Speeding up document workflows
for 50k businesses
New extension for PandaDoc
PandaDoc is a document automation software to streamline the process to create, approve, and eSign proposals, templates and contracts. PandaDoc is the #1 proposal, contract and document solution by G2.
My Role
Lead Product Designer
Input
User Research Product Strategy
UI & UX Design Prototyping
Industry
B2B SaaS
Date
Summer 2023
TL;DR
- I designed extension for our current 50k clients;
- Expanded the design system with new pattern for a new medium;
- Created a faster way to start document flows for people.
OPPORTUNITY
Increasing a number of paid users
Our Growth team's quarter goal was to find new effective acquisition channels of paid users. Developing Google Chrome extension was one of the growth design initiatives to support this goal. We wanted to build an extension that would serve as a valuable asset for current users promoting paid feature and also will help us attract new ones from the marketplace.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
“Have they already reviewed my proposal?”
Every successful sales rep tracks the updates of their proposals and materials shared. Ideally, they even track it real time and react as quickly as possible. Why? If a client opened a doc dozens of times and never got back – maybe it’s time to offer them help.
Users were confused with a number of emails with updates PandaDoc sent. It was hard to track the fate of individual documents in the product as well, nobody used it.
“I need to draft the docs real time during the calls”
Timing is of essence for sales and marketing reps. They often draft docs as they go over the requirements and solutions with the clients. Navigating clunky and feature heavy desktop web app is not ideal for quick start of doc generation.
“There are too many templates and I usually need a few”
Users needed to find a template quickly as they were drafting the document.
Usually, there were dozens of templates and finding the right template required extra energy and attention.
DESIGN EXPLORATION
Let’s show all statuses and updates
I explored different designs and decided to go with 2 features covering the key and most common job to be done for a user – to track their document statuses. The first feature included a list of all notifications with document status changes, and the second one was a dashboard with statuses of all docs.
I have cosidered different types of navigation between the dashboard and the notifications, various levels of detailization of the document status and entry points to start a new document.
Course correction, captain
"What is this dashboard for?"
After usability testing, it turned out that users didn’t really see big value of reviewing the statuses of all docs, as they tried to react asap after the document was signed or viewed. That's why I removed the dashboard and redesigned navigation for simplicity.
Notifications: "Good start, keep going"
Notifications were regarded as useful yet we were missing the details so I added more context to the status changes.
"Where is my template?"
Templates were considered useful yet users wanted to jumpstart work with their frequently used templates rather than locating the needed ones in a small window. I designed a feature of “starred” templates for quick access to their most commonly used templates on top.
Upon removing the Dashaboard page, I have also changed the navigation in the extension, joining start a doc from a template or from a ready docx/pdf in one flow to make it simpler.
Divide and conquer: project stages
After discussions with developers we decided to move “rich” notifications feature to version 2 since it required a lot more resources.
I designed a feature of “starred” templates for quick access to their most commonly used templates on top. This feature was added to version 3 of the extension.
More than just product design
I recognized the importance of the Chrome Extension marketplace and content strategy for our PandaDoc Extension. I collaborated with marketing and branding teams to ensure that our messaging and branding aligned with our product.
Impact and learnings
The PandaDoc Extension is an ongoing project. This extension was rolled out to a small cohort of active users, the team will collect the data and make decisions on the next steps based on the market traction and feedback.
Next project: