Must Have Menus Web App
UXR, UI, Product Management, Design Director for Musthavemenus.com
What is MUst have Menus? What is Design Services?
MHM is a B2B web app design tool created for small businesses to create their own menus, print & digital marketing collateral and mobile menus via customizable template designs.
Design Services began as an informal group of professional designers who made menus or marketing material for MHM’s customers using MHM’s design software
My Role
One of the best parts of start-up culture and working for a small team is being able to make your mark. At Must Have Menus (MHM), I was hired as a senior graphic designer and quickly realized that I could bring the confluence of my experience in management, sales, marketing and user experience design to create a lucrative business model, a productive team and an intuitive path for our users to be empowered by the MHM ecosystem.
Getting started
In 2017, I was promoted to Design Services Manager where I managed a team of 3 designers, 1 developer and worked closely with our CEO, Director of Product and the Head of Marketing to build an design product infrastructure that would capture a wider base of users and yield higher revenue.
Using Tableau (example below), I translated accumulated but previously ignored site and customer data to ask and answer questions like: Where do most of our users live? Which users spend the most money over time? Which users also purchase our print services? What does our user retention look like? etc.
I also investigated how our customer service and design team collaborated as a customer-interfacing unit. Without a functional SOP, team collaboration, sales training or corresponding site UX, having anyone in a Design/Sales hybrid role - fielding cold calls as well as designing - was negatively impacting conversions.
The product and process needed attention.
Steps to Success
To move the Design Services business forward, I identified the following priorities:
Value
Pricing: A devalued product created confused expectations as well as poor outcomes for user, designer and revenue goals by eating into user retention on the menu maker and the print side of MHM’s business. It also undermined ongoing designer-client relationships.
Solution: To introduce accurate pricing based on competitive analysis and tiered pricing packages for multiple types of users with modular needs.
The Wizard
Sales/Design Hybrid: I created sales training protocol, sales scripts, and introduced a CRM. It was also urgent that the design team be supported by site UX to identify and direct sales qualified leads only.
Solution: Rethink and refine the leads funnel UI
User Experience & UI Design
Understanding the flow of the current sales-to-designer pipeline to minimize wasted time and maximize automation helped refine the process and provide opportunities for new site features, including the wizard funnel. The wizard’s purpose was to deliver sales qualified leads to the design team with clarifying contact, menu and scheduling data.
It was no less urgent to ensure that Design Services become accurately and very visibly represented on the site via multiple secondary CTAs in prime locations. This would lead users to the wizard funnel where they could be qualified or redirected as necessary.
The Brand
Brand Design & Marketing: Our design team updated the Design Services brand to represent the caliber and identity of the product offered. We also created a portfolio page, product FAQ page, education materials (video tutorials, blogs), the opportunity for 1:1 zoom tutorials on the menu maker. The marketing team assisted with the creation of a DS newsletter, automated outreach, and an email drip campaign for our user base as well as free channel and site marketing.
Road Map & Promotion
In 2018, after a successful year, I was promoted again to Director of Design Services. My first step as Director was to put together a business and product roadmap based on the data captured, new revenue numbers, competitive analysis and the market possibilities at that time.
CODIFIED UX: big steps forward
As late stage start-up, it was important to advocate to update processes and introduce new roles. It became my mission to ensure that our designers were able to learn on the job and take those skills with them. During my time at MHM, I introduced the product and design teams to a more codified approach, including Adobe XD to mock-up designs, UXR best practices; including personas, surveys, moderated usability studies and 1:1 wireframe walk-throughs with longstanding clients. The design team also integrated into agile to collaborate more effectively with engineering.
