Neustar

Project Shaping

Context

Market Analyzer is a primary tool in Neustar's analytics platform that helps marketers identify and rank markets by their potential for a given behavior in order to find their best customer.  

As part of an effort to migrate the platform from Flash to HTML, I was given the chance to help position Market Analyzer to be more of a self-serve, geo-market planning tool for marketers and media planners.

Research

The real challenge for this project was trying to understand who was using these tools and what they needed beyond finding the right audience. 

Neustar already had a few personas for some of their other products but the Market Analyzer users were very mysterious to the team. Due to contractual constraints, I wasn’t given access to our users so I had to find other ways to learn more about who they were and how we could optimize their workflows.

Scrappy research methods

I partnered with the Neustar customer service team and sat in on support calls which allowed me to identify areas where users struggled the most.
Analyzing usage metrics was another key effort that helped me learn more about users' devices, screen resolution, role, as well as other high-level information that could be used as scaffolding to create personas.
I also leveraged LinkedIn as a job role reference in order to learn more about the responsibilities and backgrounds of people in similar roles as our target customer.
With all this info, I was able to create two new personas to help us keep our users top of mind.

Quotes from customer service walkthroughs

Analyzing usage metrics

New personas

System Audit

After exploring user needs, I shifted to analyzing all the functionality contained in Market Analyzer. I researched manuals, audited the entire system and related tools, and documented all learnings to help the team align on what needed to be migrated to HTML.

Audit sample

Experiments

Pain Points

The Market Analyzer module is an extremely valuable tool but users weren’t engaging with it because it was hard to figure out where to start, what to do, and what you would be able to get. 

Users are overwhelmed by the options
They have trouble understanding the iconography and relationship between options
The thematic map is a powerful feature that users rarely find
There’s no way to view the map and table data together
It's not easy to select multiple segments

Market Analyzer before

Wireframe concepts

Interaction ideas

Final Designs

Change Highlights

Simplified top navigation showcasing primary needed inputs in order or required selection
Default split view of map and table
Flexible panels to expand map or table
Easy options for selection multiple segments with the added options for Groups and Profiles
Slide-out left panel with layerable options

Default map and table split view / Improves discoverability of the map features

Flexible panels / Enables users to view the table and map in the configuration that best fits their workflow. Especially helpful for tablet users.

Better target selection / Supports quick selection of multiple segments with the additional options to use Groups and Profiles.

Added download options / Helps users get the right output they need for their workflow.

Customization slide-out panel / Helps power users have the controls they need but is pushed away by default so that new users aren't overwhelmed.

Backstage

Responsibilities

Research & Testing

Information Architecture

Wireframes

Visual Design

Prototyping

Audits

Documentation

Tools

Sketch

Marvel

Principle

Sympli

JIRA

The Team

Designer (me)

Product Manager (1)

Project Owner (1)

Engineers (9)

Backstage

Responsibilities

Research & Testing

Content Strategy

Information Architecture

Wireframes

Visual Design

Prototyping

Stakeholder Alignment

Documentation

Product Roadshows

Feature Prioritization

Tools

Figma

Loom

Confluence

JIRA

MURAL

The Team

Designer (me)

Product Manager (1)

Engineers (8)