Beyond MVP - Improve Lead Center to meet user motivation and needs

2022 - 2023 | Grow Lead Center Through Better Usability

Hebe Zheng (Lead Product Designer), Heather Lutz (Senior Content Strategist), Jenn Chen (Product Designer), Pia Kendrick (Lead Product Manager), and the Lead Center team.

Overview

Lead Center, CallRail's communication platform, enables users to call and text leads to convert them into customers. As the primary designer, I led the discovery phase to identify how Lead Center could better meet users' needs for lead communication and management.

Key research insight

Our user research revealed a surprising insight: while converting leads remains the ultimate goal, users are more immediately driven by the desire to appear well-prepared and knowledgeable during calls. This desire to come across as competent seems to be a more powerful motivator.

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Problem statement

A user's experience

In addition to recognizing the importance of quickly gathering context before communicating with a lead, we uncovered a common workflow where team members share leads and collectively manage lead communication. Below are examples of how users currently experience this process and how they will experience it with the new design.

Design solutions

Help users know “where things are at” before a call

Classification status
Users add tags, notes, and values to classify and manage the status of their leads. This is especially important when multiple team members interact with the same leads.
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Our research indicated that the most recent classification is the most crucial. Therefore, we surfaced the latest classification in the lead details panel, allowing users to quickly reference the most up-to-date information..

Preview to gather context

After analyzing numerous FullStory sessions, we observed users struggling to find specific items by painfully clicking through each entry in the communication history panel. To address this, we implemented previews where appropriate and beneficial. We added preview functionality to text messages, notes, and tags, making it easier for users to locate the what they need.

Help users document “where things are at” during and after a call

We integrated on-call and post-call/text interaction actions—such as adding tags, notes, and values—into the main panel where call and text contents live. This proximity reinforces the relationship between the notes and the interactions.

Outcomes

Roughly 40% of monthly users opted for the two-panel view

Previously, users couldn't remove the supplementary third panel, leading many to manually reduce their screen size to hide it. To improve the Lead Center's layout and support users' workflow, we made two key changes: we consolidated lead-level data into a dedicated panel and introduced the ability to dismiss the third panel.

24% increase in tag feature usage

The tagging feature stands out as one of the most crucial on-call and post-call/text interaction actions. It not only aids users in lead management but also integrates seamlessly throughout the CallRail app, improving reporting and analytics.

👋 Special note from Hebe

For the purpose of the case studies, I intentionally provided a bird's-eye view of the problem space, solution, and its impact. But there's so much more to explore! If you're curious about the behind-the-scenes design process, let's chat—I'd be thrilled to share more!