Medallia: experience management software platform

Starting point: Medallia is an enterprise company in which users build surveys, collect and analyze feedback. The data collected helps companies to better understand their customers.

I was a part of a team that included a manager and two product designers. I provided designs for our desktop, mobile in-app and IoT services and lead each project end-to-end.

In this project I teamed up with product managers, developers and researchers (Global teams). My role was to design the user experience and lead the design process.

Research

To identify the main pain points and opportunities for improvement, we conducted extensive research that included:

1. Client Interviews: We gathered feedback directly from users such as marketing managers, customer success teams, and product managers. They shared their frustrations with the complex survey creation process, reliance on developers, and accidental errors like publishing incomplete surveys. One client said, "The interfaces are extremely complex. I spend a lot of time trying to relearn tasks every time I log in."
2. Survey and Usability Testing: We analyzed the ease of use scores (3.8/10) and customer satisfaction (NPS of 5.2/10) to quantify the platform's performance. Many users rated the system poorly because they found it difficult to navigate and frequently missed steps like setting translations or configurations due to scattered menus.
3. User Journey Mapping: We mapped the survey creation and customization workflows to pinpoint friction points, especially where users needed to revert to developer support or unintentionally skipped settings. It was clear that the flow was not linear, causing users to miss key steps or configurations.
4. Competitive Analysis: Users frequently compared Medallia to simpler survey tools like SurveyMonkey, citing the lack of self-service customization options as a major drawback. "I can go to SurveyMonkey and design it how I want - why can’t we do that?" was a common sentiment.

Through these research methods, we gained a deep understanding of the user challenges, which informed the design solutions focused on creating a more intuitive, no-code experience, and reducing errors during survey creation.

Research insights breakdown to actions

User flow

Business goals

Account retention

Increase brand presence

Reduce service support costs

Improve customer experience

Old designs

Problems

High support costs: developers assist users with coding and customizing survey designs, while engineers handle various configuration setups.

Move to React (Components are not built with React, creating a security risk for users)

UX issues: users struggled to complete survey steps, including defining translation settings and accidentally publishing drafts, causing costly mistakes and hesitation in using the Medallia builder.

UI issues: navigation, hidden content, inconsistency

Technical issues: bugs and slowness caused users frustration

Outdated UI - not using Medallia’s current branding and design system, causing inconsistent experience for users.

Challenges

Drastic design and flow changes - will the users easily adapt and embrace them? can we support and fix all changes and issues?

Not having full support of existing design system - new components must be added and current ones require an update

Creating a seamless flow for a complex process:

1. creating a survey is a long and complex process that needs to be organized the right way in order to make sure it’s intuitive and makes sense.

2. After creating survey, there are lots of environments that help users monitor and maintain it. the flow consists a full end-to-end design thinking.

Solution

I introduced no-code customization options that allowed users to design and configure surveys without developer assistance. Pre-designed templates, themes, and bulk actions were added to streamline the process and reduce reliance on technical support, significantly lowering support costs.

I redesigned the survey creation flow to be more intuitive and linear, ensuring that each step, including translation settings, was clearly integrated. I added a final review page before publishing to prevent accidental mistakes and increase user confidence in the system.

I collaborated with the development team to optimize system performance and eliminate key bugs. This involved streamlining back-end processes and improving system speed, resulting in a more responsive and efficient user experience.

I implemented a modernized UI that adhered to Medallia’s design system and branding guidelines. The new design created a cohesive and visually appealing experience, improving navigation and usability for all users.

Personas

Lisa Anderson, 40

💼 Marketing Manager

🏠 New York City, NY

🚀Motivation: delivering engaging, customized surveys to collect valuable customer feedback

🎯Main goal: create visually appealing surveys quickly, without technical assistance

😖Main pain point: struggles with complex survey tools that require coding for customization

✏️Quote: "I need a simple, no-code solution to design surveys - having to rely on developers slows me down.”

David Morgan, 35

💼 Customer Success Manager

🏠 London, UK

🚀Motivation: ensure smooth survey creation and data collection for clients

🎯Main goal: help clients create and customize surveys without excessive support from technical teams

😖Main pain point: clients often publish incomplete or incorrect surveys due to the complicated interface

✏️Quote: "Our clients accidentally publish drafts or misconfigure settings, simplifying the interface would prevent these costly mistakes.”

Sarah Lee, 45

💼 Product Manager

🏠 San Francisco, CA

🚀Motivation: ensure product teams have the right tools to efficiently collect user feedback and make informed decisions

🎯Main goal: implement an intuitive survey builder that reduces reliance on engineering teams for customization

😖Main pain point: the existing system is slow and not user-friendly, leading to high support costs

✏️Quote: "We need a more intuitive builder to minimize customization costs and reduce the need for developer support.”

Problem - User's POV

Scroll inside the table to view all content on smaller screens

Final design

User’s feedback on new design

The redesign of the Medallia platform received highly positive feedback from users across various roles, including marketing managers, customer success teams, and product managers:

• Improved Usability: Users praised the simplified and linear survey creation flow, which reduced the complexity and confusion they experienced with the previous version. Many expressed relief that key steps, such as translation settings, were now integrated smoothly, making the process more intuitive. One user said, “Now I don’t need help, the wizard-like editor makes everything simpler.”

• Reduced Errors: With the new review page before publishing, accidental errors like publishing incomplete drafts were minimized, boosting users' confidence. A client remarked, "I feel secure in publishing now, and I’m no longer worried about making mistakes."

• Fewer Support Requests: The introduction of no-code customization options drastically reduced the need for developer support. Users were pleased that they could now customize surveys independently. One user commented, "I’m still shocked I don’t need to ask the support team to change the font color!"

• Faster, Smoother Performance: Users also appreciated the technical improvements, noting that the platform ran faster and smoother, with fewer bugs. As one user noted, "The system doesn’t freeze up on me anymore, and it feels a lot more responsive."

Conclusions

This project taught me the value of simplifying complex workflows to improve usability, reducing support costs with no-code solutions, and the importance of consistent design for building user trust. Incorporating user feedback early allowed me to deliver meaningful improvements and create a more scalable, user-friendly platform.

Ella Eldadi

eeldadi79@gmail.com

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