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Workforce Management (WFM) is a crucial workplace tool for nearly all businesses. It's especially prominent in medium and large enterprises with a significant number of non-salary employees (hourly, shift work, part-time, contract, etc.). Industries such as manufacturing, retail, hospitality, construction, and food services are heavily reliant on WFM digital tools to schedule, track, pay, and forecast employees' work time.
As more businesses move to digitize their WFM tools (i.e. beyond paper, clipboards, spreadsheets, timesheets, etc.), there's a tremendous opportunity to save time and costs in redundant / manual activities, while also improving accuracy and data integration. The data from these WFM systems are a key component to cost accounting, demand forecasting, and numerous other HR functions.
The challenge we faced at Dayforce—a leader in WFM and human capital management (HCM) software—was to re-imagine the existing software to greatly improve the user experience design. Why? Because the software had been originally built 15+ years prior, more and more features we're progressively added, and the overall user experience was in disarray. As a result, clients were beginning to take notice and sales / retention was being negatively impacted.
View related UXR best practices learned from this project and more. See 5 Inflection Points of User Research for how to create meaning from user data that adds significant value, and 3 Points to Successful User Insight Storytelling for how to succeed in sharing insights with partners.
Unmoderated Moderated AI analysis Prototype testing Quant analysis B2B research highlight reels Journey mapping Survey design
First, we sought to make sense of our existing user experience. The goal was to paint a clear picture of today's journey, features, and points of gains / pains. We held numerous internal workshops with various product, design, marketing, sales, and engineering partners to tease out: 1) what exists today, 2) the original intent, and 3) roadmap of known ideas/opportunities from their perspective.
The process of organized working sessions was instrumental in building relationships, obtaining institutional knowledge, and gaining insight into potential areas of interest. We were able to come back to many of these partners (e.g. sales, marketing) and actively work alongside others (e.g. product, design), throughout the duration of the project work. This support system provided direction, feedback, and buy-in necessary to move a significant UX overhaul forward.
Simultaneously, we looked to understand our core users (front-line managers and employees). The goal was to uncover their actual behaviors, context, and needs. We leveraged UserTesting.com to create recruiting systems and studies to gather our product-specific users, and users of other competitor platforms, to share feedback.
We utilized moderated and unmoderated sessions with active users, and non-, at different points in the process to emphasize speed, insight, and balance. Over time, we were able to establish a participant pool to expedite outreach further, and build quality relationships with real users to gain a deeper understanding over a longer period of time. This was necessary due to the complexity and depth of the user experience system. WFM involves many interconnected parts, pieces, and policies (i.e. scheduling, time tracking, payroll, attendance, entitlements, and more).
Third, we explored the valuable perspectives of influential client administrative users (HR Information Specialists, Benefits Admins, Payroll Managers, Labor Analysts, etc.). The goal was to understand how the full service ecosystem is meant to function for maximum value to their organization of today and tomorrow. Ongoing, in-depth contextual walkthroughs, performed with client admins users of notable international companies provided a useful platform for active dialogue between design, product, and users of multiple levels.
These relationships with active clients offered a continuous channel for insight. In early stages, they afforded the ability to learn/explore current-state experiences and a variety of exploratory ideas. In later stages, we were able to quickly run quantitative surveys to help prioritize specific product and user experience features. These surveys yielded impactful data and credible metrics that we used to validate strategic direction and investment.
Throughout, we iteratively designed and tested new design concepts with users, internal stakeholders (i.e. leadership, sales, engineering), and clients. In the beginning phases, the goal was to diverge our thought process to explore new and novel opportunities. In later stages, it was about evaluative feedback to fine-tune, and A/B test most meaningful design direction. The partnership between design, research, and product was highly collaborative (which doesn't always mean easy!). It was challenging in constructive ways to surface the most viable, feasible, and valuable path forward.
Lastly, we focused our energy on the cross-over of business opportunity, user needs, and tech feasibility to ship the first elements of a new experience framework. The goal was to build organizational momentum, show client value, and gather real user data. On top of which we were able to make adjustments and iteratively design the follow-on experience touchpoints using modern architecture.
The UX research prominently brought 4 values to the table throughout the duration of the project: 1) connecting closely/continually with users, 2) encouraging cross-department collaboration, 3) fostering of near- and long-term ideas, and 4) documenting tangible artifacts that provided insight to be referred to both quickly/viscerally, and back to over time.
It was an awesome partnership, built on human relationships, and focused on delivering tangible UX value.
“Paul has made an immediate impact to the team since joining the team less than a year ago. He has taken an innovative approach in his research by delivering ongoing, continuous insights about WFM. Most importantly, Paul was the catalyst to breaking down silos between Web and Mobile and has set a tone for a bright future ahead where those teams can collaborate together to design a more end-to-end WFM service." – UX Research Manager @Dayforce
“Paul is always seeking to make deep connections between research insights and product strategy. He is a 'north star' thinker. When debriefing him on a round of research completed, Paul is always thinking about what the findings might mean for users and business and strategy." – Sr. Product Director @Dayforce
"Paul always presents his work in a way that is accessible, fun and creative. Paul helps all those around him grow more creative and think beyond the lines. Paul brings vision and depth and possibility to his work. I always feel engaged and refreshed when I work with him. I think he's a dynamic team player, and I'm glad to have him on our team." – UX Researcher @Dayforce
