Rocket Auto - Dashboard Testing
UX Research
2022
Lead Designer
Project info
Challenge
Rocket Mortgage, the main investor in Rocket Auto, questioned the value of building a dashboard for used car buying, since a similar approach hadn’t worked for mortgages. The design team saw potential to improve the customer journey, build trust, and deepen engagement. I led research to test this opportunity and identify high-value features.
Solution
Research showed users expected a dashboard to track their purchases and update details. Notably, 33% said they’d create an account just for interest in the service. Outcomes included:
Securing leadership buy-in and funding
Shaping the product roadmap for dashboard features
Sparking company-wide momentum for future UX testing
Platform
Usertesting.com, using the following methods:
Survey,
Interviewing,
Card sorting,
Qualitative data analysis,
Timeframe
2 weeks for planning
1 week for testing
2 weeks for analysis
1 week for summary design for presentation
My Tasks
Planned and ran the research with the team. Gained platform assistance from Rocket Mortgage ReOps. Synthesized the data and presented the findings company-wide.
The project when I started
Results
Deliverables
1-pager summary
Town hall presentation (copy sent upon request)
Key Insights & Impact
Dashboard demand: Users expected a status-tracking dashboard to see where they are in the process, what comes next, and to share details on vehicles of interest.
Willingness to share: Users were more open than expected to providing upfront details, including trade-in condition, enabling faster processing, but did not want to provide sensitive data until they talked with someone.
High-value features: Prioritizing the tracker and vehicle details (low effort, high impact) would give the highest value to end users, while larger lifts like inventory integration could come later.
Personalization: Users expect to interact and update a profile of what they are looking for with price, color, and popular features. They also wanted to set preferred contact methods (text/call) and times, with the expectation that these would be honored.
Outcome
The dashboard was designed and implemented shortly after. The process tracker, contact, and vehicle preferences were the first features implemented per my suggestions.
The project when completed
The impact of my work
Product roadmap influence
Utilizing how the different features scored with end users in my research, the product team was able to decide and shape the company’s product roadmap for the next year.
This research secured additional funding from Rocket Mortgage. The dashboard created a faster experience, boosting service sign-up and business revenue for the company.
My Process
Company-wide Collaboration
Led meetings with design, development, and product to define questions and gather insights on the following:
What assumptions do we have about our end users?
What dashboard features are being considered?
What KPIs would we improve with this research?
Development Effort Scoring
With the list of features the team was considering I met with the head of development and their scrum master to gather insights on the following:
What dashboard features do they think should be included?
Using a difficulty scoring system, how much effort would it take to create each feature?
ReOps Research Proposal
As a startup, I had to make a proposal for the testing to the founder, Rocket Mortgage’s, ReOps team. That process included:
Reviewing the test and screener questions with ReOps for clarity and bias.
Letting them know how many users we wanted to test with and that Rocket Auto had the budget for the test.
Running The Test
The test was utilized the following:
Survey questions to judge if users' expectations from the landing matched the lead form
A usability test of Rocket Auto's landing page and sign-up process,
A card sorting activity to weigh the value that the end users saw in the features offered.
My test review process:
I created a chart that included the questions asked and end users responses. I color-coded the users' answers while filling out my synthesis chart. Red for negative, green for positive, orange for quotes of interest, and yellow for general answers. I would also create video clips for highlight reels that included quotes of interest.
Designing the research summary
My process is to create a PowerPoint that relays the key results in the beginning and then goes deeper into the results to prioritize time, considering the busy startup environment. Other things I create and include are:
Graphs and infographics for quicker understanding by users.
Opportunities to improve that were found during the testing of usability.
Background, explaining why we are running the test, and the sample size.
Videos of our potential end users to create a greater impact through empathy with the user.
