Prior to fleshing out any product work, I needed to get a comprehensive understanding of our Creator customers (our target market), what problems we were experiencing, and what our goals were and why. The research phase is vital to the success of any product, as the answers to these questions are ultimately what dictate how a product should be designed.
I began by meeting with all members of the team who had knowledge about our software platform, our customers, our business model, and the hospitality industry in order to outline a product vision/strategy for the ROAM platform. The CTO provided insight into how our software platform worked, what technical problems we were experiencing, etc. - Customer Service communicated what pain points Creators were experiencing (they received feedback via email) - Sales elaborated on our business model, revenue stream, sales goals, etc. - and finally the CEO and founders (all have a background in hospitality SaaS) provided insight into the hospitality industry and our place within the market. In addition, I conducted my own hospitality market research, competitor analysis, and user interviews with our Creator customers.
From this research, I outlined the following core GOALS / USER STORY for the Creator platform:
Goal: Increase the # of Creators that come into the Curacity platform (Improve User Acquisition / Conversion Rate)
Why: Creator hotel bookings is the cash flow of Curacity. More Creators in platform = more hotel bookings.
Goal: Get the Creators that are in our platform to book more stays at hotels (Increase # of Hotel Bookings)
Why: Creator hotel bookings is the cash flow of Curacity. More hotel bookings = more revenue for Curacity. Creators themselves also informed me that they wanted to book more stays, but found it hard to find the right listing given the UX.
User Story: As a Content Creator who's interested in partnering with Hotels, I want a simple, convenient, and effective way to browse and book hotels of my choice, so that I can enjoy my hotel experiences in tandem with building my brand.
Once the core goals were fleshed out, I then had to translate these into actionable product takeaways. I began by tying these goals into specific use cases followed by a functional requirement (requirements doc). This was the features list. In essence, it is listing out the specific user need and then the feature that would facilitate that need. These methodologies became the practical instructions for the product design. Below is the high-level feature breakdown to achieve the goals outlined earlier:
Goal: Increase the # of Creators that come into the Curacity platform (Improve User Acquisition / Conversion Rate)
How:
• Work with advertising team to improve effectiveness of our Meta ads - launch, test, and evaluate different creatives.
• Improve conversion rate of Landing Page - design & launch two new versions of the Landing Page and perform A/B Testing.
• Improve conversion rate of Registration Funnel - address Facebook Connection issue causing the high Bounce Rate.
Goal: Get the Creators that are in our platform to book more stays at hotels (Increase # of Hotel Bookings)
How:
• Create a Hotel Directory as the homepage for Creators (UX optimized for browsing/exploring hotel listings).
• Optimize platform for mobile - data showed that Creators browsed on mobile, but UX was desktop centric.
• Deploy sales tactics in UX - scarcity principle represented in tags, ability to favourite listings for later, etc.
Next came prioritization - compartmentalizing the features into different sprint releases depending on how impactful they would be on the aforementioned goals as well as the time and difficulty involved in implementing them. Once a release had a specific vision and the associated requirements, it was then time to design the product itself.
For the goal of improving our Conversion Rate, I had to improve the Landing Page and Registration Funnel, the main variables. Our original Landing Page was lacking many elements of an effective conversion page, thus I designed a new one with: a short explanatory video on Curacity and its benefits, Featured Hotels to evoke interest, Creator testimonials (social proof), and more. I also helped revamp the visual UI, and then conducted A/B testing. For the Reg Funnel, we originally required them to connect their Facebook account to Curacity at the very start. We require them to connect their FB account so that they can upload their content onto our platform and we can track its organic data (reach, etc.). The problem is that their FB account needs to be linked to the influencer IG account they applied to Curacity with. Many Creators didn't have this link set up, and were leaving our Reg Flow when required to have it in order to proceed - creating a large Bounce Rate. We responded by moving this required step later in the process to right before finalizing a hotel booking, and also by providing step by step instructions on how to link.
For the goal of increasing # of Hotel Bookings, we designed and launched a Hotel Directory as the homepage for Creators, optimized the platform for mobile, and deployed various sales tactics in the UX. The Hotel Directory was inspired by feedback we received from Creators and our own competitor analysis. We really liked the way AirBnb optimized their platform for browsing and exploration - affording stay categorization, filtering, favouriting, etc. We implemented this same strategy in an attempt to make the platform more exploration focused, and in effect drive more hotel bookings. Our platform was also originally desktop centric, but the data showed that the vast majority of Creators were browsing on mobile. We adapted by switching to a mobile first design and optimizing the UX for a mobile experience. Lastly, we deployed various sales tactics in the UX; recommended stays based on past stays, scarcity principle represented with tags, ability to favourite listings for later, etc.
After going live with every release, it was imperative to evaluate whether the implementation was a success or not - meaning did it show any impact on the aforementioned Creator platform goals. The two methods we used to gauge its success were data analysis (mainly Data Studio) and customer feedback (user testing / contact), leveraging both quantitative and qualitative information. Below is a summary of the observed impact our implementations had on the two goals.
For the goal of improving our Conversion Rate, we observed:
An overall increase of 20% in quarterly conversion rate (through increases in Meta ads, Landing Page, and Reg Flow)
For the goal of increasing # of Hotel Bookings, we observed:
An overall increase of 16% in quarterly Hotel Bookings & an overall increase in Creator (customer) satisfaction.
Prior to fleshing out any product work, I needed to get a comprehensive understanding of our Hotel customers (our target market), what problems we were experiencing, and what our goals were and why. The research phase is vital to the success of any product, as the answers to these questions are ultimately what dictate how a product should be designed.
I began by meeting with all members of the team who had knowledge about our hotel software platform and the hotel customers themselves in order to get brought up to speed. As mentioned before, I had also met with members of the team to discuss more broadly our business model and the hospitality industry. I did this in order to outline a product vision/strategy for the ROAM platform, especially for the Hotel Side. The most effective information came from the Customer Service team. CS provided me with call recordings and email exchanges they had with Hotels. In addition to this, I conducted my own user interviews with Hotel managers. From this I uncovered the goals and pain points of our Hotel customers, which meant we then knew how to deliver more value to them and could in turn meet our business goals (by charging a SaaS subscription). Finally, I researched the hospitality industry/market and performed a competitor analysis on relevant Hotel SaaS platforms.
From this research, I outlined the following core GOAL / USER STORY for the Hotel platform:
Goal: Deliver massive value to Hotels (in a way that is simple for them to consume / re-share).
Hotels Value: ROI (hotel bookings driven from content), Content Impact (reach, engagements, etc.), impact on Brand Awareness (ex. their IG page follower growth), and ability to Repurpose (and Own) content for their own uses.
Why: If we deliver enough value to Hotels, we can charge a subscription fee to use our platform (Hotels were always our long-term primary customers). Easy to consume / re-share data, as managers have to clearly see value and share with higher-ups.
User Story: As a Hotel Manager who's interested in partnering with Creators, I want a simple, convenient, and effective way to leverage influencer marketing for my hotel, so that I can increase hotel bookings (sales) and brand awareness.
Once the core goal was fleshed out, I then had to translate this into actionable product takeaways. I began by tying this goal into specific use cases followed by a functional requirement (requirements doc). This was the features list. In essence, it is listing out the specific user need and then the feature that would facilitate that need. These methodologies became the practical instructions for the product design. Below is the high-level feature breakdown to achieve the goal outlined earlier:
Goal: Deliver massive value to Hotels (in a way that is simple for them to consume / re-share).
Hotels Value: ROI (hotel bookings driven from content), Content Impact (reach, engagements, etc.), impact on Brand Awareness (ex. their IG page follower growth), and ability to Repurpose (and Own) content for their own uses.
How:
• All value mentioned above delivered through various widget on the Dashboard (widgets covered below).
• A UX Stepper (wizard) to walk them through / engage them in the path to ROI (ROI takes months to prove).
• ROI: a data report delivered to them at the end of the stepper, sent as an email from CS.
• Content Impact: content reach / eng. displayed on a historical graph and content carousel.
• A content carousel to convey visceral value of content created by creator. (visceral / aesthetic)
• Brand Awareness: hotel's IG/FB page follower growth displayed on a historical graph.
• Repurpose: download & share features included in menu on content carousel / library.
Next came prioritization - compartmentalizing the features into different sprint releases depending on how impactful they would be on the aforementioned goal / user story as well as the time and difficulty involved in implementing them (design & dev). Once a release had a specific vision and the corresponding requirements, it was then time to design the product itself.
For the goal of delivering value to Hotels, we designed and launched an entirely new version of the Hotel Dashboard, which included various widgets (many described above): ROI UX Stepper, Creator Booking Requests, Creator Upcoming Stays, Content Carousel, and a Content Impact Graph. We added the ROI UX Stepper as it takes a long time (and many steps) to prove ROI to a newly joined Hotel - the Stepper is an effective way to nudge them along the actions they need to take, while keeping them engaged and excited in the process towards ROI (data). We kept the Booking Requests and Upcoming Stays at the top of the screen as these both require the user's immediate attention and therefore rank highest in priority. We added a Content Carousel as a fun / interactive way for hotels to view their content, while providing all the relevant data metrics (reach, eng., etc.) about the content along with the ability to download / share it. Finally, we added a Content Impact Graph to illustrate historical data on the performance of the content (reach, eng.) to effectively illustrate Curacity's impact over time.
After going live with every release, it was imperative to evaluate whether the implementation was a success or not - meaning did it show any impact on the aforementioned Hotel platform goal. The two methods we used to gauge its success were customer feedback (user testing / contact) and data analysis (# of hotels closed by sales team), leveraging both qualitative and quantitative information. Below is a summary of the observed impact our implementations had on the goal.
For the goal of delivering value to Hotels, we observed:
• An overall drastic increase in Hotel (customer) satisfaction
• An overall increase of 12% in quarterly Hotels closed by Sales Team (product updates added to Sales Deck)
While at Curacity, I was part of a small team who participated in our company rebrand brainstorming / review sessions. Together we helped define the vision of our new brand identity. Given that we were designing for two distinct customer segments; creators and hotels, we decided that the brand aesthetic should differ slightly between these two, yet be unified under a common parent brand. To flesh out the parent brand, we first began by establishing what Visual Language we wanted the brand to represent/convey based on our position within the hospitality market. The Visual Language we came up with were; Innovative, Revolutionary, Modern, Inspiring, Exciting, and Fun. We then worked with our contract brand professional Jin to craft a new brand logo, colour scheme, typography, product names, etc. We had weekly meetings with Jin to review his progress on the brand, sharing our feedback and input along the way. After multiple iterations, Jin presented us with the final comprehensive Brand Kit. For NDA purposes, I am unable to showcase the Brand Kit in this case study.
WCAG Design: Throughout the design process we made sure we were meeting the WCAG requirements with every design component. This is a very important aspect of design, one that is not just a business obligation, but an ethical one as well.
After the Brand Kit was delivered to the Product Team, it was our job to revamp the entire platform according to the new brand guidelines, in one fell product release swoop. As the Product Manager, I was responsible for overseeing this implementation. I began by meticulously combing through the entire platform and documenting every component that needed to be updated. This was all documented in the form of Github tickets on our Product Board, for the developers to take action on. Throughout the process, I worked hand in hand with the developers to make sure the implementation ran smoothly. Finally, before deploying we performed one last QA test to make sure we were ready to go live with the changes.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked at Curacity and contributed to their overall business success in my role as Product Manager. It was an incredible endeavour working with the entire team, from Product, Sales, Customer Service, etc., and together delivering value to the creators and hotels who used our platform! I genuinely believe that we built a system that will impact the future hospitality business model in an amazing way! I also got to learn so much about how to launch a successful product, drawing on various product management, agile, startup, etc. principles. I wish Curacity all the best in the future!
