MY ROLE
Product Owner & UX Strategist
TEAM
Technical Program Manager | Project Manager | Customer Support Team
MY SERVICES
01
Strategy and Design
Conducting research, synthesized insights, developed use cases, and defined goals.
02
Process Development
Defined the problem, designed the process map, and implemented frameworks.
03
Communication and Testing
Designed communication map and collaborated on testing the new escalation process.
BACKGROUND
To prepare for a growing client base, SkillsVR - a VR employee training solution - needed a robust customer support system. We tackled this by developing a comprehensive escalation and ticketing process, addressing the unique needs of a diverse VR training clientele.
Discover
We kicked off the project by diving deep into the current escalation process. Through interviews, auditing our current process, and brainstorming use cases, we uncovered key challenges and aligned our strategy with SkillsVR's future growth goals.
"There's a disconnect between our team and the product team. It's difficult to ensure valuable client suggestions about product improvements reach the right people.”
​
- Project Manager
Improving Client Feedback Flow
Initial Hypothesis and Goals
Faster Resolution
A formalized escalation process ensures issues reach the right teams quickly, leading to faster resolution.
Richer Feedback
Integrating feedback capture within escalations will yield more valuable insights for product development.
Streamlining Support & Innovation
Formalize the escalation process with clear channels and prioritization to expedite issue resolution for support and product teams, while capturing valuable client feedback to fuel future product development.
Process Audit
CURRENT PROCESS (SIMPLIFIED)
Website
Customer Support
Executives
Program Manager
Project Manager
Engineering
Primary Research Insights
INSIGHTS
JOBS TO BE DONE
Missed opportunities for product improvement
While the customer support team excels at resolving critical issues and guiding clients, valuable strategic suggestions for product optimization are often not communicated to product.
Capture and prioritize strategic client suggestions to inform product development.
Inefficiencies in the escalation process
Current process lacks clarity for customer support reps when escalating issues leading to confusion about who to contact and how to prioritize problems.
Streamline issue escalation with clear communication and prioritization.
Strengths to leverage
Customer support team demonstrates strong communication skills when directly interacting with clients - a valuable strength that can be built upon by establishing clear procedures.
Empower customer support reps' communication skills within the new escalation process.
THE OPPORTUNITY
How might we design an internal customer escalation process that addresses the issues of an unclear escalation workflow, inconsistent prioritization, and communication challenges, ultimately ensuring efficient and effective issue resolution for our customers?
Define
Leveraging the insights from my research on the customer escalation process I analyzed the results to form a well-defined problem statement, developed personas to represent key members and users within the process, and identified key areas for improvement. This step set the stage for translating internal user needs into a clear problem statement and actionable design objectives.
Key Areas for Improvement
Streamlined Escalation
Define a clear escalation process with steps and roles, empowering agents to escalate efficiently for faster resolution.
Prioritization Framework
Implement a system for prioritizing issues based on urgency and impact, ensuring timely resolution of critical cases.
Improved Collaboration
Enhance communication through tools and practices that enable informed collaboration between teams
Key Users
USER TYPES
CHALLENGES
NEEDS
Customer Support
TIER 1
Handles all initial customer requests and feedback. The route product issues and requests to Tier 2.
-
No defined process for complex issues creates confusion about when and how to escalate.
-
Ad-hoc communication with product teams leads to uneven resolution times and quality.
-
Lack of centralized tracking hinders monitoring the status of issues.
-
Clear criteria and routing for complex issues streamline the process.
-
A central system tracks escalated issues, increasing visibility for all.
-
Defined communication guidelines ensure consistent information flow with product teams.
-
No structure for prioritizing escalations leads to ad-hoc responses.
-
Lack of a central platform hinders collaboration with developers and support.
-
Uncertainty about who resolves escalated issues slows down fixes.
-
Classify escalated issues based on impact for efficient resource allocation.
-
Real-time tools for efficient issue resolution and knowledge sharing with developers and support.
-
Clear guidelines defining who owns and resolves different types of escalated issues.
Project Manager
TIER 2 | LVL 1
Handle critical escalations from Tier 1, prioritizing bug fixes and collaborate with developers to ensure swift resolution of high-impact issues.
-
Receiving all customer requests directly hinders effective prioritization.
-
Lack of context on requests reduces understanding of user needs.
-
Absent structure and conflicting priorities make prioritization difficult.
-
Tier 1 filters basic requests, escalating only complex ones with clear context.
-
Access to user research and Tier 1 insights for deeper understanding of user motivations behind requests.
-
A framework to evaluate requests based on feasibility, user impact, and product alignment.
Product Owner
TIER 2 | LVL 2
Analyze and prioritize escalated customer feedback and feature requests, balancing user needs, product strategy, & constraints.
-
Vague escalation reports hinder understanding of issue urgency and true nature.
-
Critical issues disrupt development schedules with unplanned work.
-
Reactive fixes compromise quality due to limited testing.
-
Standardized escalation templates with clear descriptions, expected outcomes, and context for efficient resolution.
-
Dedicated bug fixing windows within development schedules.
-
Robust testing and QA resources for high-quality bug fixes.
Developer
TIER 3
Implement bug fixes, optimizations, and new features based on prioritized escalations from Tier 2.
Develop
Bridging the gap between design and reality, we transformed our conceptual insights and objectives into a tangible internal process. During this phase, we crafted a visual roadmap of the process, carefully delineating the sequence of steps, roles, responsibilities, and interactions. As part of the process flow, I implemented frameworks to categorize issues for swift resolution or strategic product planning and streamline prioritization of escalated tickets. Finally, we tested our process to make sure it was efficient, user-friendly, and effectively addressed the challenges identified earlier.
Process Map
Deliver
Translating design into action, the Deliver stage focused on equipping teams for success. We configured JIRA for seamless issue escalation, established dedicated communication channels in Slack, and documented the entire process in a comprehensive manual.
Process Toolkit
JIRA Configuration
We enhanced JIRA's functionality to streamline issue escalation by establishing a clear path for routing issues to the appropriate members within the process.
Communication Set Up
We established dedicated Slack channels for the escalation process, facilitating communication between customer support and product teams during issue handling.
Documentation & Manual
We documented everything in a comprehensive manual, including step-by-step guides and reference materials for both customer support and product teams.
Reflect
Looking back, this project was a real eye-opener on the power of collaboration! Focusing solely on our product development team for the escalation process made us realize the value of other departments' perspectives. We also recognized areas for future optimization, such as exploring automated issue routing to streamline the process at scale. All in all, this project was a great step towards improving our internal processes and moving towards a more user-centric organization.
CHALLENGES
01 Scalability
Conducting a more comprehensive test with increased ticket volume and more complex escalation would help to test for scale.
02 Quality Assurance
Maintaining consistent quality in the workflow and issue resolution as the volume of escalations increases.
SUCCESSES
01 Communication and collaboration
Improved communication across teams fostered a more cohesive and synchronized approach to support escalation and cross-departmental processes.
02 Enhanced user-centricity
The project laid the stepping stones for the organization to adopt a more user-centered approach in its processes and decision-making.
Next steps
Scaling for Growth
-
Evaluate user base and impact.
-
Consider a phased rollout.
-
Gather feedback and iterate.
Automation
-
Identify repetitive tasks.
-
Research automation tools.
-
Develop a pilot test.
Comprehensive Testing
-
Expand user base.
-
Simulate complex scenarios.
-
Monitor performance.