Client
Year
Resources
- Hardware + lab
- 2 participants per session
- MS Office Suite
Observers
- UX Team
- IE Team
- 1+ QA Team Member
- 1+ Project Manager
Timeline
- Overall: 1-2 weeks
- Discovery & Research: 1 week
- Testing: 1 day
- Resolution: 2+ days
The Out of Box Experience — discovering the customer journey from start to finish.
A critical phase in the customer experience starts with the moment they receive the physical product.
Part of my UX job responsibilities was to conduct Out of Box Experiences for each release. This involved setting up the usability studies participants, scenarios, moderation and presenting findings to stakeholders so critical updates could be made before the product is sent out to the customers.
Problem
There are many components that all have to work together to optimize the initial customer experience. Making sure they all work together to deliver a pleasant comprehensive experience is crucial.
Solution
Through the discovery of critical roadblocks, we able to make adjustments and prioritize updates before the product is shipped to the client.
The Process
Preparation
During the preparation phase of the usability study, I worked with project management to obtain hardware as early as possible. I also worked with the IE (information engineering) team to have access to all collateral the customer would receive during the initial installation process. Working with various groups, I helped facilitate thorough proofing of these elements to ensure any issues are discovered prior to the usability study.
I then created the scenarios of the customer journey with separate documents for the participants and the observers that were used to guide the study. Doing a pre-session of the OOBE was essential to ensure proper connections are established, equipment is working properly and documentation is as accurate as possible.
User Journey
With everything in place, I facilitated the usability study following UX best practices. The study was kicked off reminding the participants that we were evaluating the product and not them and that any issues they find will likely be run into by our customers.
By using the prepared scenario documents, the participants were guided through each task where they were encouraged to think out loud. At the end of each task, participants were allowed to give feedback and rank level of difficulty.
Outcome
After the OOBE, observer notes were compiled to create a presentation of user pain points that were presented to stakeholders. Critical issues were also pre-scoped to help with decision making. User stories were then created to resolve any issues and assigned to the respective teams.
After any important updates to the installation process, micro-sessions were done to ensure the issues were resolved as intended.
Examples of Key Findings
- Labeling is important
The packaging included several unmarked bags of screws. Different screws are used for different types of cabinets. Recommendations were made to the hardware team to improve screw packaging with labels to make installation faster and easier. Also, the controllers were also labeled with a laser cutter, making them almost invisible. Recommendations were made to add color to any hardware labeling. - Multi-platform instructions
Perhaps one of the most difficult problem we encountered was navigating the customer between different types of instructions. Recommendations were made to streamline this process. The final product included a flyer with a QR code that would take the customer to an online installation guide that would link all necessary documents in a central location. - Cabling is complicated
Depending on the desired configuration, cabling needed to be clear and consistent. Documentation needed to clearly illustrate cabling instructions for each configuration. Careful consideration needed to be made for how the color coded cables overlap with each other and the hardware illustration components. Zoomed in call outs were created to help illustrate tight spaces.
OOBE/Q&A
During on of our OOBE sessions, we brought in a Professional Services Consultant from Chicago. The installer primarily installs and configures FAS systems, but was happy to participate in our E-series study. He gave us some ideas on areas where we can improve our documentation and labeling. A Q&A session was done before the OOBE by our team. Here are some of the questions we asked to gain more insight into his field.
What is your exposure with E-Series products? If so, which ones? If not, what NetApp products?
What is your familiarity with storage management software tasks? What tasks do you perform most fequently?
What services do you provide? (ie rack in stack, configuration of management software, etc)
What are your typical pain points – as it pertains to the process of installing our product/other products?
What does a customer usually provide to install a storage system? What instructions are provided?
What is your division of labor within your department/team?
Workflow Example
