Overview

Busy professionals struggled to understand what required their attention each day due to fragmented data spread across tools and inconsistent prioritization signals. The team explored whether a centralized landing page could support more efficient task prioritization while maintaining trust in the underlying data.

Role & Ownership

I led research planning and execution end‑to‑end, including scoping the research strategy, selecting appropriate methods, synthesizing findings, and aligning cross‑functional partners across Design, Product, Business, and Engineering on key decisions.

Research Strategy

The research focused on evaluating whether customization meaningfully improved efficiency, how user needs differed across segments, and what signals should define success post‑launch.

Methods

• Literature review to synthesize prior insights and define success criteria

• Concept testing across hypothesized user segments using low‑fidelity designs

• Wizard‑of‑Oz usability testing to simulate customization early, allowing the team to evaluate value and variability before committing engineering resources

• Intercept Heap & emailed Qualtrics surveys to benchmark the experience and identify next-gen opportunities during the pilot and after the full release

Synthesis & Key Insights

1. A starting point (not a blank page) would be necessary to drive initial interest in the landing page. Starting with a blank page would be intimidating (high perceived effort) and make the page’s purpose unclear. I collaborated to determine the appropriate layout of the default landing page.

2. Customization increased perceived value by providing the most relevant data to the user. Needs varied substantially even within the same user segment,indicating that static personas would be insufficient for long‑term success. Preferences were influenced by many factors like role, workload, and experience level, and were expected to evolve over time. With the inclusion of customization, users felt the page could support efficiency, reduce forgotten tasks, and help identify the “next best action.”

3. Data accuracy posed an adoption risk since users assumed accurate, up-to-date data across systems.

Key recommendation after POC research: Collaborate with other teams about feasibility. Do not move forward if 1) customization options (add, remove, and move information) are not feasible 2) widgets cannot accurately and quickly integrate with other apps and systems.

Impact

Findings informed the initial personalization strategy by prioritizing the default widget layout and ensuring customization was a fast-follow after the initial release.

Research also shaped feasibility discussions with adjacent teams around data readiness during pilots and defined success metrics to guide launch evaluation and future iteration post-release.