Defining a system to bring 6 separate product experiences together in 1 platform
My Role & Responsibilities
I was the lead designer that designed, developed, proposed, and championed the system. Throughout the process I was collaborating with Product and Engineering and received feedback from members of the design team.
Context & Problem
Originally known as Added Value Services for Employment Tax, these services required customers to have and manage 6 different product experiences to do their HR and Payroll work.
The Work
Find the common tasks and behaviors for customers between the 6 different verticals and design a system to enable a single platform that reduces workload, time on task, and increases accuracy and customer retention.
Outcome & Results
Smart Compliance successfully merged all 6 products into a cohesive experience that normalized tasks and work across the product lines. Provided a centralized messaging and notification system, simplified work, increased accuracy, and reduced time on tasks.
The Problem
ADP’s Added Value Services solutions were fragmented and difficult for customers to use. Each product had a different data sources, interaction models, and user interface which made using the different products confusing and difficult. notifications and messaging was fragmented and would cause confusion for customers.These issues affected growth and retention negatively.
The Work
The main issue we were trying to solve was the fragmentation of the products and services. Could we bring together a platform that would provide a unified and consistent experience across the services. I looked closely at each service, finding common themes for tasks.
More than Fragmentation
With feedback from current products and research, we also learned our customers didn’t have a good idea of what to work on first. They couldn’t tell what actions might be more important or urgent than others. We began to outline a system that could better inform decisions and drive action.
Consistency
Our goal was also to bring consistency to our flows and interactions. The applications previously created around the “Services” all had different interaction models. That meant customers had to learn 6 different ways to complete similar tasks. With the system designed for the Smart Compliance Platform, we were able to bring clarity and consistency to all the actions within the different services.
Data Driven Interfaces
After the high-level concept of the system was designed, it was time to get into the details of the individual page types of the system. We needed to design how the data across the services would drive the the system at the page level. We also needed to normalize data structures across the 6 services to get them to align with the new system model while allowing flexibility for the differences in the services.
Outcome & Results
We successfully created one platform to combine six products. The new system provided much more transparency to tasks that needed to be done and which ones were the most import, something customers were asking for loudly. The launch of Smart Compliance was also a huge step for that segment of the company, it showed the success possible in transitioning to a Product Lead culture. That culture shift and the work that came afterwards was huge for ADP and it’s continued success in HR and Payroll software and services
- A single platform with a global interaction model for tasks made it much easier for customers to use
- A global notification and messaging system eliminated duplicate messaging and mail, reducing confusion
- Reduced time on task for most common tasks on the platform compared to the previous separate solutions
- One platform to rule them all. All without hobbits being harmed and Sauron not returning to Middle Earth
Hindsight & Reflections
I’m proud of what we accomplished with Smart Compliance despite the challenges—new teams, old systems, and high complexity. While our solution felt right at the time and was validated by some user input, I now see areas for improvement.
If I could revisit the project, I’d focus more on aligning with existing mental models and respecting workflows within individual products. By prioritizing a unified interaction model, we may have sacrificed usability and effectiveness that could have better supported.