Problem:
As Upside Business Travel transitioned from do-it-yourself travel solution to a B2B product focused on companies with many travelers, the need emerged for a new administrative role where a user (Admin) could manage their other users (Travelers).
Goals:
Create a new user type that allows travel coordinators, administrators, and company leaders to manage their teams, plan travel for others, and gain insights into their travel spend.
Process:
Upside is a start-up and we move fast, understanding that after launching the minimal usable version of each page we could loop back to build on the functionality and continue to improve the product. We focused one sprint on scoping the project with design, product, and engineering teams and defining the jobs-to-be-done and testing focused on the organization of the navigation. This was followed by a second sprint of wireframes, designs, iterations, and reviews.Stakeholder interviews
Jobs-to-be-done
Customers are loyal to the job-to-be-done, not to the solutions they use. With this perspective in mind, we set out to frame our goals for this project according to the jobs an Admin in our product will need to perform.
Navigation
We wanted to be deliberate about how and where we added new sections to the site. To ground this work in user feedback, we organized a card sort exercise to get feedback from our users on how they would group information and actions together. Once the results were synthesized and built into a site map, we performed a tree test with a second group of users. We administered these tests via usertesting.com so we could get video and hear feedback as users went through the exercises. This qualitative feedback enhanced our understanding of the quantitative data these tests provided.
Card sort
Tree test
Sample of tree test results
Wireframes
Once we understood how the pages would be organized, we designed wireframes emphasizing the information our jobs-to-be-done exercise revealed. A quick user test allowed us to validate and tweak these wireframes.
Design
We built from the validated wireframes to clean designs based on the Material Design System. These designs were ready for developers quickly, allowing the engineering team to pick up this work in the upcoming sprint.
People management
Invite a new user
The MVP for people management allowed for inviting new users and basic account oversight, with goals to build out more complex searching and grouping functionality.
Company settings
We also created a new section to manage company-level information including policies and company payment.
Trips list
The list of trips got an overview for users logged in as an administrator or coordinator. This view allows them to see trips their colleagues are taking and help manage the travel. It also provides more advanced sorting and search functionality.
Reporting
An MVP reporting page gives companies views into their spending and progress toward cash back incentives, in addition to providing an easy location for finding receipts and transactional details.
Results
We created new sections on the site to manage travelers, update company settings, and access an overview of company reports.
Next Steps
We’re continuing to improve the site every day. We’ve learned that our Admin users have a huge range of needs. Some set up the account and only access it periodically, others are travel coordinators juggling one or more colleague’s plans, and some are frequently booking and managing many travelers’ information. As we iterate on the product we’re keeping a close eye on the needs of these Admin users.