Reference Pages
The goal of this project was to better understand how G2 customers were using an existing feature called Reference Pages and how we could improve it.
This project consists of interviewing real G2 customers to help inform the design and increase product adoption.
Role
Lead Designer
Methods
User Interviews
Journey Mapping
UI Design
Company
G2
Year
Winter 2022/2023
Challenge
Reference Pages provide a way to highlight a customer’s G2 reviews and create a shareable web page that can be customized to their target audience (G2). The problem was we had no idea if Reference Pages were a feature that customers were actually utilizing.
My hypothesis: Reference Pages exist to allow a vendor to organize their G2 reviews and share the voice of their customers, but they are not utilized often because the page is too G2-branding heavy and customers would prefer to utilize reviews in their own way.
Mapping out the current user flow
The current process of creating a Reference Page had many steps, buttons, and different paths the user could take depending on the content they wanted to add to the page (quotes, videos, reports, downloads, etc).
We chose to use a Miro board because it creates a great visual to map out the entire user flow.
From mapping out the user flow, we found some bugs (yuck) and some confusing UX when trying to add certain content that the user potentially didn’t have access to. There were also outdated UI patterns and copy that needed to be updated for consistency across the admin portal.
In collaboration with another designer (Aryn Silverberg), we created a possible user flow and discussed different options to display to the user if there were not quotes that already existed in their admin portal. We didn’t want to just take the user to a blank page. This would be an opportunity to send the user to the appropriate sections within the portal.
User Interviews
From the Miro board, there were a lot of unanswered questions we had about the value Reference Pages was bringing (or not) to customers. The next step was to start interviewing real G2 customers!
We needed to interview G2 customers that had created Reference Pages before. I reached out to internal Account Managers to find customers that qualified and would be open to being interviewed.
We had 5 customer interviews:
Titles ranged from Sales Enablement Manager to Chief Customer Experience Officer
All the interviewees were involved in the Marketing team at their company
SMB - MM companies (10-1000 employees)
“UI/UX really easy to use… I wish Reference Pages could be more customizable”
“I do think Reference Pages are helpful, I just think they are very manual”
“The sales team isn’t using these religiously like we wanted them to”
Customers were asked about:
How often do you log into the my.G2 admin portal?
Can you tell me about the last time you created a reference page, step-by-step?
How often do you create reference pages?
Can you tell me about the last time you used a reference page?
Do other folks at your organization use Reference Pages? If so, who? How?
Are Reference Pages helpful? If yes, how so? If not, why?
Solution
01. Allow for more customization
02. Create a better user experience for when a user adds content to the reference page, focusing especially on adding quotes.
03. Update outdated UI patterns and informative written copy.
Wireframes
Lo-Fi Wireframes
Mid-Fi Wireframes
Final Look
Previously, users were taken to a dead end when they did not have existing content like quotes
Example of a finished and shareable Reference Page
Let’s Reflect
A trend that came up in customer interviews was that there was a Marketing persona creating the reference page, and that was not the same as the Sales persona using the reference page. Most interviewees mentioned that their sales reps were underutilizing the references pages, but they didn’t know WHY.
I would like to go back and interview sales representatives at these organizations or similar companies that have Reference Pages created but are not currently utilizing them.
Other learnings from the interviews for the next iteration:
Review ‘recommendation engine’ to show users their best and most up-to-date reviews to add to their Reference Page
Helpful alert to remind users that they need to update old Reference Pages