Panviva Product Strategy
Project: Create a strategy plan for Panviva product enhancements (2022 -2023)
About the Product & the History
Panviva is a Knowledge Management System (KMS) that was acquired by Upland Software. After the acquisition, only a UI refresh was performed.
The system was built 20 years ago and had never been reviewed, aside from the addition of new features based on customer requests.
Panviva had a low maturity level in UX design.
Existing product state
My role
I was the Product Designer assigned to this project, where my responsibilities included:
- Educating the team on Product Design processes and how they could benefit from my expertise.
- Enhancing the overall user experience.
- Improving the user interface design.
The Goal
The goal was to help Panviva integrate as an Upland product by:
- Retaining current clients and preventing business losses.
- Implementing the Upland design system to ensure consistency across the brand.
The challenge
- The company had a low level of maturity in UX design.
- As a result, they initially expected immediate UI enhancements.
- They did not recognize the value of investing in user experience research and improvements.
- Their priority was to obtain updated UI screens as quickly as possible.
What did I do
1: Explaining the Importance of UX Investment
I emphasized the return on investment (ROI) of user experience activities, outlining the tangible benefits that could be achieved through this approach.
During workshops and meetings, I explained that dedicating time to user research and understanding user pain points upfront significantly reduces the time and costs associated with redesigning a product after its release. I highlighted that making adjustments during the design phase is far more cost-effective than implementing changes after the product has been coded.
2: Explaining Strategic vs. Tactical Design
The Panviva team was initially unsure about the type of support they needed, as they didn’t fully understand the scope of a designer’s role. They frequently requested strategic work without realizing the time it requires.
To address this, I conducted an analysis to clearly differentiate between tactical and strategic design support. This was necessary to align their expectations and guide them in understanding the timeframes and value associated with each approach.
3: Helping Them Choose the Type of Support They Needed
There were numerous polarities that we couldn't resolve entirely; we could only manage them. When I asked the team what type of help they required, they naturally wanted both strategic and tactical support. However, Upland needed clarity on which type of assistance we should prioritize for Panviva at that moment.
While we aimed to invest in both areas, it was crucial to establish clear priorities and determine when to switch between strategic and tactical modes. I allowed the team time to reflect on this after expressing my concerns about continuing to implement quick UI fixes while neglecting the core UX issues that users repeatedly complained about.
As a result, we reached our first design decision: the Panviva team opted to proceed with the UI quick fixes for upcoming releases while simultaneously allowing us to conduct proper user research.
4: Creating an Effective Design Process
I developed a design process that accommodated both tactical and strategic work efforts, ensuring it was effective for the product team and aligned with my responsibilities as the designer.
To illustrate the timeline differences between tactical and strategic design approaches, I presented the UX and UI plan alongside the product management timeline. I used business language instead of technical design jargon to ensure the team clearly understood the process, the time required for each phase, and how it fits within the overall product management timeline.
The outcome
The outcome was a decision by the Panviva team to redesign the Manager Portal, which had the most significant UX issues and consistently received user complaints regarding its ability to meet their needs.
Our new goal was to enhance the portal so that users could quickly and easily find what they needed, track knowledge effectively, and create new documents with greater ease. You can view the user research and portal structure here
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