CRM System
🚨 Problem
Amid rapid growth, outreach staff at The Transformations Community struggled to manage opportunities and communication, with previous CRMs failing due to poor adoption and lack of customization.
💡 Solution
A customized CRM system to streamline partnership building, enhance targeted communication, and increase staff capacity.
💼 Roles: UX Designer, Researcher, PM
⌛ Timeline: 1 month
🥊 Impact
Accelerated partnership acquisition by 1 week
“This is the kind of structure and functionality I expect from something like a Salesforce CRM”
Research Methodology
👩💻 Interviews with Outreach Team
Gained insights into current workflows, familiar terminology, and the information needed to inform partnership decisions.
📊 Analysis of Previous Platforms
Revealed past failures stemmed from technical barriers and workflow disruptions, emphasizing the need for seamless integration and ease of use.
Research Learnings
🆖 Adoption Challenges
Adoption succeeds when technical barriers and disruption to existing workflows is minimized.
🎤 Mass Communication Over Personalization
The organization favored broad communication over targeted approaches, resulting in outreach lacking strategy.
🤖 Manual Processes Given Scope Constraints
Manual processes could compensate for limited automation capabilities given resource and time constraints.
📈 Tracking & Data
A centralized system for tracking organizations was missing, but scattered systems did contain data needed for core tasks.
Integrating to Workflow
Analyzed workflows by mapping existing tools and processes to assess the integration of a centralized platform.
Constructing Requirements
Focused on simplicity, customization, and flexibility because these factors would drive adoption and return on investment.
User Characteristics
💼 Outreach, marketing, & management team members
🐵 Have limited Mailchimp access
📁 Tracks communication in personal files
🕸️ Utilize their own personal network
🌱 Struggles with learning new technology
System Objectives
✨ Generate opportunities with potential partners
⚙️ Develop connections for current and future initiatives
🎯 Centralize communication tracking
Selecting a Platform
Evaluated various platforms with 3 major requirements:
Non-Technical - cater to a low technical literacy users
Inexpensive - budget constraints
Customizable - easily altered to fit the niche needs
Ultimately, it was deemed that Notion best fit the needs of the product.
Design Frameworks And Workflows
Prioritized a scalable, flexible design to support organizational growth, establishing consistent workflows as a foundation for a future-proof system.
System Framework
Simplified the traditional CRM framework by removing one database to better facilitate adoption by minimizing training requirements.
Streamlining Workflows
Streamlined workflows for the new platform to ensure smooth adoption and minimal disruption, focusing on two key outreach objectives.
Individual Outreach engages individuals through proposal submissions, speaker opportunities, spotlights, and more.
Organizational Outreach builds lasting partnerships with like-minded organizations, fostering funding, engagement, and opportunities for the community.
Product Demo
Written documentation and an introductory video were created to ensure accessibility and smooth adoption, even for new users. The final product resulted in a 4% increase in organizational efficiency.
Reflection
Adoption Through Alignment
The success of a tool is measured by its ability to integrate seamlessly into existing systems and enhance workflow efficiency. User adoption depends on intuitive usability and clear value. By designing a familiar yet customizable system, development was accelerated, leading to smooth adoption and making the tool an asset for the outreach team.
Foundation for Growth
Recognizing the project's potential long-term impact, I focused on creating a strong foundation for success. The CRM system was designed for simplicity, with comprehensive technical and user-facing documentation to ensure easy maintenance and future enhancements. Thus, prioritizing scalability and long-term relevance.