Scale a research roadmap for payroll as a foundational effort to build out a clickable prototype in HTML/CSS.
My Role
Develop Design Plan, Research Roadmap, User Research, Usability Testing
Tools
Tableau, Google Analytics, Figma, UserZoom Go
Duration
12 months
Mission
Scale a research roadmap to launch the payroll product side of the house for Heartland Payments Co. into a data-driven, user-centric vertical with innovative projects to rebrand the payroll applications.
Discovery + Research
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Right as I started at Heartland Payments, I dove into user research to understand who was using our applications. I set up 4 rounds of user interviews, ranging from internal employees to a specific set of clients— those with less than 10 employees— micro clients.
“The system isn’t easy to use, I have to invest a lot of time into it. Navigating the reports is difficult and tricky too. I want something straightforward, I have a law firm to run! ”
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Utilizing Tableau metrics, I was able to validate that Heartland’s #1 small business industry was legal services (6%) and that 54% of payroll clients had less than 10 employees.
PERSONA
From my combined research between user interviews, SME interviews, Google Analytics, and Tableau metrics, I developed 6 personas for Payroll and honed in on one for an upcoming Micro Client project.
Marisol is a lawyer first and a small business owner second. She has 3 employees and needs an efficient app to run her payroll— and not bombard her with excess features that weigh her down.
Annotated persona
Upon completing the foundational research, I created an annotated persona to showcase and evangelize throughout the organization, even beyond the Payroll vertical. My goal was to show off the research in a tangible manner with both visual and analytical information so the C-suite along with my developers could comprehend how the data brought Marisol to life.
User Experience
USER FLOWs + Low-fidelity wireframes
I validated my user flows and low-fidelity wireframes with internal Subject Matter Experts and additionally compared them against competitors as I worked to streamline the time and number of clicks that it would take for a small business owner, like Marisol, to run payroll.
High-Fidelity wireframes
Our company had an internal conference coming up and we received a new directive from the SVP of the Payroll Product vertical. We needed to create a demo and a commercial with the prototype within 6 weeks. To supercharge the project, I hired a principal designer on a contract and managed 2 UI designers to create these high-fidelity screens within the short 6-week timeframe.
Usability Testing
I ran 5 usability tests and received beneficial feedback. Of note, one small business operator validated the need for a lightweight payroll app since they only had 4 people on payroll.
On the other side of the coin, 1 business owner critiqued potential legal issues around the termination process in the prototype. This highlighted my need to revisit the flow and content, especially bringing in the compliance team to perform our due diligence on this work flow before we attempt to launch this new product.
Results
We successfully launched a high-fidelity clickable HTML/CSS demo in time for the internal Sales conference! Additionally, this created a strong buzz to our 1,000+ sales reps and Heartland employees as they viewed the upcoming products, getting them excited about the future of our product suite.