Introduction
This project focused on transforming the way marketing professionals at Element Three approach their work. This initiative is dedicated to developing an AI-powered marketing strategy platform tailored to the specific needs of marketers. Throughout this process, we address key challenges that practitioners face, with the goal of enhancing efficiency and providing strategic clarity. In this section, I will outline the development of this tool and its practical application within the context of Element Three
This initiative revolves around the creation of a tailored tool for Element Three, leveraging existing automated tools and AI technologies. The primary focus is on equipping mid-sized marketing businesses with resources to refine marketing strategies, customize plans for specific company needs, and deliver actionable solutions in alignment with business growth objectives.
The overarching objective is to streamline the workflow for marketing professionals, offering essential marketing assets, resources, and tactics for quicker and more efficient creative problem-solving. Our designs aim to achieve this by enabling marketers to:
1. Compare Past and Current Projects:
- Reviewing project briefs for insights.
- Comparing current project plans with past ones to identify familiar approaches or areas requiring further research.
2. Utilize ChatGPT and Grammarly Features for Assistance in:
- Idea generation.
- Summarizing briefs and project plans by scanning for keywords.
- Checking plan alignment with identified problems.
3. Create Templates/Frameworks:
- Beyond the routine tasks, empowering marketers to generate templates and frameworks for diverse scenarios efficiently.
Final Design Walkthrough
Background
This project aims to support mid-market businesses in leveraging marketing to achieve their growth goals. It focuses on integrating automation and AI to optimize marketing strategies, customize plans, and align initiatives with business objectives. By addressing the specific challenges faced by mid-sized companies, the project seeks to bridge the gap between traditional marketing approaches and the opportunities presented by modern technology, utilizing accessible AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Element Three, a mid-sized marketing business, identified a crucial need for a more streamlined and intuitive system to empower its marketing professionals in executing their roles effectively. The existing challenge lay in the lack of a comprehensive tool that could seamlessly integrate marketing strategies, facilitate efficient collaboration, and harness the power of automated tools and AI technologies. The absence of such a solution resulted in difficulties for marketing teams, ranging from cognitive friction during concept testing to unclear functionalities in AI assistance features. The need for a user-friendly interface, clearer instructions, and enhanced functionality became apparent through the initial concept testing phases. This documentation addresses the problem by detailing the step-by-step process of designing, testing, and iterating on a solution tailored to Element Three's specific requirements.
The primary user group targeted by this project comprises marketing professionals within Element Three, a mid-sized marketing business. These users, ranging from marketing managers to directors, play crucial roles in strategizing, planning, and executing marketing campaigns. Their responsibilities include interacting with strategic and tactical information to achieve business goals efficiently. The user group also extends to stakeholders and decision-makers within Element Three who engage with the proposed system during concept testing and provide valuable insights. The diversity within this user group ensures that the designed system caters to various roles and responsibilities within the marketing domain, contributing to a holistic and effective solution for Element Three's marketing endeavors.
Milstone 1 (Preliminary Research)
Problem Space Exploration
Embarking on Milestone One, our project prioritized an in-depth exploration of our users and their daily challenges within the marketing landscape, laying the groundwork for a purposeful system design. Through collaborative engagement, our team deciphered key chapters from "The Next CMO," shedding light on the intricacies of marketing plans and the role of a CMO. This initial probe unveiled challenges such as communication gaps, misalignment between goals and actions, and reliance on outdated tools. In subsequent interviews, we validated these insights, informing our strategic pivot towards understanding the limitations and opportunities presented by current tools. This foundational understanding primes our design process, ensuring a tailored solution that addresses the unique needs of mid-marketing professionals, notably at Element 3.
Competitive Analysis
Our competitive analysis delved into prevalent marketing tools, examining project management, content management, and automation platforms. The goal was to grasp the current tool landscape, identify improvement opportunities, and align our design with Element Three's needs. Each team member scrutinized tools like CrazyEgg, WooCommerce, SEMrush, NowSpeed Marketing, and BullHorn, evaluating market trends, user experiences, integration capabilities, and pricing.
Key takeaways included widespread AI integration, emphasis on user-friendly interfaces, diverse customization levels, and tools tailored for different expertise levels and business sizes. These insights shaped focused interview questions, ensuring our design process directly addressed Element Three's marketers' specific pain points and requirements.
Deep Reddit Dives
Our deep exploration of marketing Reddit forums was geared toward uncovering the pain points, challenges, and preferences of contemporary marketing professionals. The goal was to distill key insights from active discussions, with each team member investigating 5-8 forums. We organized findings on a Miro board, identifying recurring themes such as information overload, lack of customization, and organizational struggles. Noteworthy takeaways included marketers grappling with efficient project management due to data overload, a desire for tools aligning with their planning styles, and a need for enhanced workflow organization. These insights significantly informed our interview protocol, shaping our understanding of user challenges and directing the design of a tool tailored to their specific needs.
Understanding Marketing Professionals
Our objective in engaging with marketing professionals at Element Three was to delve into their professional experiences, emotions, and interactions with existing marketing tools. Conducting two interviews via Zoom, our approach centered on dissecting their roles and routines, exploring emotional experiences and challenges, and understanding the tools integral to their daily tasks. This three-pronged strategy aimed at a comprehensive comprehension of marketing directors' pain points and needs. Insights were distilled into three main categories: pain points, needs, and opportunities. Unearthing challenges like the struggle to efficiently organize data, the desire for AI assistance in basic tasks, and the need for constant alignment with end goals, we gained a nuanced understanding of our user group's aspirations. These key takeaways served as the bedrock for subsequent ideation, shaping our design decisions and laying the groundwork for solutions tailored to the unique needs of marketing professionals at Element Three.
Ideating for our users
Our ideation phase was driven by insights derived from initial interviews, competitive analysis, and in-depth exploration of marketing forums on Reddit. The goal was to transform subconscious ideas into tangible sketches, targeting the diverse needs of marketing managers, particularly focusing on content organization and team alignment—two recurring challenges identified in our research. Employing rapid sketching sessions, we dedicated five minutes to each, drawing inspiration from common features in marketing tools such as content and project management. The resulting dashboards encompassed key elements like customizable interfaces, integrated calendars, AI-generated priority lists, Miroboard-like interfaces with collaborative capabilities, and detailed campaign metrics. Recognizing consistently repeated features—customizable interfaces, calendar emphasis, client management, performance metrics, and AI-driven alignment—allowed us to prioritize these crucial aspects. This ideation activity sparked questions about tool selection and integration, guiding our approach toward creating a comprehensive tool that merges various functionalities rather than focusing on a single tool type. Recognizing the need for further information, our team delved into AI applications to enhance the envisioned marketing tool's capabilities.
Milstone 2 (Solving)
Stakeholder Workshop
Our stakeholder workshop aimed at delving into the intricacies of a marketing professional's workflow, deciphering key pain points, and uncovering time-consuming tasks within their daily operations with essential tools. Conducted via Zoom with two participants, the workshop utilized a protocol designed for optimal engagement, incorporating an icebreaker and two main activities: journey mapping and visual walkthroughs.
During the journey mapping activity, focused on initiating a new project with a client, participants highlighted pain points such as task delegation, team alignment, referencing past work, and the need for templates. These insights were instrumental in shaping features for our tool, envisioning AI assistance in recreating assets from previous documents and tracking progress through metrics.
Visual walkthroughs involved participants sharing their screens and showcasing their top three daily-used marketing tools, including Google Sheets for content calendars and project management, Google Looker Studio for data analytics, and Google Slides for reporting. Recognizing the value of Google Drive in streamlining tasks, we decided to integrate it into our tool to address stakeholder concerns about having excessive tabs open.
A pivotal moment in the workshop led to a strategic shift, moving away from a project management focus to a more expansive marketing strategy tool. Insights from discussions with stakeholders emphasized the need to explore features beyond existing PM tools like Clickup, Asana, and Monday. Quotes from stakeholders underlined the urgency for a platform enabling marketers to reshape content efficiently using AI features, increase productivity with past templates, and generate ideas swiftly. This realization propelled our team towards a clearer direction, leveraging workshop insights to construct a priority matrix for informed decision-making.
Prioritization Matrix
Our prioritization matrix, a pivotal step in user-centric development, distilled key insights from the stakeholder workshop. Through meticulous organization on Miro, we identified high-value, high-effort tasks like creating project plans and designing necessary assets. Simultaneously, we pinpointed high-value, low-effort tasks such as analyzing the team's approach and evaluating strategy alignment. These priorities, derived from user needs and company goals, now guide the development of a streamlined journey map, ensuring focused efforts on the most impactful areas.
Journey Map Development
Our journey map development played a pivotal role in visualizing a marketer's workflow, illuminating repetitive tasks and inefficiencies across Element 3's campaign planning phases. As we identified gaps and pain points, the map underscored opportunities for AI integration to streamline manual processes, enhancing efficiency. Not only did it validate insights from interviews, like the challenge of scattered data, but it served as a compass, guiding us to four key priorities. These priorities, spanning idea generation to trend analysis, now steer our ideation phase, ensuring our AI-powered platform addresses the nuanced needs of Element 3's marketers for a more streamlined and focused workflow.
Automated, Manual, and Hybrid Tasks
Our focus on task categorization—manual, automated, or hybrid—proved instrumental in refining our ideation process. Collaborating on a whiteboard, we assessed each key priority's nature and intricacies. Metrics generation and real-time performance monitoring emerged as prime candidates for automation, ensuring data-driven decision-making. Manual tasks, such as reviewing and revising AI-generated assets, found their place, accounting for the nuances of human touch. Meanwhile, hybrid functionalities, including changes based on AI suggestions and idea-driven asset creation, sought to strike a harmonious balance. As we transitioned to low-fidelity sketches, this task breakdown provided a structured foundation for our tool's seamless integration and optimal workflow.
Paper Sketching
Our paper sketching phase aimed at translating insights from the prioritization matrix and journey map into tangible design concepts. Each team member contributed 3-5 sketches, focusing on key features integral to the final solution. Emphasizing high-value and high-effort items, we navigated through a dashboard UI, addressing the time-consuming challenges faced by marketers. Considering AI's capabilities and potential risks, we honed our initial sketches, iterating ideas for the homepage, left menu bar, metrics, and AI features like file comparison and idea generation. These sketches served as a foundational step towards our collective vision, fostering further ideation and refinement on a collaborative whiteboard.
Group Sketching
The group sketching session was an essential ideation activity, aiming to merge possibilities from individual sketches into a cohesive design solution. With the goal of integrating diverse perspectives on key features collaboratively, the team gathered around a whiteboard to resolve differing opinions and align our ideas. Revisiting user needs, understanding AI constraints, and evaluating potential risks guided our ideation process. We collectively envisioned the dashboard's homepage, emphasizing a plug-in feature for extended capabilities, fostering an integrated environment, and streamlining the workflow for our users. This collaborative effort solidified our shared vision for the project.
Low Fidelity Mockups
Our focus shifted to low-fidelity mockups, aiming to create screens embodying essential features outlined in our priority matrix from the stakeholder workshop. Translating individual sketches into a joint mockup on Figma, we amalgamated the best aspects from each team member. Functionality prevailed over aesthetics, with a minimalist approach highlighting key features and interactions. The dashboard screen offers quick access to recent updates, documents, goals, and activity. The templates screen organizes saved templates and enables the creation of tailored templates with AI assistance. The AI assistance screen serves as the main workspace, allowing users to upload documents and interact with an AI chatbot for recommendations. The goals screen provides insights into individual and team goals, fostering a visual representation of progress. Iterative adjustments based on feedback propelled our design progression towards mid-fidelity mockups, ensuring alignment with user needs and expectations.
Milstone 3 (Improvements)
Concept Testing
Concept testing served as a crucial phase in our design process, involving the presentation of low-fidelity mockups to stakeholders to gather insightful feedback. Our goal was to optimize the functionality of key features such as the Dashboard, AI Assistance, and Goal sections. Utilizing a concept testing protocol, we engaged with a participant from our user group, focusing on understanding the intuitiveness and functionality of the platform. Valuable takeaways emerged, emphasizing the need for clearer instructions and straightforward language to reduce cognitive friction. The AI Assistant features required additional guidance, and the Goals Screen lacked clarity, leading to confusion. These insights propelled iterative refinements, addressing major usability concerns and enhancing the overall user experience.
Usability Testing
Our final design is a culmination of user-centric considerations and iterative refinements aimed at creating a seamlessly integrated tool for marketing professionals. On the landing page, we strategically integrated Google Drive to align with our stakeholders' existing workflow, minimizing manual efforts and facilitating easy access to documents and templates. The dashboard serves as a central hub, allowing marketers to effortlessly resume work through pinned documents and engage with the AI Assistance Chat Box for streamlined interactions. The "Pinned Documents" feature addresses the common pain of searching for crucial documents, enhancing efficiency.
The "Templates" Page introduces an AI-driven solution to accelerate the creation of tailored templates, acknowledging the time constraints faced by marketing managers. This innovation enables marketers to upload reference materials and receive AI-generated frameworks, optimizing their document creation process. The "AI Assistance" Page empowers users to upload documents for idea generation, strategy creation, and more, enhancing productivity while maintaining alignment with project goals.
Strategically placed on the homepage, the "Goals" feature aids marketers in keeping their end goals in focus, aligning with insights from interviews and workshops. The "Documents" Page facilitates a collaborative approach, allowing team members to save and review AI-generated documents, addressing the need for human oversight and ensuring content compliance. Our design caters to marketing directors' concerns about AI-generated content, balancing efficiency with quality control.
The future considerations section highlights areas for improvement, including further exploration of AI features, continued testing and iterations, and the potential integration of external apps/platforms for enhanced collaboration and efficiency. While this project provided valuable insights and a well-rounded design, the team acknowledges the complexities that couldn't be fully addressed within the project timeline, leaving room for future enhancements and innovations. The final design video provides a comprehensive overview of our thoughtful and user-focused design journey.
Final Design and Future considerations
Our final design is a culmination of user-centric considerations and iterative refinements aimed at creating a seamlessly integrated tool for marketing professionals. On the landing page, we strategically integrated Google Drive to align with our stakeholders' existing workflow, minimizing manual efforts and facilitating easy access to documents and templates. The dashboard serves as a central hub, allowing marketers to effortlessly resume work through pinned documents and engage with the AI Assistance Chat Box for streamlined interactions. The "Pinned Documents" feature addresses the common pain of searching for crucial documents, enhancing efficiency.
The "Templates" Page introduces an AI-driven solution to accelerate the creation of tailored templates, acknowledging the time constraints faced by marketing managers. This innovation enables marketers to upload reference materials and receive AI-generated frameworks, optimizing their document creation process. The "AI Assistance" Page empowers users to upload documents for idea generation, strategy creation, and more, enhancing productivity while maintaining alignment with project goals.
Strategically placed on the homepage, the "Goals" feature aids marketers in keeping their end goals in focus, aligning with insights from interviews and workshops. The "Documents" Page facilitates a collaborative approach, allowing team members to save and review AI-generated documents, addressing the need for human oversight and ensuring content compliance. Our design caters to marketing directors' concerns about AI-generated content, balancing efficiency with quality control.
The future considerations section highlights areas for improvement, including further exploration of AI features, continued testing and iterations, and the potential integration of external apps/platforms for enhanced collaboration and efficiency. While this project provided valuable insights and a well-rounded design, the team acknowledges the complexities that couldn't be fully addressed within the project timeline, leaving room for future enhancements and innovations. The final design video provides a comprehensive overview of our thoughtful and user-focused design journey.
Contributions
Stakeholder Workshop:
- Collaborated on creating a protocol for the workshop.
- Assisted in conducting journey mapping and visual walkthrough activities.
Pivot to Marketing Development:
- Contributed to shaping the focus towards a marketing strategy tool rather than a project management tool.
Journey Map Development:
- Collaborated on creating a journey map to visualize the user experience.
- Assisted in identifying major gaps and opportunities for AI integration.
- Contributed to the development of key takeaways for design decisions.
Assessing Automated, Manual, and Hybrid Tasks:
- Collaborated on mapping out features as automated, manual, or hybrid.
- Engaged in discussions about the riskiness of tasks and chart creation.
Paper Sketching:
- Created 3-5 sketches exploring key features for the dashboard UI.
Group Sketching:
- Actively participated in the whiteboard sketching activity for collaborative ideation.
Low-Fidelity Mockups:
- Contributed to creating mockups on Figma.
- Provided input for the joint mockup, combining the best aspects of individual sketches.
Concept Testing:
- Collaborated on creating a concept testing protocol.
- Participated in gathering feedback and refining concepts based on insights.
Usability Testing:
- Engaged in usability testing sessions with a participant.
- Assisted in guiding the participant through task-based scenarios.
- Contributed to the analysis of usability testing outcomes and iterations.
Final Design:
- Provided insights and ideas for the landing page, dashboard, templates, AI assistance, goals, and documents screens.
- Contributed to the design rationale, linking design decisions to user feedback and research findings.
- Actively participated in shaping the future considerations for potential improvements.
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