Leadership
Trustwave
Bringing UX to cybersecurity
Upon joining Trustwave, it became evident that the company had neglected UX design for seven years, leading to significant losses in customers, sales, market share, and revenue. Recognizing this urgent need, new leadership brought me on board to establish and enhance the UX team, aiming to revitalize the user experience across our product portfolio.
Role
Global Head of UX and Front End Development
Straightforward Goals
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Incorporate user experience seamlessly into the software development lifecycle.
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Establish and nurture a dedicated UX team and methodology.
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Enhance the user experience across all products and services.
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Minimize churn and rewrites within the development team by emphasizing efficient processes.
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Prioritize initiatives that contribute directly to profitability and sustainable growth.
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Optimize costs by leveraging offshore development and nearshore design teams to streamline operations.
CHAPTER ONE
Setting the foundation
Documented and teaching process.
Introducing UX to our company was a pivotal moment, requiring clear documentation outlining its role within the software development process and concerted efforts to educate our colleagues on its significance.
Information Architecture
To gain a clear picture of our starting point, my team and I documented the information architecture and were surprised to find over 500 unique pages within a single app. Sharing this revelation with the company elicited a profound sense of astonishment across the board..
Personas
To better serve our customers, it was essential to grasp their identities and workflows. With the absence of official personas and a myriad of assumptions within the company, we embarked on customer interviews to uncover key personas that resonated with our audience.
Design Guidelines
While assembling my team, I emphasized the importance of aligning our designers to ensure a consistent user experience across all product features. Collaborating closely with our front-end development team, we opted for the Prime NG/PrimeFaces library as our foundation. Leveraging this choice, we crafted a comprehensive style guide to unify the UX and front-end development efforts.
CHAPTER TWO
Improving User Experience
Given the vast opportunities for UX enhancement at Trustwave, we initially tackled the low-hanging fruit to improve the user experience while also gaining valuable experience with our teams.
Currently dashboard, live in product
UX Redesign
Current table view, live in production
UX Redesign
Current login, live in production
UX Redesign
Results
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Trustwave employees now possess a profound understanding of our customers, referring to personas by name and addressing their specific needs in meetings.
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We've seamlessly integrated user testing into our process, resulting in the delivery of product features aligned with customer preferences.
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Our development process has seen a substantial decrease in churn, with projects no longer facing rejection from our business stakeholders.
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Both the UX and development teams have been fully staffed according to our hiring guidelines.
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A robust UX foundation has been established, ensuring consistency across both teams' efforts.
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We've established clear processes, and the company as a whole recognizes and values the critical role of user experience.