Meleigha Holt
HERO Pro Accounts
November 2015 - January 2016
Lead UX Designer
Overview
Renovate America was trying to scale an outdated B2B platform and discovered that a system overhaul was required. The minimum requirement was to replicate current account functionality on the new platform. After learning about the business's intent to scale nationally with additional financial products, I saw this as an opportunity to design and advocate for investing in a scalable infrastructure.
Milestones
Mapped the components of the project and their dependencies for the team and stakeholders. Identified gaps in the current system and recommended a more scalable model.
Demonstrated the value of the new conceptual model and earned stakeholder approval. Designed a Multi-state Accounts feature to provide the team with the north star concept.
Accommodated short-term deadlines without sacrificing future scalability by modifying the multi-state feature for phase one launch in California.
My Role
Create a user account framework around high level requirements
Develop a phased approach that meets immediate short term requirements while being inherently scalable for national expansion requirements
Create concept maps, user journeys, and flow maps to gain alignment from SMEs and stakeholders
Wireframe and prototype scenarios for engineering planning
Cartic Natraj - Senior PM, HERO Pro
"I distinctly remember her being thrown into a very complex project as part of her first initiative at RA. She was able to not only understand the complex workings of the company, but also contribute effectively to the project."
Milestone 1
Conceptual Model
The first conceptual model was used to illustrate the different components of the system and their lack of hierarchy. This also illustrated that Accounts, in all its complexity, still did not solve for the pain points written in yellow.
CSLB Holder vs Admin
Pain Point I
Renovate America required California Contractors to provide their license number during registration before creating employee accounts. The problem was that the license holder was most often an employee, not the company owner.
Licensing for multi-state
Pain Point II
Contracting licensing requirements are different state by state; registration and Accounts needed to accommodate expansion into new states. For example, California licenses are given by the state to individuals. In Missouri, licenses are given by the county to offices. In Florida, only some types of contracting work requires a license.
National Accounts
Painpoint III
The existing structure did not allow national companies to manage offices in multiple states.
Future Product Growth
Painpoint IV
Renovate America was growing to offer a new unsecured green-energy financing product called Benji. Companies needed to opt-in or out of financing types at the office location level.
Future Structure
The above diagram shows how the existing structure might solve for these known pain points (company entity; multi-state expansion; and additional financing options) However, this solution was rigid and would not grow gracefully with Renovate America's needs.
A New Conceptual Model
Model the company and its offices instead of users and roles
The existing model did not have a clear relationship between company entities (a company, an office, and its employees) and Renovate America’s entities (financing types, licenses to do business with us and banking information). This relationship was made most clear with a model that was structured around the company and its offices.
A company provides financing through Renovate America to sell their products and services.
They can advertise through Renovate America to potential customers with a company profile.
To receive payment for work done, the company must link a bank account.
If a company has more than one office, then additional locations will inherit the Company's settings and may choose to customize for each location.
All offices need to provide licensure appropriate to their state or municipality.
Each office has a profile for describing the services it offers to a targeted service area.
Employees will have roles and permissions associated to the office they work for.
Milestone Two
Multi-State Wireframe
With stakeholder buy-in on the new conceptual model, it was time to provide the team with wires and prototypes for the north star vision. The objective was to show Accounts at scale so that it could be engineered to expand nationally with and support future financial products.
Milestone Three
Phase 1: California Only
Phase 1 was focused on delivering the features required for launch in California. This meant license management was stripped out, banking information was not a requirement for adding a new office and the add user experience was simplified.
Phase 1 Prototype Walkthrough
