Launch🚀ECRM
UX LeadershipUX ResearchUX DesignAccessibilityContent Strategy
OVERVIEW
Imagine you're a Financial Advisor at CIBC. A client, Ms. Anwar, calls out of the blue with $50k to add to your portfolio of funds managed. Amazing! So of course, you pull up her file to make sure you’re completely up to date with her entire CIBC financial picture, right? But what if your system only showed you bits and pieces? What if to find that whole picture you had to go on a scavenger hunt between 6 to 7 disjointed legacy applications from what feels like the Reagan era to find a record of a stinking mortgage payment?
In the meantime, you sense Ms. Anwar's impatience mounting. And your frustration, frankly, is not that far behind.
Oh my glitchy goodness, no! Your computer froze. You have to restart. Ms. Anwar's got to go. 🤦🏻♂️
She'll call back.
You think.
The ECRM project aimed to create one, singular Salesforce SaaS-based client relationship management tool org-wide to unify all the many various CRM systems that were being used by different departments within the bank.
The bank's frontline staff was navigating through multiple, disconnected, antiquated applications and CRM platforms—often needing way too many tools to perform otherwise simple tasks—leading to inefficiencies and poor user and client experiences.
The goal was to simplify work processes for frontline staff and to centralize all CRM systems along with a heap of other functionalities into one platform, thereby:
As a UX Team Lead at CIBC, I led a brilliant and multidisciplinary team of 10+ UX professionals in transforming the perception of UX within our project and business unit during the creation of a new, organization-wide Salesforce CRM tool called “ECRM". I donned many a hat during this journey from UX/UI Designer to UX Research Lead to the all-encompassing ECRM UX Team Lead. This experience demonstrates my ability to drive UX strategy to deliver user-centred solutions across various lines of business, and various sub-disciplines within the UX field. All while scaling a UX project team by 400%! Heyooooo! 🙌
I made it my goal every day to create a supportive environment that championed the creativity, career growth, well-being, and collaboration of this team.
LEADERSHIP AND PEOPLE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
People First Leadership: I’m a people person. I’m passionate about helping people grow and enjoy their lives as professionals and as people. I was able to follow the examples set by tremendous leadership in that regard and consider it a privilege whenever I’m in a position to embrace and steward this philosophy of genuine care and passion for the well-being of our team members.
Collaborative growth: From collaborative work prioritization workshops, to weekly show and shares, to coffee chats, to formal recognitions, and of course to karaoke nights, I enabled a myriad of activities aimed at fostering both personal growth and team cohesion.
Team Synergy: Through the UX process flow, I cultivated an environment where the team functioned harmoniously. Regular interactions between UX Research, UX Design, and POs fortified team cohesion, ensuring every member contributed meaningfully.
Leadership Values: Throughout the project, I championed:
BUT REWIND: The "Starting" Line
Stepping into the ECRM landscape, my initial assumption was that a project of this magnitude, with such vast expertise behind it, would have a clear and effective vision for the role of UX.
I expected product leaders:
Turns out they weren't there quite yet. And to be fair, stakeholders were juggling such wildly tight executive timelines I empathized and couldn't really blame them. No doubt a challenging way for us to start, but I felt in time, with education and built trust, we'd sort out all the kinks. Nevertheless, we were initially just 2-3 UX resources brought into a sea of hundreds of stakeholders, and our introduction into the project came late in the game. We had missed the chance of being integral contributors at the start of the product lifecycle, and found ourselves arriving towards the end of it, reviewing designs already created by a third-party vendor. Instead of early strategic involvement, our role was reactive; provide "on-the-spot UX/UI Design heuristic evaluations," as well as evaluative usability testing.
Oh, and the national launch was mere months away.
UX CHALLENGES
It certainly wasn't that stakeholders didn't value UX; they absolutely did. But a gap in knowing the breadth of what we could bring to the table also existed. The time for strategic UX Research was not yet accounted for, and UX Design timelines were never realistic. Once we saw the forest for the trees, we realized if this was to be improved, it would fall on us to put the wheels in motion. And so out we set to socialize advocation and education for better UX processes, to nurture cross-functional relationships to expand our scope of influence, and to work to earn the trust of stakeholders such as product leaders, Product Owners, Business System Analysts, and Scrum Masters, to name just a few.
But first, before we'd be able to implement all of the above, we had a launch looming. It was time to roll up our sleeves and show our worth through showing our work...
PRE-LAUNCH "UAT" USABILITY TESTING
The reality was, this product was going full-scale launch sooner rather than later and if we wanted to have any impact before it did, it was going to have to be through evaluative usability testing in the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) sandbox environment. The goal was to rigorously test the usability of the system and provide UX/UI Design recommendations that could either be quickly implemented before launch, or added to the product backlog for future prioritization.
Select UX Research Findings:
Select UX/UI Design Recommendations:
Make required choices clearer by using a dropdown-only Subject field and pre-populating the time, so advisors avoid errors and unnecessary scrolling.
Impact:
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES FOR UX TRANSFORMATION
With the mad rush of the national launch finally behind us, the entire project had a moment to catch its collective breath. At least a little bit. While we continued to march forward into new epics, features, and waves of work, there was a sliver of more space for process refinement. We began undertaking the following strategic initiatives in a constant effort to improve upon and transform UX involvement in the ECRM project:
REFINED UX RESEARCH PROCESS
How the research function fit into ECRM’s wider delivery model.
The ECRM UX Research process focused on understanding the user's needs, behaviours, and pain points, and ensuring those considerations were taken into account by the product team. It employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather actionable insights. This information was instrumental in influencing prioritization of work, design decisions, business strategies, and overall user experience.
Excerpt from UX Educational Presentation:
REFINED UX DESIGN PROCESS
How the design function fit into ECRM’s wider delivery model.
The ECRM UX Design process weaves together user-centric design, collaborative insights, and iterative methodologies. This process ensures that design decisions align with user insights, feasibility checks, accessibility requirements, and business objectives to create an experience, that's user-friendly, technically sound, and benefits the business.
Excerpt from UX Educational Presentation:
Reflecting on this journey, it's evident that while challenges are inevitable, they also present opportunities for growth, learning, and ultimately, the delivery of a product that can truly make a difference. The ECRM project was a testament to the power of collaboration, adaptability, and unwavering dedication to the user experience.
Listed below are just some of the outcomes and lessons learned on this ride in ECRM land!
