How to Make a SaaS Platform Good?
Product design · Monetization strategies




OVERVIEW
Omni.HR is a startup committed to providing comprehensive global hiring support to small and medium-sized businesses. As the company's sole UX/UI designer, I closely collaborated with the founder, developers, and marketing experts on strategies to enhance user experience and drive business success.


👩🏻‍💻 My Role

Research, management, product design, strategy design
👥 Work With

Founder, developers, marketing experts
🛠 Tools

Figma



RESULTS

Supported multiple stages of product development:


  • 🚀 Initiated MVP Launch in 14 Week
  • 🛠 Tailored User Experience Optimization
  • 💎 Strategic Monetization Planning for Future Growth








Define the Scope

GOALS
Generally speaking, the primary goal of Omni.HR is to create a SaaS platform that is GOOD. But what defines GOOD? To answer this question, I conducted an in-depth analysis:


ANATOMY
How can a UX designer contribute to these 3 goals? To answer this question, I explored methods to fulfill these objectives. Following discussions with the founders and marketing experts, I identified my design scope:






Promote business growth: Define functions

RESPONSIBILITIES
In this section, my primary responsibilities included:

  • Defining the core functions and content of our platform
  • Collaborating with developers to expedite the launch of the MVP

To address these challenges, it was essential to acquire knowledge about global hiring industry and existing products to understand customers' needs, priorities and preferred features. In this process, I used 2 methods:



MVP
Insights gathered from these methods informed the definition of our platform's features, subsequently allowing us to develop the first MVP:

STRUCTURE
The primary screen had a sidebar, header, and body. After analyzing the gathered insights, I divided body area into 2 functional categories: a Call-To-Action area and a Content Display area.


FINAL DESIGN
Following the structure, I crafted the final design. Given this is a professional office software, I selected #105DFB as the primary color, which echoes the established brand identity.




Deliver good user experience: Human-centered design

DIRECT USERS
The first production version was released in just 3 months. During this time, as a UX designer, I was also thinking about strategies to promote the future of the product. I think a key answer to this question is to care about our users' needs.



USER RESEARCH
While ToB platforms are typically designed for businesses, it's crucial to acknowledge that the direct users are individuals employed by these companies, spending their entire day interacting with the platform. In the case of our platform, the direct users are HR professionals. Therefore, to drive Omni.HR's future growth, understanding the characteristics of these users is essential. Who exactly are our users? What are their needs and preferences?


UX DESIGN GOALS
Based on this, I established 3 primary UX design goals for our direct users:
📈 MORE EFFECTIVELY

Users can swiftly pinpoint valuable content within vast info, thereby promoting problem-solving and decision-making.
🫶 MORE FRIENDLY
Design should cater to diverse user preferences to optimize the experience for a broad audience, while also enhancing accessibility.
🧚‍♀️ MORE PERSONALIZED
Given the diverse user group, offering personalized options is essential to help users create a more tailored workspace.

FINAL DESIGN
📈 MORE EFFECTIVELY
Quick tools to locate features and content HRs have a hard time going through many pages to find what they need.

Solution
The new platform offers quick tools, featuring a search bar and a quick tool menu, designed to aid HRs in efficiently locating the features they need.


Tags to indicate the priority of different tasks
HRs handle vast amounts of info daily and need to identify high-priority items to manage them more effectively.

Solution
In the updated version, clear deadline tags have been added to the 'work' section, organized by priority.


A holiday calendar for decision-making and planning
HRs need holiday info because they need to track future employee availability.

Solution
Display holiday and employee information on the first-level information page to help HRs quickly track employee availability.



🫶 MORE FRIENDLY
Flexible screen width for improved readability
Due to differences in device screen sizes and personal reading habits, HRs have varying needs for the size of text area.

Solution
An expandable and collapsible sidebar is offered to allow users to adjust the width of their workspace.


Breadcrumbs designed for clear path conveyance.
Complex systems and navigation can confuse HRs within the platform.

Solution
The redesign provides breadcrumbs that offer HRs clear and clickable navigation information to easily find their location.



🧚‍♀️ MORE PERSONALIZED

Customizable layout for a personalized information structure
HRs vary in how they organize their workspace to achieve the most efficient working methods.

Solution
A feature that supports customizable layouts is provided to users, allowing them to adjust the information panels within the dashboard to better suit their usage habits.





Implement monetization strategies: Product-led growth


JOURNEY MAP
Monetization is Omni's future objective. While analyzing monetization strategies, I divided the purchase path into 3 stages: Trial, Purchase, and Renewal. Users exhibit different behaviors at each stage, and based on these behaviors, I could identify potential opportunities:

Given the sensitive nature of some information, I will focus exclusively on presenting how I leverage these opportunities to develop a free trial for add-ons within the platform.


FREE TRIAL FOR ADD-ONS
In the trial phase, the design goal is to motivate users to grasp the product's core value, thereby paving the way for future purchases. Here, I will introduce designs for a specific add-on following the user path above.


Invitation: Attract users

This phase’s emphasis is attracting users and sparking their interests in new features. My design strategies include:
  1. Prominent pop-up notifications
  2. Compelling visuals
  3. Eye-catching headlines and text
  4. Prominent CTA button emphasizing 'free' attribute


Guidance: Ensure users grasp the core features

When users respond to the invitation, they will be directed to a guidance page. This page is crafted to help users comprehend the core functionalities of add-ons, assist in their usage, and establish a basis for building their loyalty to the add-ons.


Support: promote users to keep using

To ensure user retention, it's crucial to eliminate obstacles they may encounter. Hence, a permanent 'Help/Chat' button will be placed in the bottom right corner of the page. With just one click, users can easily seek assistance or contact us.



Expansion: Motivate users to explore related features

The relevancy of information can prompt users to delve into more related content. At opportune moments, we'll suggest new, relevant features/services to users, boosting the potential for future purchases.


Reminder: Prompt users to get ready for purchase

Users require a nudge in making purchasing decisions. Therefore, I schedule timely reminders about impending trial expirations. Utilizing the 'fear of losing' encourages users to proceed with a purchase.


PURCHASE & RENEWAL
The purchase phase’s key question is 'How can we streamline the user's purchase process?' Given the unique nature of SaaS products, direct users often lack the authority to make final payment decisions. To address this, I've incorporated a 'pending status' feature into Omni's purchase process. This feature enables users to save their purchase details, simplifying the completion of the purchase once they receive approval.


The renewal phase follows a similar process, with a key focus on 'How can we persuade users to renew their subscriptions?' To support this, my design strategy emphasizes the existing value of the paid product to users and highlights potential discounts as incentives for renewal.


Details for these 2 sections will be released later. Stay tuned! 🙌




Navigate from user experience to monetization strategies 

Strike balance between user experience and business success

How can we enhance the value of existing treatment methods?

Financial Literacy

Comprehensive user research and product design of a client project
Design
is like dancing with shackles, but I enjoy this challenge.


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MADE BY HILDA @ 2023