughout several iterative discussions, three of us determined six candidates user scenarios which satisfied both users' preferences and our business goals.
4. Evaluating scenarios using triangulation
To evaluate how those scenarios worked, I decided to use triangulation approach.
I organized each scenario into a form of journey map to elucidate users' pain points and the emotions involved in each step of user journeys. Each step of a user journey was defined as a single page of the product.
In the meantime, the data analyst ran a funnel analysis on each journey by retrieving logged events attached to pages.
Comparing the steps of journey maps and funnel analyses side by side, we juxtaposed users' behavioral and emotional flow with changes in the number of unique users/visits per day, week, or month. This stage of the project took a week.
However, the team manager raised a question about the type of user data we utilized: all accumulated data we used was from long-term users, not recently joined users.
He suggested we compare both user groups' experiences on six user journeys based on the established 20 scenarios.
5. User interviews
To compare new and long-term users' experiences, I decided to run user interviews.
From the interview, I wanted to clarify "why" new and current users access those user journeys, and also "how" they felt about them.
I conducted semi-structured interviews with 5 users who joined within two weeks (new users), and 5 users who had used our product for more than two years (long-term users.)
The entire interview process took three weeks from the beginning to the end. Each interview session lasted an hour and was conducted remotely via Google Meet.
According to the results, both new and long-term users indicated strong intentions to manage their finances. The pain points and needs of both user groups were similar to each other's. I confirmed that users who are attracted to our product share similar attitudes, desires, and behavioral habits.
Both user groups consistently used three user journeys including:
1. To get motivated to manage their finance better, users access current balance between total assets and debts.
2. To set up a future financial plan, users access the amount of savings in total or each bank account.
3. To monitor daily expenses, users access a personal ledger to see how much they spent and what they spent it on.
The remaining three user journeys were less utilized even though they involved making a profit. For this reason, we decided to exclude them from the CUJ candidates because our goal was to prioritize most popular journeys.
6. Getting feedback and further iteration
To build consensus, the team manager shared the preliminary version of three main CUJs with all squad leads involved in each journey and received their feedback. This part took almost a month and was the most time-consuming and effort-intensive part.
They wanted to see more details of how different types of users interact with specific CUJ features (e.g. setting monthly budget function in the ledger) they developed.
So I looked into each journey deeper to identify any possible user segment to be separated and discussed it with each squad lead. For example, users who have a short-term financial goal (e.g. saving money for summer vacation) may visit the page more often than who don't have such a goal.
In the end, we finalized eight sub-CUJs under three main CUJs. After articulating the wording of each CUJ through several iterations, I also shared the sub-CUJs with brand experience (BX) team so that they could refer them to build the roadmap for the next year.
7. Sharing outcome and building consensus
(I replaced sensitive information with an example of Gmail)
Before officially sharing the CUJs, I double-checked with designers in the teams who had built up each sub-journey. They all agreed with the general flows of CUJs and gave me only some minor feedback.
After addressing all the feedback, I created a presentation to introduce CUJs to everyone, considering that some people might not be familiar with what CUJs were and how they worked.
The figure on the right is the sample of three main CUJs.
The figure on the left is the sample of eight sub-journeys under the main journey.
Finally, I officially presented the slide at All-hands meeting. Now the designers, engineers, and product managers could acknowledge the most important user journeys of our product, and plan the next step based on this.
After the presentation, I documented the slide as a reference for easy access.
Results
1. How are Critical User Journeys of a product defined?
Unlike a single study on a specific question, defining CUJs of a whole product requires a lot of teamwork and cross-functional communication.
As a UX researcher of the task force team, I planned out a research strategy to approach the topic in the very beginning, led the overall research direction, and conducted qualitative research including user interviews.
I also proactively communicated with stakeholders like squad leads, brand experience team, and designers to inform them of the process and the preliminary outcome and to receive their feedback.
2. Any other insights?
Understanding the needs of internal "users" was key to successful cross-functional communication. Once they felt their concerns, needs, and curiosities about CUJs were resolved, they recognized the importance of establishing CUJs of our product and become supportive.
3. What was the impact?
Everyone in the company acknowledged about the most crucial user journeys of our product and agreed with their importance. Leadership also incorporated those into the process of building a future roadmap. CUJs have been actively referred to make decisions on which features should be included in the main page of our product.