If you have ever been to a restaurant (if you haven't please call me, I’d love to research you), you’ll see signs to share feedback or leave a review. Ovation lets customers do this, but then does something incredible. It takes those messages and lets the restaurant managers talk to the people directly. They can help answer questions or solve real problems in minutes. Then management can hop in the admin portal and see feedback and conversations for all their locations. Very slick!
How we helped
Design Workshop for ideas and bringing it all together
We started with an in-person workshop at Ovation’s office. We met with Derek, the head of product, and Nate, the CTO and right out of the gate we started working on ideas. The team realized there was an opportunity for the software to look at what was being said in the messages. The algorithm would be able to categorize things and make it easy for users to see. Win-win. We started whiteboarding how it could look, giving a few variations. As always, we focused on the problem: helping restaurant owners see problems before they arise.
User research to confirm assumptions
That is the truth. Sometimes you can come up with ideas you think are incredible. But if users don’t like them, why spend the money? That is why we did extensive user research with Ovation’s actual customers. Thankfully, they were kind enough to give us time out of their busy schedules. We showed them simple prototypes as well as more complicated designs. Through this testing, we noticed things users did that suggested we were on the right track. Specifically, I remember talking to someone who took a screenshot to present the data we were trying to present. Good sign!
Keep going 'til you get it right!
After a few user interviews, we realized our prototype was not working for users and was challenging to develop. I have a strict policy for any project I take on: it isn’t done until my clients love it. I’m so grateful Derek said something. While it took extra work to get the design right, our final design was 10x better than what we had planned. From testing the new design with users, we could see a much better response. That was the version we ended up with and I couldn't be happier!
