Case Study — Partner Operations

Channel Partnerships PRM

Senior product designer owning strategic feature recommendations based on Channel Partnerships KPIs. Increased adoption 30%, resulting in project contract extension from 1 to 3 years, and subsequent growth of the design team from 1 to 4.

The world's largest video sharing platform
5 product owners
Red Argyle
Impact
30%
increase in adoption from channel partner managers
2
Reduced the need for two external data analytics tools, reducing swivel-chairing
$70 billion
in partnership payouts in 3 years
User Challenges

Partner managers struggle with where to direct their efforts given the high volume of channel partners they oversee.

Large partner managers are looking for focused ways to grow their channel partner's engagement.

Outcome

Incorporating data insights such as dashboards and automating AI-powered next best action item recommendations, allows them to quickly determine action items and spend more time connecting with channel partners.

Design Process
01
Understand
I used a learn-as-you-go approach to understanding channel partnerships. I documented everything including vocabulary, personas, stakeholders in a google sheet that I later used to onboard a second designer.
02
Validate
A dedicated user researcher shared insights on CSAT scores and pain points, which I accounted for alongside Product Owner requirements.
03
Discover
I designed multiple versions of each feature that I could pressure test across personas.
04
Align
I facilitated group workshops as needed to mitigate conflicting priorities between 5 Product Owners while advocating for 3 user groups as the only designer.
05
Design
I designed with a combination of SLDS and Material Design, crafting a custom design system which I later used across the MAANG clients other internal tools.
Home Page Design
Portfolio Managers
Problem
After adding new features and product areas, Portfolio Managers need clear direction on where to direct efforts while managing a large portfolio.
Solution
I suggested a rework of the home page including an AI-powered "Urgent Actions" feature.
Alignment
I pitched the idea to the PO who would likely receive it best to gain support before pitching more broadly.
Design
A list component for each product area, showing a priority badge for urgent actions.
Portfolio Manager urgent actions component
Problem
Product Owners struggled to agree which Product Area was most important to influence hierarchy for the list, and there were so many lists and items that the "urgent actions" were diluted.
Solution
Rank by urgency rather than type, reducing the total number of components and actions.
Design
Use cards to show unique metadata for each different type of action (alert, opportunity, etc.), which wouldn't have been possible in a table.
Portfolio Manager ranked urgency cards
Problem
The page becomes a "to do list" of things you haven't done.
Solution
I decided to include OKRs and top level metrics to show overall progress as positive reinforcement, and to help direct users to specific areas of the application if a certain metric or OKR is looking at a higher level than one specific action.
Design
I decided to use a linear progress bar for OKRs as opposed to the circular one so that it was easy to see compare progress from one OKR to another.
Large Partner Manager channel partner dashboard
Channel Partner Dashboard
Large Partner Manager
Need
Guide the engagement strategy of a single highly influential channel partner.
Solution
Dashboard with performance statistics and recommend opportunities to increase engagement.
Team Portfolio
Team Lead
Need
Oversee partner managers in enabling channel partner success.
Solution
A team portfolio that gives insights to the partner managers OKRs and more.
Team Lead team portfolio view
Learning

I learned the constraints of Salesforce, leveraging Lightning design system while sometimes designing completely custom components after weighing the trade offs. Since then, I have designed 12+ applications on the Salesforce platform.