New Module Framework for SAP Analytics.
As the sole designer who worked with the Head of Design for Analytics and Platform and 55 developers from 5 different countries, we designed and shipped a new navigational infrastructure that allows our customers to work with their business data more efficiently.
This new framework will be coming in May 2021, but here is a sneak peek video we created for the new SAP Analytics Cloud experience:
How it got started:
From customer feedback sessions, we captured how our customers are failing to adopt our product due to a poor navigational experience. Some of the issues include:
Inconsistent tooling experience
Unintuitive and duplicated navigational items
Not supporting multi-application workflow for our power users.
Then, our Head of Design pitched the need for a new navigational framework during the annual SAP Executive Advisory Board in Germany, and it was voted by the SAP Executive Advisory Board as the top 2 projects they want to invest in. Additionally, after showing 22 customers the design concept, they expressed they are more likely to recommend SAP Analytics Cloud as a product, and this design would boost product NPS by + 58.
After this project was made as to the organization’s top priority, we started a “war room”. We had one senior software developer who created an API according to the new framework design. Then we invited architects and developers from different product platforms and countries to Vancouver, Canada for three days to build a proof of concept using this new API, and it was a success. Two years later, we finally wrapped up the full implementation.
To learn what this new navigational framework for SAP Analytics Cloud entails, please tone into our Webinar on April 21st of 2021.
Key Takeaways
#1 Communicate early and repeatedly
Being a platform project in the verticle plane, this navigational change impacted every single application and tool under the Hana Analytics Product portfolio. We had to educate everyone early internally and externally on the work needed to adopt this new framework. However, through many follow-up conversations, I realized communicating once is not enough, and it doesn’t hurt to communicate often and as early as possible.
#2 The art of negotiation
Without a project manager who can smooth out difficult conversations between stressed and overworked stakeholders, I had to take it on with my Head of Design. This means we were responsible for negotiation for scope & resources, smooth out bumps between stakeholders, follow up on unfinished user stories and bugs. During the project, I took a Master Class by Chris Voss who taught the art of negotiation. With that learning, I continuously practicing being a better listener when negotiation is needed.
#3 Use customer insights to push design forward
Due to the large scale of the project, we had to scope down the phase 1 release. To ensure we will continue to have the resource commitment from multiple development teams, we hosted Beta testing sessions with customers prior to phase 1 release. We captured their feedback and enhancement requests as phase 2 user stories. Additionally, the customer insights enabled us to add in a few final enhancements to phase 1.