Redesigning a complex management system to enhance usability
I simplified the contract management process for G2 Track's contract management system, resulting in a positive impact on abandonment rates, ease of use, and time and cost savings for organizations.
✨ the new contract management system ✨
Software contract management is hard
Managing software contracts can be a daunting task for organizations, involving tracking product usage, contract mandates, renewals, and expenses.
The manual effort required to handle this process can be overwhelming and error-prone. G2 Track's contract management feature offers a solution by simplifying contract organization, maintenance, and management.
As the sole designer responsible for designing G2 Track's new contract management system, I was tasked with creating a user-friendly solution that would not only support users but also drive engagement.
Initial state
Up until recently, G2 Track offered limited functionality for managing contracts which created a variety of problems:
Users were overwhelmed with the amount of information on one screen.
Existing data models didn’t support both complex multi-period and simple contracts.
Users couldn’t easily share insights and reports with colleagues.
The old design had lots of info in a single slide out and unclear architecture.
Research
Insights from in-person, over the phone customer feedback, and usability testing were instrumental in shaping user outcomes and designs.
We carefully crafted personas to demystify problems and better understand different contract roles and responsibilities.
It became clear that managing and maintaining contracts was often distributed among numerous individuals, meaning ease of documentation, editing, updating, and sharing contracts were our highest priorities.
Personas highlighted our users' main struggles and goals.
User feedback heavily steered the direction of user outcomes put together by our team.
Prototyping to communicate early ideas
Due to the amount of requirement complexities, we used mockups and prototypes early on to communicate ideas and flows internally.
Early mockups helped educate the team on what, why, and how we were building. They were instrumental in sparking a variety of early-stage discussions with engineers, which in-turn provided valuable feedback regarding technical feasibility.
Due to the complex nature of the work, we went through numerous revisions.
Example of hi-fidelity mockups used to communicate with stakeholders and team members.
We reduced development time and improved learnability through reusing components as much as possible. For example, while designing the side navigation and cards, it was suggested by one of the engineers that we could reuse code from the fixed left nav bar for our overview card. This idea led to easier implementation and overall user experience improvement. A win / win / win for engineers, designers, and users.
Feedback resulted in an improvement in overall scalability, implementation, and design. .
Solutions
Better form design
Users really struggled adding their contracts. The amount of information on one screen was intimidating and overwhelming. Due to the form’s high complexity and extensive inputs, the old form had a high abandonment rate. To solve this problem, we split the form into multiple steps. By grouping related information and ordering the form logically, users are now asked to enter essential contract data before being bothered by optional details.
Minimizing clutter and bringing clarity to the form. .
Expanding data models
Due to the lack of important data models available, users were unable to enter in correct data and track changes properly, leaving many users frustrated and confused. We added more data models to support both complex and simple contracts as well as month-to-month subscriptions.
New and improved data models to support all types of contracts.
Improving reporting
Users needed better ways to view, share, filter, and sort key contract details. For quick insights, we eliminated unnecessary data columns in the overview and added important information such as license count tied to each contract and subscription. Insights are key to driving business success so it was a priority to provide users ease of access to reporting and analytics from the data they were already inputting into the system.
Important contract data at a glance in the dashboard.
Introducing workflows
There are a lot of moving parts in a growing company. Sometimes contract owners leave and without a contract being reassigned, unexpected renewals or cancellations can cost thousands. We introduced workflows to help organizations ensure contracts are reassigned immediately. Workflows also included reminders and notifications for events such as contract auto-renewals.
Reminders to help users stay on top of their contracts. .
Key takeaways
Effective software contract management is crucial for organisations to keep track of which products employees use, what each product contract mandates, when and if renewals take place, who should receive expiration or upcoming renewal alerts, and how much is being spent on software.
G2 Track's contract management feature can help organisations easily organize, maintain, and manage their software contracts, and the new contract management system further streamlines this process.
User research, including in-person and over the phone customer feedback, and usability testing, was instrumental in shaping user outcomes and designs, which ultimately led to a more effective system.
The new system improved user outcomes by introducing features such as better form design, improved reporting, and workflows that ensured contracts were reassigned immediately and reminders were sent for events such as contract auto-renewals.
By using mockups and prototypes early on to communicate ideas and flows internally and reusing components as much as possible, the team was able to reduce development time and improve learnability, benefiting both engineers and designers.
The new system resulted in reduced abandonment rates, increased ease of use, and better visibility into key contract details, ultimately saving organisations time and money while also driving business success.
Overall, the case study demonstrates the importance of prioritising user needs and conducting thorough research when designing software systems, as well as the benefits of implementing a streamlined contract management system.
"Great tool for visibility into software spend. The contracts module really helps us organise and maintain our current contracts in one place. Having reminders when contracts are coming up for renewals helps us consciously decide if we want to renew a product, reduce/add licenses. -- Carla Schwender, Accounting Manager at Threekit 3D & Augmented Reality
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Posted Aug 12, 2023
I simplified G2 Track's contract management system, reducing abandonment rates, and increasing ease of use, and time and cost savings for the organisation.
Delivering value through simplicity and cost efficiency
Making data understandable, informative, and memorable
Bridging design and engineering to deliver loveable experiences
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