Success Plans
Flexibility, visibility, hierarchy: expanding plan use cases
Sales reps were trying to utilize Success Plans for purposes other than what it was initially designed for. To improve customer retention and attract a broader market, we aimed to enhance the tool and make it adaptable for various use cases.
Role
Lead designer
Duration
Q1 – Q4, FY22
Team
Dina Vaccari
Director of Product
Carlo Candela
Product Manager
Kevin Kerr
Engineering Lead
Background
For a complete background on success Plans, head over to Success Plans: Finding Product Market Fit.
Outreach acquired early-stage startup Sameplan to appeal to sales reps focused on closing deals.
Problem
Selling can get complex quickly. There's a lot that needs to be conveyed and communicated during a deal, and with new stakeholders frequently getting thrown into the mix, keeping everyone aligned and informed can be a challenge.
A good sales rep will do their best to add order to the chaos — which is where Mutual Action Plans step in. MAPs are shared spaces created by Account Executives to help teams stay aligned on timelines and objectives throughout a deal, ultimately accelerating deal closure.
While prior research indicated that A+ reps were using MAPs to win contracts, we were unsure if there was strong market demand for a Mutual Action Planning tool or exactly what features would generate demand.
Goal
Find product-market fit with Sameplan and make Outreach more appealing among sales professionals responsible for closing deals.
Success metrics
A high percentage of users would be 'very disappointed" to no longer use Plans (VDU)
Increased number of Account Executives using Outreach
Increased number of organizations using plans
Increased number of plans created
Discovery
To learn fast, we iFramed Sameplan into the Outreach product and set up an internal alpha, giving access to ~100 sales team members. We then started observing their activity and engaging with our participants.
Sameplan had been iframed into Outreach after the acquisition to start learning quickly
Once our sales reps started building their plans, I’d regularly schedule time to understand their experience with the product. For each wave of calls, I’d create a research plan outlining objectives, appropriate questions, and a script for consistency. After synthesizing results, I’d document and present my findings to the team and product and design leadership.
Interviews with our alpha participants to gauge interest and pain points
After synthesizing results, I’d document and present my findings to the team and product and design leadership.
Regular cadence of sharing learnings with leadership (deck with findings)
Learnings
While we uncovered enough feedback to overwhelm a backlog, a few common themes kept appearing…
Onboarding: creating and sharing plans was burdensome.
Integrations: Plans lacked important integrations with the rest of the Outreach product, like meetings, prospects, and tasks.
Information architecture: the 1:1 object relationship between Plans and Opportunities was limiting users and causing unnecessary workarounds
Engagement visibility: sellers wanted better metrics to engage a buyer's interest
Responsive design: Plans hadn't been optimized for smaller viewports
General usability: users wanted faster ways to assign tasks, set due dates, and
I teamed up with my product manager and engineering partners to strategize and prioritize the work. We used the RICE framework to help accomplish this (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and decided to move fast to improve elements of onboarding, engagement visibility, usability, integrations, and a few key usability concerns.
PM, Design, and Eng prioritized the work and I visualized and presented roadmap to achieve alignment with leadership
Design decisions
Buyer engagement
Held a workshop to align on the problem and ideate a few solutions
Plan owners wanted visibility into team members' engagement, which indicated overall interest in the partnership.
We explored a handful of ways to tackle this problem and agreed that sharing these metrics individually for each team member was the right path forward.
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Link a meeting
(info about link a meeting)
Caption
Plan header
(info about link a meeting)
Caption
Success Plans
Flexibility, visibility, hierarchy: expanding plan use cases
Sales reps were trying to utilize Success Plans for purposes other than what it was initially designed for. To improve customer retention and attract a broader market, we aimed to enhance the tool and make it adaptable for various use cases.
Role
Lead designer
Duration
Q1 – Q4, FY22
Team
Dina Vaccari
Director of Product
Carlo Candela
Product Manager
Kevin Kerr
Engineering Lead
Background
For a complete background on success Plans, head over to Success Plans: Finding Product Market Fit.
Outreach acquired early-stage startup Sameplan to appeal to sales reps focused on closing deals.
Problem
Selling can get complex quickly. There's a lot that needs to be conveyed and communicated during a deal, and with new stakeholders frequently getting thrown into the mix, keeping everyone aligned and informed can be a challenge.
A good sales rep will do their best to add order to the chaos — which is where Mutual Action Plans step in. MAPs are shared spaces created by Account Executives to help teams stay aligned on timelines and objectives throughout a deal, ultimately accelerating deal closure.
While prior research indicated that A+ reps were using MAPs to win contracts, we were unsure if there was strong market demand for a Mutual Action Planning tool or exactly what features would generate demand.
Goal
Find product-market fit with Sameplan and make Outreach more appealing among sales professionals responsible for closing deals.
Success metrics
A high percentage of users would be 'very disappointed" to no longer use Plans (VDU)
Increased number of Account Executives using Outreach
Increased number of organizations using plans
Increased number of plans created
Discovery
To learn fast, we iFramed Sameplan into the Outreach product and set up an internal alpha, giving access to ~100 sales team members. We then started observing their activity and engaging with our participants.
Sameplan had been iframed into Outreach after the acquisition to start learning quickly
Once our sales reps started building their plans, I’d regularly schedule time to understand their experience with the product. For each wave of calls, I’d create a research plan outlining objectives, appropriate questions, and a script for consistency. After synthesizing results, I’d document and present my findings to the team and product and design leadership.
Interviews with our alpha participants to gauge interest and pain points
After synthesizing results, I’d document and present my findings to the team and product and design leadership.
Regular cadence of sharing learnings with leadership (deck with findings)
Learnings
While we uncovered enough feedback to overwhelm a backlog, a few common themes kept appearing…
Onboarding: creating and sharing plans was burdensome.
Integrations: Plans lacked important integrations with the rest of the Outreach product, like meetings, prospects, and tasks.
Information architecture: the 1:1 object relationship between Plans and Opportunities was limiting users and causing unnecessary workarounds
Engagement visibility: sellers wanted better metrics to engage a buyer's interest
Responsive design: Plans hadn't been optimized for smaller viewports
General usability: users wanted faster ways to assign tasks, set due dates, and
I teamed up with my product manager and engineering partners to strategize and prioritize the work. We used the RICE framework to help accomplish this (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and decided to move fast to improve elements of onboarding, engagement visibility, usability, integrations, and a few key usability concerns.
PM, Design, and Eng prioritized the work and I visualized and presented roadmap to achieve alignment with leadership
Design decisions
Buyer engagement
Held a workshop to align on the problem and ideate a few solutions
Plan owners wanted visibility into team members' engagement, which indicated overall interest in the partnership.
We explored a handful of ways to tackle this problem and agreed that sharing these metrics individually for each team member was the right path forward.
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Link a meeting
(info about link a meeting)
Caption
Plan header
(info about link a meeting)
Caption
Success Plans
Flexibility, visibility, hierarchy: expanding plan use cases
Sales reps were trying to utilize Success Plans for purposes other than what it was initially designed for. To improve customer retention and attract a broader market, we aimed to enhance the tool and make it adaptable for various use cases.
Role
Lead designer
Duration
Q1 – Q4, FY22
Team
Dina Vaccari
Director of Product
Carlo Candela
Product Manager
Kevin Kerr
Engineering Lead
Background
For a complete background on success Plans, head over to Success Plans: Finding Product Market Fit.
Outreach acquired early-stage startup Sameplan to appeal to sales reps focused on closing deals.
Problem
Selling can get complex quickly. There's a lot that needs to be conveyed and communicated during a deal, and with new stakeholders frequently getting thrown into the mix, keeping everyone aligned and informed can be a challenge.
A good sales rep will do their best to add order to the chaos — which is where Mutual Action Plans step in. MAPs are shared spaces created by Account Executives to help teams stay aligned on timelines and objectives throughout a deal, ultimately accelerating deal closure.
While prior research indicated that A+ reps were using MAPs to win contracts, we were unsure if there was strong market demand for a Mutual Action Planning tool or exactly what features would generate demand.
Goal
Find product-market fit with Sameplan and make Outreach more appealing among sales professionals responsible for closing deals.
Success metrics
A high percentage of users would be 'very disappointed" to no longer use Plans (VDU)
Increased number of Account Executives using Outreach
Increased number of organizations using plans
Increased number of plans created
Discovery
To learn fast, we iFramed Sameplan into the Outreach product and set up an internal alpha, giving access to ~100 sales team members. We then started observing their activity and engaging with our participants.
Sameplan had been iframed into Outreach after the acquisition to start learning quickly
Once our sales reps started building their plans, I’d regularly schedule time to understand their experience with the product. For each wave of calls, I’d create a research plan outlining objectives, appropriate questions, and a script for consistency. After synthesizing results, I’d document and present my findings to the team and product and design leadership.
Interviews with our alpha participants to gauge interest and pain points
After synthesizing results, I’d document and present my findings to the team and product and design leadership.
Regular cadence of sharing learnings with leadership (deck with findings)
Learnings
While we uncovered enough feedback to overwhelm a backlog, a few common themes kept appearing…
Onboarding: creating and sharing plans was burdensome.
Integrations: Plans lacked important integrations with the rest of the Outreach product, like meetings, prospects, and tasks.
Information architecture: the 1:1 object relationship between Plans and Opportunities was limiting users and causing unnecessary workarounds
Engagement visibility: sellers wanted better metrics to engage a buyer's interest
Responsive design: Plans hadn't been optimized for smaller viewports
General usability: users wanted faster ways to assign tasks, set due dates, and
I teamed up with my product manager and engineering partners to strategize and prioritize the work. We used the RICE framework to help accomplish this (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and decided to move fast to improve elements of onboarding, engagement visibility, usability, integrations, and a few key usability concerns.
PM, Design, and Eng prioritized the work and I visualized and presented roadmap to achieve alignment with leadership
Design decisions
Buyer engagement
Held a workshop to align on the problem and ideate a few solutions
Plan owners wanted visibility into team members' engagement, which indicated overall interest in the partnership.
We explored a handful of ways to tackle this problem and agreed that sharing these metrics individually for each team member was the right path forward.
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Early sketches for how we might share engagement indicators with plan owners
Link a meeting
(info about link a meeting)
Caption
Plan header
(info about link a meeting)
Caption