User Account Migration

Hello Divorce uses BigCommerce and Hubspot to manage client accounts. This migration will both improve the customer experience and enable our developers to make more dynamic changes to further enhance the customer experience.

In Summary

MY ROLE

Product Designer

TIMELINE

August 2023 - Ongoing

GOAL

Consolidate our client accounts into one client experience that also supports non-client explorations.

BACKGROUND

This study showcases the work that was done to consolidate client experience into a single account. We strive to bring more value to divorcing couples before, during, and after their divorces. This single account space follows best practice, reduces confusion and improves our service offerings.

MY CONTRIBUTIONS

  • Collected requirements

  • Collaborated with engineering & customer care

  • Strategized design and process

  • Wire-framing and prototyping

  • Presented hi-fidelity designs to executives

  • Worked with developers during handoff

“I just bought a divorce from you guys, how do I start?”

This is not the question I want our divorce clients to have! When our clients don’t know how to start and become confused:

🤔 They are less likely to trust in our other services and spend money with us

😡 They are more likely to start with a negative experience

⏰ They are more likely to tie up our customer care specialists’ time with questions

💸 They are more likely to ask for a refund

I want to explore how we might improve our client’s understanding to drive better outcomes for both clients and the business.

Why don’t clients know how to start?

After meeting with the customer care team and leadership we determined the primary source of confusion to be the two separate account spaces. Users don’t know how to orient themselves in our product! So, let me break down the current state.

BigCommerce Account

The BigCommerce Account space is how Hello Divorce manages sales transactions and it was the original account space.

HubSpot Account

Initially Hubspot was used just for CRM, but our non-developers were able to quickly spin up growth and marketing pages and the amount of user data we could store made Hubspot the ideal solution to build a new client account space.

We want to make sure we’re improving the online divorce experience in the right ways. I collected data to see who customers are and how they’re using our product. I used the following strategies for my data collection:

  • Walking through and using the product myself

  • Watching 5 different interviews conducted by our researchers

  • Leading weekly meetings with customer care team to hear from teammates who interface directly with clients

  • Analyzing user demographic data to create a persona to guide the Product Team

  • Using AI to synthesize reviews data

Let’s improve this experience!

Empowering Our Divorce Clients

Our divorcing clients, represented by Cody, want to get divorced cheaply, quickly, and easily. Many of them understand that once lawyers get involved nobody truly wins.

Once clients have bought a plan, we find them proactive and ready to get started on their divorce.

Preparing Prospective Clients

Our non-clients, represented by Janie, are typically not sure if they can or should get divorced. They have concerns about their houses, children, and finances.

Non-clients need reassurance that we truly can help them get divorced. There is also opportunity to educate them on our divorce process.

How might we improve the client experience in tandem with the migration?

I took a look at Cody’s user flow before, during, and after his journey. This allowed me to be sure we’re helping him understand how he can easily use the site and account space.

Website entry point

My home page recommendations are to:

  • Define priority for the user’s actions

  • Minimize the clutter and redundant CTAs

  • Make it obvious which CTA should be clicked

  • Only show priority navigation items and reduce confusing signals

Email entry point

I updated the purchase email so it is now:

  • Minimal

  • Points to an obvious next step

  • Allows people to confidently skim

  • Utilizes bullet points for easier comprehension

  • Acts as a resource as the user goes through the divorce process

Consolidate divorce content

Cody now sees all his account content in one space:

  • His DIY instructions

  • Each step of the divorce questionnaire

  • All his completed forms

  • His order history

  • His saved addresses and credit cards

Heuristic improvements

Basic heuristics can help improve the space:

  • Improve hierarchy to increase understanding

  • Demonstrate user’s progress

  • Improve way-finding and orientation

  • Empower users to find help with AI integration

Connecting users with more help

Divorce is confusing, we can reduce confusion by:

  • Showing users how to easily connect with their Account Coordinators

  • Connecting them with relevant blog posts at the right time

  • Ensuring they feel empowered by using straightforward, helpful language

Preparing for new technology

We can prepare for future enhancements!

  • Implement AI assistant within the divorce navigator

  • Learn from the AI assistant when users need help and how to best assist them

  • Eventually implement AI to act as a mediator or legal assistant, saving customers potentially thousands of dollars

Current results

⏰

Decreased lost and frustrated customer service calls by an estimated 40%.

“I have been getting way less questions [from customers] on how to start!” - Hannah, Sr. Customer Manager

👀

Products and services are now visible in the client account space.

Increased visibility of 4 divorce plans and 17 (and counting!) services means clients can easily find the right product or service for their needs!

📱

Responsive designs supports easier mobile navigation.

70% of people find Hello Divorce on their phones, we want to ensure that our mobile platform supports the best online divorce experience too.

🤖

AI exploration and structure will support later deep AI integrations.

92% of respondents to a Nielsen Norman survey say they’ve used Generative AI, we need to make sure we start to augment our process with AI to stay up to date with technology.

Reflections

I am so grateful I got to work on this project that directly improves how customers access their divorce questionnaires, forms, resources, and more. Making customers feel supported and even delighted during some of the hardest times in their lives has been incredibly impactful for me.

Next steps

Improving the account experience through the migration has given me more insight into how we might be able to build products that can assist our customers during their divorce. I’m going to keep brainstorming, creating, and producing relevant, helpful products.