UX ROADMAP

WORKSHOP

Creating and implementing a UX Roadmap into the design process to collaborate with stakeholders and influence the Product Roadmap.

Problem: While working at GoGuardian, the team had an existing Product Roadmap, but many of the items were back-end heavy with very few upcoming features with the user in mind. There was a lack of alignment with the Product Manager and team because there was no shared vision and goals for the user experience. It was difficult to prioritize and scope UX features especially if it was added ad-hoc onto the product roadmap. Without understanding the amount of UX effort, it was tough to estimate the time and resources required to complete the work, leading to unrealistic expectations.

Solution: I had taken a course in creating UX Roadmaps and decided to implement it into the design process to prioritize the following:

• Identify UX centered problems to solve

• Create alignment with the Product Manager and team

• Merge business with design

• Prioritize MVPs

• Plan resource allocation

• Define a vision

I first started by identifying key personas and their user journeys. The main users of GoGuardian Beacon were school counselors who received alerts via email notification if a student had searched concerning keywords on their school issued device. I broke down counselor’s journey into states from awareness of the alert, evaluation of alerts, taking action on alert, and also included onboarding for new users. I looked at other features specific to other user types such as the Dashboard and Settings pages and gave it it’s own category. I also added Reducing False positives as a category since it was the biggest painpoint for our customers. Finally, I created a section for General UI Fixes and Opportunities.

From there, I listed out various feedback from different resources including previous customer calls, Salesforce feature request list, and a heuristic evaluation of the entire product done by myself and another designer. I then arranged each feedback into the appropriate category.

I then scheduled a workshop with the Product Manager to add any additional features. When then walked through individual features on the roadmap to prioritize items based on user needs and business needs. I then scheduled another workshop with Engineers to scope the features based on priority.

The product manager, engineers and I would schedule quarterly meetings revisiting the UX Roadmap to help prioritize the product roadmap user experience vision to the team. Engineers would use the UX roadmap to guide their development efforts.

By implementing the UX roadmap, the product manager was able to ensure the product roadmaps were user centered, communicated UX vision to the team, and prioritized features based on impact of the user experience.