UX Research for Enterprise Subscription Platforms

Embarking on my UX research journey at Motorola Solutions was like stepping into a crucible of innovation and challenge. Tasked with enhancing the usability of the WAVE PTX platform, my role was pivotal in steering the product’s direction towards more intuitive and user-friendly interfaces. This initiative wasn’t just about tweaking features; it was about reimagining how our partners interact with technology, making complex systems accessible and straightforward.

Impact and Results

The impact of my research was profound and multifaceted:

• Enhanced User Efficiency: By refining the interface and streamlining processes, we significantly reduced operational bottlenecks, improving the overall user experience for Motorola’s partners and end-users.

• Strategic Business Improvements: My competitive analysis and insight mapping led to crucial improvements in the platform’s billing and account management functionalities, aligning our operations more closely with industry standards and enhancing partner relationships.

• Cultural Shift in Approach: The insights and recommendations I provided fostered a culture of continuous improvement and user-centric design at Motorola, setting new benchmarks for product development within the company.

Why This Project Matters

Addressing Core Challenges
‍The initiation of this project was driven by a clear need: to solve persistent issues and complaints from partners using the WAVE PTX platform. With Motorola Solutions’ WAVE PTX serving a diverse group of users—from internal Motorola personnel and intermediary partners to the actual end-users who handle the radios—the platform needed a significant usability boost.

Focus on User Efficiency
‍Partners, who often serve as the critical link between Motorola and the end-users, were particularly affected. They faced challenges that hindered their efficiency and, by extension, the service they provided to end-users. The primary goal was to refine the platform’s interface and functionality, making it more intuitive and efficient for these partners, thereby streamlining the entire communication service lifecycle.

This project wasn’t just about technical enhancements; it was about ensuring that every stakeholder found the platform straightforward and reliable—key factors for maintaining strong and effective communication channels in critical sectors.

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Global Perspective in User Experience

My approach to understanding the complexities of the WAVE PTX platform began with a robust research phase:

• Competitor Analysis: I engaged in detailed comparisons with leading industry standards including Azure, AWS, and Chargify, to identify strengths and gaps in our service.
• Role Play Technique: By adopting the roles of different user profiles—partner, Motorola employee, and customer—I navigated through the platform to directly experience and map out critical usability issues.
• Insights Mapping: Utilizing Excel, I meticulously documented issues according to severity, affected stages, tools impacted, and generated actionable recommendations.

This project wasn’t confined to a single region; it necessitated a global outlook. By engaging with teams from EMEA and NA, we captured a diverse array of challenges and perspectives. This cross-regional research was vital in crafting solutions that were not only effective but also universally applicable across Motorola’s global operations. The insights gathered were pivotal in refining the platform to better serve all user groups involved, ensuring the subscription model met the nuanced needs of a global audience.

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Competitive Analysis and Strategic Insights

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After my initial training, I embarked on a detailed competitive analysis targeting major players like AWS and Azure. Given the limited public details about their in-depth enterprise operations, I leveraged customer support forums and related channels to extract pertinent information. This initiative was crucial in understanding how leading platforms manage their intricate systems and set benchmarks in the industry.

Refining Enterprise User Experience Our findings revealed that Azure excels in user experience for their invoicing and account management—offering a granular breakdown of invoices and clear usage metrics, which greatly aids partners in managing accounts effectively. This starkly contrasted with the existing gaps in Motorola's system, where reseller partners struggled due to insufficient account details and licensing management.

Actionable Recommendations for Improvement This comparative insight was invaluable. It underscored the need for Motorola to enhance its billing and account management functionalities to align more closely with industry leaders. By adopting similar clarity and detail in our invoicing processes, we could substantially improve our partner interactions and overall platform usability. This strategy not only aimed to elevate our service offering but also to fortify partner relationships and streamline their operations on our platform

Efficiency Analysis Through Role Play

During the role-play exercises, I meticulously tracked the number of clicks required by each user group—MSI personnel, partners/agents, and end-users—to complete their designated tasks. This process was eye-opening, revealing notable inefficiencies and areas ripe for improvement.

Streamlining Partner Interactions Particularly concerning was the partner hub's workflow, which demonstrated significant delays in operations from account creation to upgrades and renewals. This pointed to an urgent need for simplifying these processes to enhance efficiency and user satisfaction.

Overhauling the Licensing Process A major bottleneck was identified in the license ordering process, which involved an excessive 18 steps just to order a single license. This cumbersome procedure not only frustrated partners but also led to a surge in support tickets—an unmistakable sign that this process required a fundamental redesign. By simplifying these steps, we could significantly reduce partner workload and streamline the entire user experience, aligning it with industry standards for efficiency and clarity.

Mapping Insights to Drive Impact

Initial Insights Collection :
The journey of gathering insights was thrilling. We engaged in a series of interviews spanning North America, Europe, and India, where I played a pivotal role as an observer and note-taker. To efficiently manage the wealth of information gathered, I developed an Excel sheet, meticulously organizing data by date, notes, and sources. This methodical approach not only helped in managing the data but also allowed us to begin identifying patterns and forming actionable insights.

Refining Insights:
With the initial data structured, I proceeded to distill the information to pinpoint unique challenges. By analyzing and categorizing the feedback across the different stages of the end-to-end process, which was segmented into six major steps, we could identify where the most critical bottlenecks and issues lay. This targeted analysis was instrumental in understanding where we needed to focus our efforts to enhance the platform's usability and efficiency.

Prioritizing Issues:
In the final phase of our insight mapping, we applied severity ratings to each identified issue, color-coding them to highlight their urgency. This prioritization was essential for focusing our efforts on the most impactful problems. By addressing these key areas, we aimed to significantly improve the user experience, ensuring that our interventions were both effective and efficient, leading to a more streamlined process for all users involved.

Concluding Insights and Recommendations

Presentation of Findings The culmination of our research was a meticulously crafted presentation deck that we shared with our design and development teams. This presentation was pivotal, designed to underline the imperative need for systemic changes within the Wave platform.

Strategic Categorization of Pain Points We organized the issues into three distinct categories, each aimed at addressing different facets of the system:

1. Top 5 Wave Pain Points & Recommendations: We spotlighted the most critical issues undermining the platform's core functionalities, offering precise solutions to enhance system reliability and user satisfaction.
2. Top 5 Overall Pain Points & Recommendations: This broader category tackled overarching issues affecting the entire user experience, ensuring comprehensive improvements across the platform.
3. Top 5 Support Pain Points & Recommendations: Focused on challenges encountered by the support team, these recommendations aimed to streamline user interactions and expedite resolution processes.

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A Roadmap for Improvement

This structured approach not only prioritized the issues based on their impact but also provided a clear action plan to elevate the Wave platform's overall efficiency and user experience. By delineating these categories, we ensured that each recommendation was actionable and tailored to address specific challenges, thereby facilitating targeted enhancements.

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Reflections

"Turning research into actionable insights at Motorola wasn't just work; it was about crafting experiences that resonate deeply with users, enhancing their interactions one touchpoint at a time."

My internship at Motorola Solutions was not just a stepping stone in my career; it was a deep dive into the complexities of enterprise UX. Handling extensive user research and delivering insights that shaped the subscription platform’s usability showed me the tangible impact of meticulous design in the tech industry. This experience underscored the critical nature of empathy and precision in crafting solutions that not only meet but exceed user expectations.

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