Invoice Pilots Faster to Keep Your Operations Moving

Problem Hypothesis

Anecdotally and analytics-wise, we could hear and see that the current invoice design (the key module in in this airport operational software) was causing frustration with our primary users and their customers (pilots).

Key Pain Points

  • Manual input:  the product contains a lot of information that isn’t automatically ported into the invoice when a customer is created
  • Manual save:  customers complained about constantly having to hit the “save” button to get updated invoice calculations and to make sure the changes they made were committed
  • Time on task:  due to the issues mentioned, customers were complaining that on busy days it they could not invoice their pilot customers quickly, which was causing frustration and delays at their airport.
  • Item selection:  due to so many dropdowns and inputs, users complained that it took too long to select their line items

Problem Confirmation

With this anecdotal data and hypothesis in mind, first thing I did was confirm the problems to the best of my ability, to ensure I was tackling the right problems

Confirmation strategy

  • Analytics:  the easiest and therefore first way to confirm this was to check our behavior analytics product. Sure enough we could see the most clicked buttons were SAVE and SAVE AND CLOSE
    • This was a huge eye opener for myself and key stakeholders
  • Tech team check-in:  I reached out to our tech team to find out if they get a lot of enhancement requests for Invoicing. They confirmed they hear a lot of frustrating anecdotes from PO and BA and receive many Jira tickets relating to invoicing
  • PO check-in:  I met with the PO and the Customer Success Manager and they were quick to confirm and add to the details of the frustrations users have with invoicing
  • Item selection:  due to so many dropdowns and inputs, users complained that it took too long to select their line items

The above heat map shows user click frequency. The two most-clicked buttons, in the top right, are SAVE and SAVE AND CLOSE

Research

  • Competitive Analysis
  • Customer Feedback (after mockups)`

Competitive research was conducted on leading invoicing software along with a legacy product users raved about

User Feedback

After an initial mid-fidelity mockup, to ensure I was moving in the right direction, myself and a stakeholder met with the aforementioned high volume customer, along with a couple more.

The feedback was received and that which was feasible and consistent across customers was considered in the final design.

To move quickly, we went straight to a final mockup and began development.

Must Haves

  • Autosave - to alleviate 90% of use clicks that are a waste of time, we will remove the save buttons and replace it with autosave
  • Invoice preview layout - users raved about an intuitive layout with a Invoice Preview in a legacy on-prem software prior to this SaaS version
  • Easier line item selection - it’s important to make the line item selection quicker and more intuitive to reduce time on task
  • Automate customer and aircraft details - users were having to switch between screens to find key information. To streamline the process, we’ll aim to bring in as much relevant information as possible so users can remain in the context of the invoice

First mid-fidelity mockup used to gather feedback from stakeholders and customers

Ideation and Initial Mockup

A key stakeholder had a close relationship with high-volume customer, and had solicited feedback. With his knowledge the problems we knew about already,  we collaborated on ideas and i began wireframing a mid-fidelity mockup with must-have features.

Additionally, I mapped out the user flow to identify bottlenecks I could remove from the invoice flow.

Notes from user feedback session along with interview questions

FINAL

MVP Final designs were taken to development to build and test with real customers in beta. The feedback has been found to be overwhelmingly positive, I believe, due to customer research and involvement in the process early on.

That being said, agile is still an iterative process and while I am pleased with the outcome, there are always improvements to be made.

I continue to hold customer ux feedback sessions upon release of features and on the Invoicing module in particular.