Future State Design
Project
Team
Digital support is quite typical, being that we Google, look for videos, or even chat with someone about a question we have.. but what more can digital support be?
Eliza Gonzales
Anthony Wong
Taylor Fishman
Crystal Chan
Overview
Problem
The Head of my team Global Support Services, Jeff, assigned the interns in our teams to tackle the idea of brainstorming the future of digital support! To begin, he gave us the following questions to wrap our heads around
Project Goals
What is digital support now, and what can digital support be?
People just want an answer, how are we delivering it? How could it be improved?
Starting Research
When you have a question, what do you do?
I supported my team by leading thought provoking questions to get us started, like the question above. My intention here was to build a conversation that would help us through understanding users seeking for help.
Oftentimes when we have a question, we do a quick Google search to find the answers. (It’s how a lot of users find Support!)
We use our resources- many homes have Alexa’s, Google Homes, and tons of people have phones.
As the internet expands, we migrate to different forms of support, including watching videos on social media platforms.
Competitive Analysis
Understanding what support options other companies offer to their users
To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the support offerings extended to users by different companies, my focus encompassed both competitors and non-competitors in the field.
Question 01
What are other large companies doing for user support?
Question 02
Are there any commonalities that are seen consistently?
Question 03
Do any companies have more "innovative" support services?
After scoping out several other competitors, I came to the conclusion that as of now, everyone is on the same page about how to offer support to users. Despite this, we wanted to envision what we could be doing better in the future, so that Zoom could be a trailblazer in offering unique support options!
Chatbots
Tutorial Videos
Support Articles
Personalized Support
Starting Research
When you have a question, what do you do?
Zoom offers all of the above support options! However, something we could be doing better is personalized support. As of now, the personalization is very minimal. Below I listed what we currently do for personalization, and what we should consider in the future.
Current Support Personalization
Future Considerations
01
Suggesting articles based on plan/products that the user has subscribed to.
01
Putting content where the users are- in platform support (AKA in the Zoom App)!
02
Adding/removing quick content, like closing out recommendation articles or videos.
02
Customizing support based on our users. We don’t specific user personas, like children, elders, and people without tech experience.
03
"Welcome back, Eliza!"
03
A little more hand holding and guiding the user.
Competitive Analysis
Understanding who our target users are
Zoom has improvement opportunities for our support articles. During my analysis of our pages, I took a look at our articles since those are the most used forms of support. While taking a look across different articles, I developed the following assumptions of who our target user is.
We are assuming that..
Our users know how to read/have the cognitive effort necessary to.
Our users are able to do a “Google” search and/or have devices that support vocal search.
Users know what they need help with.
Users are westernized.
Why this is important to know
It’s projected that another one billion users will come online in the next 10 years.
These users will also be digitally illiterate. Our content for support will need to consider this.
Chances are, they’ll only have access to mobile devices, which our website doesn’t respond to very well (long articles).
World Illiteracy Map
Final Presentation
End product + executive presentation
While presenting this to my team of 20+ people, we were able to have a really great conversation about the future of support. We all agreed that in-product support would be a major solution to tackle in the future. Below are some mockups that I generated regarding how in-product support could help users of the future.
The concept below demonstrates handholding through AI voice generated commands. This would support users who may not know how to operate our product (or even know that they can do something like screen share) by picking up simple voice key words, similar to how chatbots work.
Screen 01
Screen 02
Screen 03
Screen 04
Reflections & Challenges
What I've learned from this project
I valued my time working on this project because I got to work with a Data Science, Video Production, and Community Moderator Intern. We all come from different backgrounds that allowed us to share our thoughts and suggestions based on what we know.
During this project, I had the pleasure of leading this team through the stages of research and how to come up with innovative ideas. It was difficult at first because it's not easy coming up with the next big thing! However, through asking hard questions, throwing in crazy ideas, and even taking breaks, we did a great job of using our experiences to generate ideas for the future.