ContractorPro:
Designing & Prioritizing New Features
Background
ContractorPro came to the UX Design team at Prime as they were working on transitioning their product towards a mobile-first design. Currently, ContractorPro is a web-app that runs best on desktops, that is designed to help contractors who run a team of 1-5 workers better manage their jobs and interface with clients. The ContractorPro team asked the UX Design team to assist in coming up with additional features to benefit their users as they work on transitioning the site towards being mobile-friendly.
The users of the app are contractors who got into their jobs because they’re good at their work, but find the administrative tasks that come with being a business owner more challenging. These users are also not interested in spending any of their limited time learning a new software that won’t end up benefiting their businesses, or has a perceived barrier to entry - so there was a strong emphasis on making the app easy and quick to understand.
Methods and Deliverables
Competitive audit
User journey maps
Rapid prototyping
KANO analysis
Collaboration with development team
Figma wireframing
Feature recommendations
Client Intake - Journey Maps and a Competitive Audit
The ContractorPro site is currently in beta mode, with a few users using it fairly effectively. My team met with the primary user of the site’s beta mode, and got a full run-through of how the site functions now and how it is used by the contractors. We got a sense of pain points and areas for improvement, as well as an idea of what is most important to the user groups.
This client intake inspired the User Journey Map to the right, which highlights the biggest tasks in the user workflow, as well as user thoughts and feelings and areas for improvement. As a whole, the biggest areas for improvements were the points in which the contractors would have to do work outside of the app - such as checking worker schedules, sending invoices, paying workers, etc.
The team also looked at the competitive landscape for small business organization tools, so that we could get a better sense of what functionality is industry standard, and what Contractor Pro could include to potentially stand out.
Feature Ideas
My team then went into brainstorming mode, with everyone coming up with their own set of ideas for new features. I brought seven ideas for new features to the table, aiming to bring the lower points of the user journey map up a notch. The features largely centered around bringing a task that users have to do outside the website into the site, or around making the site easier to search through and set it up to add functionality later down the line.
My full list of feature ideas;
Adding a dropdown selection for job types
Adding a filter/sort function to the workers page
Creating a “broadcasted jobs” tab in the contractor view
Creating an “unfilled broadcast” view in the owner view
Better job organization (including dates and job progress) in contractor view
Text notifications
Adding a search bar to the customer page
Developer Meeting
The team then met with a developer from ContractorPro to go through everyone’s feature ideas. The developer was able to give the team an idea of what they viewed as feasible, and gave each feature a job cost based on their Agile ranking system.
Based on their system, 15 points is equal to one sprint. Since the goal for the client was to create a recommended feature list that could be achieved within one of their sprints, these job costs were useful in shaping how the features were developed going forwards.
Kano Analysis
The UX Team sent out a survey to current users of the beta mode, asking them about their opinions on the different proposed features. We asked how they would feel if the proposed features were present, how they would feel if they were absent, and how important they think the feature is.
This form of surveying and analysis is called Kano Analysis, and it’s used to determine how essential users think features are, versus how attractive they would find them. The resulting graph has an x axis of function, and a y axis of satisfaction.
What this means:
Features high on function and low on satisfaction are the features that must be working in order to have a bare-minimum product.
Those with high function and high satisfaction mean that users will be highly satisfied with the product when the features function well.
And those with high satisfaction and low function are attractive to them, but they don’t make or break the application.
Wireframes
After taking in the notes and input from the developer, as well as the Kano analysis, I selected which features I recommended for the client to prioritize adding in the next sprint. The budget for the recommendations was limited, so I only proposed two features, but ones with high impact.
The simpler feature was the dropdown menu for the Job Type selection. The developer rated it as having a low job cost, but down the line it could prove very helpful in other sorting and filtering functionality as the site gets built out.
The second feature is a Calendar page. This is more robust, and uses most of the budget. However, it would have a large impact on the website’s functionality. It was rated well on the Kano analysis, and would improve functionality for both the contractors and sub-contractors. Having the calendar view for jobs scheduled, with information on who is working when and where, makes scheduling and planning easier. It would make the scheduling process one more thing that users would be able to do on the site instead through a different means. Having this site accomplish as many managerial tasks for its users in one place is the ultimate goal for the site, so this is an important feature.
The developer team at ContractorPro will be able to take these recommendations - as well as the information they gained from the feature review - and make further improvements to the site. This is the end of my involvement in the project, but the ContractorPro team chose an ideal time to seek UX Design advice, as the input will also help their team going forwards in the transition to a mobile-friendly site, and a full launch to market.