Eliminating The Back And Forth Presented by Dilshad Shams, Libby Szetho, Sylvia Sogari, Tom Puc
Project Scope Participants Libby Szetho
Tom Puc
Kris Koper
Sylvia Sogari
Dilshad Shams
Ryan Handby
Goals
James Claridge
Risk
The project scope is very broad for the allocated timeline.
Assumptions Users are experiencing pain points.
Automated tasks will lead to more productivity and profitability.
Help users businesses automate the tasks that take time away from their work.
Motivation To increase the productivity and profitability of freelancers and small businesses.
Users / User benefits Freelancers Small businesses
Allow users to set up automated triggers when working through their sales process to reduce time.
Help freelancers and small put more energy into the tasks that really matter to them and their clients.
Build a workflow tool that is customisable
Reduce time on business admin and amount of manual data entry.
Constraints 6-week sprint.
Solutions to user flow should not detract from customer flow.
Limited budget
Activities
Online Surveys
One on one interviews
Competitor analysis
Affinity Map
Empathy Map
Personas
Customer Journey Map
Brainstorming
Crazy 8s
MVP Matrix
User Flow
Wireframes
Hi fi prototype
Usability Testing
Final Prototype
Deliverables
Research and insights - pain points
Customer personas
Journey map
Solution/concept definition
What is the idea
What problems it will solve
How it works
UX solution flow
Interactive prototype
Milestones
Redefined problem statement
Selection of MVP solutions.
Design of prototype.
High fidelity user testing. Final prototype
Competitors
Problem Statement A freelancer finds the admistration process tedious and time-consuming and wants to spend more time doing what they enjoy.
Research Goals
Explore how users currently
Understand user’s feelings
manage their business
and opinions around their
needs.
pain points.
Tools 1 on 1 Interviews
Online Survey
Competitor Analysis
Examine competitors
Survey Results
What Users Do
User Pain Points
What Users Wish
Use different platforms
72% of users find emails to be the
Spend more time doing
for admin needs
most time consumin
what they lov
The majority only use
55% of users find payments and
A system that is easy to
tools/services for
contracts to be the tasks they
learn and low cost
invoicing or finance
most struggle with
Most feel they don’t have
46% of users express that don’t
enough time to complete
have enough time to complete all
all business needs
their business needs
Customer Relationship management
Invoicing/payment issues
Most annoying part of chasing payments is
they never received
when the customer of
the quote or email,
the freelancer doesn’t
His pain points for his
Customers mentioned
however, it went to their junk mail
quote the correct
I use
ServiceM8
Time spent on admin
2 hours a day of adminstration
1-2 hours a day spent Follow up customers
freelancing is the
(Smart
business admin side
management systems
regarding the quote
but feel he covers it
and processes for
within 1-2 weeks.I
with word,excel
trades
job
&
on adminstration
services).
with a phone call
Written
Has a written diary of
payments
items that still need to
the bottom of
be worked on.
invoice. Pay within
at
certain days and
normally schedule the
templates and email
invoice number
Tracking projects or milestones
follow up call in my
How projects are
information below to
calendar as a reminder.
tracked
whatever account it need to be
I had issues with the
After the email of
quoting and invoice
telling the customer
template but I ended
the drawing are
up
fixing
it. I was
Excel spreadsheet used for customer relationship management and track the progress of each
For my customer
5hrs
relationship
administration a week
of business
I’d say more than 20 hours a week spent on administration
management I use
facebook, instagram
completed, the
trying to customise it
customer thinks he is
how I want it and
lying
and notebook
struggled to do it.
Escrow would have
I have to manually
been nice if the money
track this all on it in
was in escrow, so that
Excel sheet, and I just
we're both given
use invoice to go and I
security.
would just calculate the payments.
A fair bit of request for information
find
keeping
Currently, one or two
About 10 hours of
hours a week. I really
admin per week
keep it minimal
including all social
because I think I've
media.
Job done once paid
Payment of deposit
I'm just really good at
but has to check
from start off the rest
excel at everything
through right invoice
is paid when drawings
on Excel and or
number or it can
are completed
Trello. For larger
impact tax
projects, I would go into JIRA.
streamlined my
I would have to do it all
I
myself, from liaising with
data records up to
the client not just inside the
date frustrating.
don't know where these clients are at, all I know
the end of the day once paid
project outside of the
Payment
is where their project is. But in terms of how they
client
project, as well as
schedule
signed this, or have they done that, or have they
managing the expectation,
communication
paid their
managing the scope, like
between project
agency if not then I would have been lost.
so when you're freelancer,
managers and
you're not only the
finance
designer, you're also the
follow up
When
processes.
working on four or
final
difficult Tracking from
Communication
multiple areas from breakout payment hours
I'm guessing
milestone pay but it reminds me of Afterpay.
I use email and phone to
No automation, all
The communication
communicate to my
work done through
with the customer
email, excel phone
through instagram
calls
and facebook needs
Just having enquiries
Dealing with all these
on different platforms
aspects
is frustrating
separately takes lots
(admin)
spent and dependant on.
of time and efforts. It
Lump
would be helpful a
sum for big jobs
sounds like
something that it can
something about
calculate the different
paying for an item.
milestones and then
to be improved
manage everything
invoice accordingly.
because many people
from one post
I need it to dumb it down for what I can do. I just want to see within a glance where my clients are at in terms of the admin like what's missing, like what I need to do where I need to chase them, like red if it's if they're overdue.
Y
ellow if something else, like I don't know, like
so simple. And if I press a button, and then it can start sending contracts and invoices and
customers
Hasn’t heard of Milestone
There is a lot of back
Customers are unable
pay but knows will have to
and forth
to describe their
pay for subscription and
communication with
problems/issues
would like to keep to
customers
through email and
system that has already used
Not heard of Milestone Pay
it's on my system
and it's almost like little dashboard, milestone or whatever.
in full documents sent to
milestone pay has
sometimes it gets
Like
just big chunk at
MilestonePay but it
message me and
as soon as they sign it.
Lumpsum
invoice.But I was trained through
sometimes found it
Milestone Pay after thoughts
I haven’t heard of
clients at a time. I
for debtor
project manager.
Haven’t heard of
five
phone.
overwhelming trying to keep up with everyone.
Most time-consuming part of this role is the emailing and agreeing on details and quotes, as that can take quite a bit of time.
Never heard of Milestone Pay
and hourly for smaller jobs
single platform than somehow allows to
Scheduling
Having one place where I can store
On going Projects
understands now that the
I juggle 3-4 customers at
work was dependant
Most work comes
originaly works for
Doesn’t believe in the
excel template
more flexible he is with those
the same time.
on how he was getting
from word of mouth
one person then now
automation
allowed me to build up
paid. cash, check, EFT
and has not done any
word of mouth
tempplates the better cause
customer’s details
items are always evolving. Open to changing and know
and progress of
Automation
Branding/Marketing
when to change it and
orders and request
upgrading the workflow better
payment all in one.
to advise your outcomes.
items i have missed
marketing/ branding
for business admin
or self promotion
items
Streamline the outcome
if I just had a virtual assistant that could have done taken care of everything.
Customer/admin Process -
Like as soon as I pick
up a new client, boom, contracts are sent first invoices sent and I
both parties to do a site visit
google, yellow pages, word of
e
3. Items in quote -
Logo, site
address, tax number, quote I would like one place
phone 3 out of 5 for
where I can do emails,
efficency because it’s
have customer
easy access, fast
information and their
communication and can
needs all in one place.
validity date, cost, scope of
k
wor
4. Turn the excel spreadsheet
f
into a pd
5. Send to client via email
work remotely
)
Picking the project-extra experience/ cash and other
a quot
I find the using email and
(
I would get a client first just word of mouth
2. Microsoft excel to produce
Efficiency
Workflow
1. Clients contact us through
to complete onsite measur
'
this is where they re at.
mouth, supplier recommendation
2. Firstly we ask them what their needs are / end goa
s
l
3. Provide our recommendations/ opinion
Adding a voice
and it s all automated
command upgrade
from start to finish
would make it easier
and it also integrates
to quote and book jobs
with other softwares
on the go.
like
driving or on the tools.
'
1. Arrange a suitable day for
e
can see it somewhere like okay,
It thinks ahead for you
s
'
time there s just so anaylyse if I want to do the job
Xero
While
(vetting process)
Take a call and obviously understand the scope of the
(that process is
work and then up in the briefing
)
'
Too much manual
She wishes there was
4. Provide them with a design
chunky .Most people don t actually understand the
handling via social
more automation
solutio
scope of their own project. So it s almost I m doing a
media platforms
between quotes and
mini discovery workshop with them for free
when requesting
invoices, particularly a
Send them through a contract sign invoice the first
payments
tool that could do both
n
Give them a quote / hear back from them
6. 50% deposit required/ Install product
7. Collect 50% remaining payment 5.
'
'
0%
automatically.
5
And then go on with the process upon the like first
'
show and the final initial that s next
25%
Then I give them two revision rounds. Once the two client meeting -discussing, Find the template he
excel:It was always
uses is very efficent
evolving systembetter way to list it out
also believes it works because it is free
streamline. Adding additional information. Change from something that was missed to find
'
I don t want to have to
that constant
learn how to press
information that
extra buttons,learn
missed. Process was
something that s
easiest way for later
unintuitive.The value
date kind of items.
'
has to be significantly Save me time from
go on to this new
having to go to multiple
platform. It needs to
applications
much easier for me to transfer all my client data and everything.
deposit from clien drawings star
(excel,
) to do one task
Client communication to agree on quote
2. I will respond to them and sometimes send photos to
If the customer doens’t believe its completed a watermark draft set is
them as examples.
3. Once the customer is happy I will start making the flower jar
4. Once it’s been completed, I will request a payment via
a
social medi
send out completed drawing
want to increase the scope at that point
methods.
(water,gas,
(held till money sent
me about my products. They
of flowers and delivery
Coordination- with
drawings get completed
Lead: Facebook, Instagram or Email
z
Request For Informatio planning
there s also an issue in the revision rounds people
questions about si e, colour
consultant
authorities
s
25%. So
revision rounds are done, then that s the final
'
(
)
Quote is agreed verbally.
will request price and ask
Coordination- with
sent
high for me to have to
make my life that
scope drawing set
'
1. Customers will instagram DM or facebook message
5. I will either deliver the product or they will pick it up from a location
Ask client their needs and
Startup meetings-
(In the future, terms and conditions to be agreed
)
in writing
date require
1. chats with design
Provide expertise on the
ideas, understand what
nee
they want
s
Provide quot
2. draw up 80%
Follow up a couple of
3. another meeting
weeks if no contact has
before finalising and
been mad
issuing to council.
If client wants to go
Staged for
ahead, book time / da
clarification for most of
After job completion
the drawing locked in.
check in every now and then with client/ ask if anymore electrical services required
80%
of it
.
Generate invoice for 50% of total price to secure booking.
Client pays 50% - booking is confirmed.
Reminder - 1 month before to agree on details (particularly for weddings)
Reminder - 15-10 days before to ensure equipment and other details are agreed upon
.
Reminder - 1 day before - “see you soon” email
.
summarising details Event takes place
.
Day after event - send invoice for full payment + thank you email
.
Sometimes a follow up email is needed to remind clients of payment
.
Strengths
Weakness
Has blank canvases and templates for business needs across a variety of industries e.g. photographs, coaches, artists, event planners, Doulas etc. Dubsado is well intergrated into social media platforms. e.g. Clients complete an intake form on instagram then it automatically populates a lead into the dubsado account There are a variety of automated workflows a business can set up in their Dubsado account. Businessess have the ability to track Project Statuses
Cost $400 USD per year or $40 USD per month
obile compatibl Automates calendar invites with client Time tracker to track hours completed for client wor Simple to learn
Cost $ 0 USD per year or $ nly provides a -day trial
Stay organized with time tracking tools that offer “set and forget” ease-of-use and automated task prioritisatio Complete task on desktop, mobile app or slac Accept payments directly through your invoice Escrow Services
Users in the United States and Canada have additional features compared to other users e.g. the ability to connect their bank accounts to the app to track expense
Opportunities
Dubsado users has the ability to manage each of their businesses with separate brands at the click of the button Clean and clear messaging of their purpose on their website
arket platform a little bit cheape ive free trial arket to social media influencers (growing demographic Integration with ther Tool obile Accessibilit Scheduling boar Integrate payment within system M G
M
)
O
M
M
linked to banks (US intergrated tools, zoom, quickbooks, square, et gathers emails, invoices, contracts and banking all in easy tracking of all steps of workflows for all projects from the initial lead capture to completion of the project. The workflow templates make new client onboarding a standardised and efficient process. Flexibility to adjust to the project's specific needs. The lifecycle gives an easy at-a-glance status of each project I really like being able to automate the proposal, contract signing, invoice process.
Threats
39
O
39
USD per month
7
Honeybook users can integrate uickbooks (accounting software to allow clients to pay through the invoic High social media following and client bas Q
)
e
embership level evel $ .00 USD P month$ 0 Annuall evel $ .00 USD P mont $ 00 Annuall evel $ 0.00 USD P mont $ 00 Annuall evel membership features are and access is limite no automation and won’t be in future production
linked businesses to help the product to keep its focus on the workflows of the busines flexibility to the workflow. doesnt categorise business but the workflos for each client is adapatable
M
L
1
13
/
25
/
h
/
h
15
L
2
3
L
3
6
L
1
5
Fiverr has a large pool of their own users as it’s an existing online marketplace for freelance services Has a number of existing tools to aid freelancers e.g. logo maker, professional online courses
y
d
Freelancers want to spend more time completing their job rather than the adminstration tasks.
Freelancers who run their own businesses. They are a jack of all trades as they complete all tasks required to run their business,
Delegate their admninstration tasks to someone else/use a
however, they specialise in a trade/industry.
program management service. They need to make a decision on cost of works, booking jobs. This results in a successful payment.
Failing as a business owner
They see others marketing their own businesses,
Have a successful business that is thriving
completing the assigned task.
Customers paying on time
Learning to streamline their business processes.
Spending hours spent with business adminstration e.g. invoices and payment
Improving their own skills in the industry.
Customers satisfied with What are the payment details How do I send the payment How much will it cost
?
?
Tracking multiple clients
?
How long will it take to complete the job
job
manually on excel spreadsheet
?
You should look for a way to automate your processess so you don’t feel stressed Are there any one who can help you manage the accounts part?
Chasing payments
Spending more time doing
“Project management tracking slash invoicing- I think it's a
their job and less on
great concept but I don’t want to learn something new it's
administration
so much easier for me to use an Excel sheet and use colours”.
Customers not recieving invoices
I would like one place where I can do emails, have
Customers not paying the
customer information and
invoices
needs all in one place.
“I would like one place where I can do emails, have customer information and their needs all in one place”
“Too much manual handling via social media platforms
Understand the amount of time saved from their current processess
when requesting payments”
Feel more efficient in completing business administration tasks Other friends/colleagues provide positive reviews on their processes
“Sometimes I find it difficult tracking from multiple areas from breakout payment hours spent on the task”.
Talking to customers
Sales
Draw up contracts
Send out emails
Creating and sending out invoices Spending alot of time on excel or word manually tracking their customer projects Chasing customers for payments Completing job onsite or WFH
Meet Josh “If I just had a virtual assistant that could take care of everything. Like as “QUOTE” soon as I pick up a new client, boom, contracts are sent, first invoices sent and I can see it somewhere like okay, this is where they're at.”
Josh Wang
Bio Bio
Lorem ipsum
Goals I want to organise all my business administration needs for various projects on the same platform I want to save time on business administration so that I can focus on my projects and boost productivity.
Motivations
Josh is a business consultant who has been
Age/Identifying Gender
33, Male
Occupation
Freelance Consultant
Location
Melbourne, AUS
freelancing for medium-large business and corporations for the past 5 years. He works from a coworking space in Melbourne CBD and handles all of his company’s business administration needs. He usually handles up to 5 consultancy projects at the same time, so time for admin is often scare or at the expense of productivity.
Save time
Use fewer programs Handle various projects at once Boost productivity
Pains My projects often involve various stakeholders, making following up emails and drawing out details very time-consuming Manually having to check projects one by one, particularly as they are all at different stages of completion, wastes a lot of time.
Thoughts/Feelings I wish I could automate timeconsuming processes to boost my productivity If it wasn’t so expensive to have a PA, I’d hire someone to work for me so I could focus on my projects.
Brand Affiliations
Meet Mari
Mari Paredes
Age/Identifying Gender
31, Female
Occupation
Business Owner
Location
Brisbane, AUS
“I would have to do it all myself, from liaising with the client not just inside the project outside of the project, as well as managing the expectation, managing the scope...it’s an overwhelming amoung of communication at times.”
Goals
Bio
Motivations
Mari is a digital marketing professional and co-owner of Shine Marketing, a digital marketing firm which opened in 2020. She
Focus on expanding her business
has been working in marketing for 10 years but has little to no experience as a business owner, as such is being mentored by a fellow female business owner. Mari loves technology and creative media but hates working with numbers, as such she hates invoicing and accounting.
Better customer relationship
management processes for her business to avoid issues (missed messages, etc) The ability to connect social media accounts to one software in order to keep track of leads and messages.
Learn better business practices Save time and money Improve her admin processes
Pains Lack of background in business administration makes each new task a learning process Difficulty reconciliating emails, messages and social media in one place Spends over 10 hours a week on administration.
Thoughts/Feelings If I wasn’t spending so much time learning about admin, I could focus on my business and clients more. I wish there were more resources for me I wish I could spend less time on admin by having fewer places to constantly check.
Brand Affiliations
Customer Journey Project Confirmation
Contract Signature
First Invoice & Payment
Project Milestones
Project Completion
Final Invoice & Payment
Follow Up (if needed)
Happy
Unhappy
Actions
Spend a lot of time on emails and checking different contact platforms Write a lot of back and forth communication to agree on details
Create contract (using a template or online service) Send contract and receive revisions via email Manually keen track of project via email.
Create invoice (using a template or online service Send invoice Manually send reminders via email.
Keep track of multiple project milestones manually (ex. Excel) or via online project management tool.
Deliver project Request feedback or revisions Manually keep track of and follow up client tasks.
Thoughts
“I want to spend more time making and selling my product than messaging my customers constantly.”
“I wish the there was a way to keep the back and forth to a minimum when handling contracts and revisions.”
“I find creating invoices quite easy, but storing them and following up with reminders is quite a manual process.”
“I sometimes don’t know where each client is at, especially when juggling multiple projects at a time.”
“I love the feeling of having completed a project, I just wish the admin after it wasn’t so lenghty.”
Dashboard showcasing all project stages visually
Standardised project delivery communication
Notifications or reminders of important stages and deadlines.
Once delivery is confirmed by both parties, invoicing could be automated.
Opportunities
Integrated comms channels in one platform
Easy to use contract templates
Platform integrating easy communicatio tool for freelancers and clients.
Define project milestones and reminders based on contracts.
Easy to use invoice templates Invoice storage with search functionality Automatic reminders and communication.
Create invoice (using a template or online service Send invoice Manually send reminders via email If any issues, no dispute resolution available.
“I wish there was a way for invoices to be automated based on project phase and agreed payment terms.”
Easy to access templates and tips for dispute resolution.
Manually keep track of and follow up tasks if not completed within timeframe.
“I wish I didn’t have to spend so much time chasing things up or writing reminders.”
Automating reminders and follow ups based on client actions.
Opportunity
How might we help users reduce time and ease communications with cutomers?
Emails Contracts Invoices
Solution Ideas
Contracts
Tracking
Invoices
What
Templates for various professions, filled easily and automatically sent and reminded to clients.
What
Calendar tracking, progress tracking, detailed project pages, and chat messages with clients.
What
Customisable templates for your own brand, automatically send and remind clients, quick payments.
Why
Users don’t want to spend hours writing contracts and following up.
Why
Users can easily check on the progress of each progrect they are working on to save time.
Why
Users don’t need to worry about sending each individual invoice for each milestone.
MVP
IMPACTFUL Debate
Include in MVP
On the invoice customers have a have a pay button to pay straight away
Tracking system/dashboard
Sign and approve proposals and contracts online
Automatically send contract after preview (pdf) Automatically generate invoices based on payment terms one contract is signed by both parties
DIFFICULT
EASY
Templates with fields provided and created in the system
A timeline with progress bar
Don’t include in MVP NON- IMPACTFUL
Revisit
Solution A platform designed to help freelancers seamlessly manage their projects, invoices and contracts.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
User Testing Questions
6
Participants
Can you please create a consulting contract and send it to your client
a) Note down any challenges they faced
b) Please rate the efficiency from 1-5 (5 being the most efficient)
2. Can you please send the first invoice to the client
a) Note down any challenges they face
b) Please rate the efficiency from 1-5 (5 being the most efficient)
3. Please advise me what you see on the dashboard and its functionalities
a) Note down their misunderstanding or workflows they find challenging
Key User Testing Responses
‘The notifications need to look like a notification e.g. Apple ones. It’s hard to read. There’s too many and it’s not clear where the message stops. After you click on it should go away because I don’t like having a lot of notifications’
‘I prefer message centre - These days everyone uses text messages and it’s relatable’
‘I pressed send and not preview because I don’t have time to click preview. I just want to send it as quickly as possible’
‘I’m not sure how the dashboard works’ ’On the dashboard, I would like to see urgent tasks. I already know what is due and what I have coming up’
’Why do I have to set the reminders? They should just be automated and should be the same for every invoice and every client as my process would be the exactly the same’
‘The contract and invoice process is easy and I get it’
User Flow
Log in
Homepage
project
Send
Send
Create a Contract
contract
Invoices
invoice
Update project dashboard
Save
All contracts
Contract draft
Send
Contract userflow Preview
Contract preview
Save
Save
Back
Open existing
Invoice draft
invoice
Preview
Invoice userflow
Invoice pdf preview
Save
Send invoice Send
Invoice board
Add new
Configure branding
Invoice
Looks
template
great, Let’s go
Completed
Home page The homepage’s main aim is to help the freelancer prioritise their work. With so many projects running at one time, this will help them manage their time and communication to their clients more effectively.
If a new project is required, the freelancer can add it smoothly via the homepage. The overdue section, highlights the tasks require for urgent action.
Calendar within homepage helps the freelancer to maange their time and tasks.
Contracts Contracts hub is used for freelancers to quickly have a look at all contracts and their statuses.
A contract can be sent via the sent button to save freelancers time.
Once sent, the freelancer will be advised of the next steps. Reducing their effort to think and learn a whole new system.
At a click of a button contracts can be gennerated. Freelancers don’t need to spend time manually typing up their contracts.
e-signature reduces the back and forth emailing between freelancer and client as it can be signed directly on the document link.
The invoices hub has many features to allow the freelancer to spend more time doing what they love. Based on research, efficiency and automation were the top two important factors to users when it came to managing invoices. Invoices are automatically generated from the contract under ‘payment schedule’ to reduce freelancers time.
Invoices Invoices can be sent at the click of the button or they can double click into an invoice to review it. On the invoice draft, all fields are prepoulated, saving the freelancer time filling in the content. They have the flexibility to amend it.
The freelancer has the options to customise their invoices to match their brand.
A visual of the invoice enables the freelancer to see it come to life and ensure it matches their brand.
Payment Once the invoice is sent to the client, the client will recieve a link to make a payment. This saves the freelancer’s time to manually send it via their email.
In the back-end system, invoices reminders will be automatically sent to the client on behalf of the freelancer: - 1 week before due date - 3 days before due date - 1 day overdue - 3 days overdue - 7 days overdue
To make life easier, the client can make the payment straight through the invoice. This saves the freelancer from having to send through emails to remind the client to pay.
Projects The project’s page allows the freelancer to have a high level overview of their projects and how much has been completed. This helps them manage their time effectively.
The chat box is a feature to allow the freelancer to communicate to their client smoothly and more fludily. All communication is kept in one place, saving time logging into multiple platforms. Also, it adds a human element to the interaction.
To save the freelancer time to click back to the home page, a homepage quick view is a feature on the projects page.
Working on a client project requires a degree of flexibilty, therefore, the addition of adding milestones allows the freelancer to quickly generate additional tasks if required.
Measuring Success Suggested performance metrics to measure the impact Net Promoter Scor Interactions with chat box function Daily website usage rate Rentention rate