Automating pipedrive campaigns

Q1 2022 – Q4 2022

Context

In 2021, pipedrive (CRM SaaS tool) launched a wanted feature – the possibility of sending email marketing campaigns directly from the CRM. It became quickly popular among our users but was missing one crucial functionality – letting users set up automation to send the campaigns for them when specific conditions were met. Imagine Mailchimp integrated directly into the core CRM.

Pipedrive already had its automations that could automate various actions inside the tool. For example, to automatically create meetings, deals, or contacts. So, this project aimed to connect these two existing features – automations and email campaigns. It sounded pretty easy initially, but it turned out to be a very complex and demanding task that took almost a year to reach the desired and functional state. It was mainly due to the technical complexity of both existing solutions but also because it was a cross-team mission, and the alignment was sometimes tricky.

Why

Add heavily demanded functionality to an existing feature that was the industry standard for other competitors’ email marketing tools.

How

Understand the technical limitations and potentials of existing features, research competitors, understand which users and why they need it, prepare solutions, validate with users, and launch.

My role

I led the research and design initiative, oversaw the roadmap planning from the design side, prepared and facilitated the workshops, and prepared a validated solution.

Discovery

At the very beginning of the project, my PM and I ran parallel discovery research. My PM looked into data, and I analyzed competitors and ran a series of user interviews. After that, we collaborated closely with the second team's PM and design counterparts. The product alignment took a surprising amount of effort because each team had different processes and dynamics. After the alignment, we finalized the scope, a high-level roadmap for the whole project, user stories, and job-to-be-dones.

How

  • Desk research

  • Competitors analysis

  • Data analysis

  • User interviews

  • Alignment workshops

  • Value proposition workshop

  • Job-to-be-done definition

We combined multiple data sources, confirming that our proposed project will significantly impact our customers.

I prepared, organized, ran, and analyzed the discovery user interviews.

I helped prepare and facilitate workshops that ensured all team members were aligned.

Findings

We discovered that marketing automation is the next most important functionality right after one-off email campaigns, which we already had. It was also well aligned with our marketing persona needs. At that time, 87% of HVCs (high-value customers) had marketing team members, and the most used integrations were solving the same use case.

From the user interviews, we learned that the feature is really wanted and better understood why and how would users like to use it.

Design

After the discovery phase, we prepared the first few “dirty” designs and tested them with a small batch of users. The concept has proven to work, but after the presentation to the engineering teams, we had to go back to the drawing board. We soon discovered that the technical complexity is far broader than we first understood. So I, together with our Principal designers, prepared a two-day mini-design sprint, where we went back to the beginning and prepared a base for a new solution. I understood that this project wouldn’t succeed without heavy alignment with the engineering counterparts and adjusted my design process based on it.

After we had a flow base and JTBDs that all team members agreed upon, I started to prepare new user flows. I checked the flows with PM and engineers, prepared designs, tested with users, analyzed and tweaked the flow and designs, checked with PM and engineers, and went through the whole process repeatedly.

How

  • User flows

  • Sketching

  • Prototyping

  • Usability testing

  • Alignment workshops

Due to technical and product complexity, I had to run multiple rounds of preparing user flows, designing, and testing with users.

At the end of the few-week cycle, I had the winner flows that were both technically doable and user-approved. The next step was to polish the details and prepare the final designs for handover.

Final design and next steps

After multiple months of designing, testing, validating, and coding, we finally got our first MVP and launched it to the first beta users. While we let our users “play” with the first functionalities, we dived into preparing various marketing materials, communication plans and designing “special use cases.”

After a month of beta running, we set up user interviews with the beta users to find out how our new feature works and where the biggest gaps and opportunities are. We combined these findings with the KPI metrics we set up before launching and used the insights to plan the next projects to improve further and enhance this new feature.

But, as it goes in big companies, the strategy changed and this feature stayed in the MVP state. At least for as long as I was still part of the company.

How

  • Launch MVP as a beta

  • User interviews with beta users

  • Designing of marketing materials

  • Prepare communication plan

  • Design of “special cases”

Since the feature was so complex, the MVP was first released to a few beta users. After the first month of use, I, with the help of a user researcher and product manager, prepared, ran, and analyzed the beta user interviews.

When the MVP was out of the door, we could start focusing on solving specific edge cases connected with various permission sets, visibility options, and tiers.

The beta test was a success; users were happy to see we started working on this functionality and were eager to see where it would develop further.

What have I learned?

This project was much longer and more complex than anyone imagined. Still, in the end, I believe we all gained a lot of valuable insights and learnings about automation, marketing campaigns, our users, and ourselves.

I learned how to communicate and navigate between different roles in this project, specifically multiple PMs, designers, engineers, researchers, data analysts, content designers, UX writers, marketing services, other designers, customer success, and support.

I learned how to work closely with a team that is scattered between 5 different countries (Czechia, Latvia, Estonia, Portugal, and Brazil). I realized that to build a strong team, you need to build at least some relations first. When you know each other, you also understand each other’s needs, worries, motivations, and mindsets. And to get to know each other, nothing works better than meeting in person, at least once!

I learned that when two people say the same thing, they might not mean the same thing, especially when everyone has a different cultural background. So it’s better always to ask twice than assume.

I learned that engineers must be your best friends when it comes to technically complex projects!