Megan Driscoll

content design | service design | user research | UX strategy | information architecture | technical writing | content operations

Self-service help case study

In 2017, HubSpot's existing support experience did not emphasize ways to self-serve or search for help. The primary call-to-action on the page was to log in and file a support ticket or call support to get help.

 

By sharing a visual analysis of user search behavior, I coordinated a team of cross-functional stakeholders to redesign the experience with finding help.

Collaboration

  • Competitor research: worked with technical writers to document how help content was structured on competitors websites and evaluated strengths and weaknesses.
  • Open card sort: coordinated with the UX research operations team to design an open card sort study with survey questions.
  • Menu tree tests: ran 2 menu tree tests for top personas. Wrote 10 tasks for each study based on trends in customer support ticket data.
  • Follow-up interviews: worked with UX research team on a script, and interviewed 6 open card sort respondents to examined topics from the open card sort with the least agreement. 
  • Secondary research: analyzed existing research studies from other teams, including: academy, research, and design.
  • Approval and publishing: coordinated with design systems, marketing, support, and legal teams on design requirements and final sign-off of content.

Solutions

Created a solution that prioritized the search experience and linking to a specific answer on the page. Since the resource types a user needs can vary during all stages of the customer lifecycle, bringing all resources together creates the best customer experience.

"I use whatever search bar I can find" [to get help].

  • Worked with self-service support team manager and developer to design a unified help experience with a prominent search bar.

  • Worked with stakeholders from other teams to approve designs, copy, and index their pages in our search engine.

  • Worked with the support representatives and the self-service support team and developer to define and design labels and interactions for a federated search experience.

  • Worked with a junior designer to create a new experience to view self-service support options based on product plan. Established reviews and sign-off from support team leadership and legal.

  • Defined new topics in our knowledge base specifically for CRM Setup and Getting Started to address the new user journey when knowledge base resources are used the most.
  • Worked with our developer to implement a table of contents feature within articles to make headings easier to browse.

TOC gif for page

Results

  • The new unified help page received 86% positive sentiment feedback.
  • Referral traffic to our developer documentation and blog from our help and knowledge base properties increased.
  • The table of contents feature was used by 91% of customer support employees to close support tickets.
  • All elements of the knowledge base content model are designed to update directly from our localized content management system, so the site is always up to date.