Admin Billing for
Enterprise Customers
Product Designer
2023
18% increase in ARR
Stakeholder interviews Comparative analysis
Jobs To Be Done workshop Journey maps
Wireframes
Data Visualization
Prototypes
Executive presentations
Designing the new UI to reflect a more comprehensive pricing model forecasted to boost Mural's Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by 18%.
Mural implemented a new seat licensing subscription model designed to be easy for customers to understand and to provide a more predictable fixed subscription model for fiscal planning. I designed the billing page tailored for enterprise administrators that surfaced key contractual data and usage data, aiding them in effectively navigating the new pricing model.
The old
Historically the billing page highlighted Mural's unique pricing metric called the Quarterly Engaged Member (QEM). However, this unit of measure led to several challenges both internally and externally. Our employees found the QEM metric painfully time-consuming to explain, and our customers found it difficult to comprehend.
Faced with increased pressure from competitors whose clear pricing structure lent itself nicely to their discounts and promotions, we created a new seat licensing subscription model. This new pricing is easy for customers to understand, provides a more predictable fixed subscription model, and enables customers to better forecast license needs and efficiently manage subscriptions across their organizations.
The design process
With the introduction of our new pricing structure, my main objective was to design a UI that empowered enterprise customers to gain insights into the number of members using Mural within their organization exposing our new model. I employed a range of methods to assess our existing user experience and chart the optimal path forward.
Comparative anaylsis
As a part of the greater enterprise design team, I was already engaged in reimagining the entire admin experience. This presented a golden opportunity for me to envision a thoroughly enhanced billing experience. To gain insights, I undertook a comparative analysis, delving into the admin billing experiences offered by other popular tools. This is where I discovered we were missing an opportunity to expose contractual data, data our customers expect at an enterprise level.
Cross-functional Collaboration with a
Design Studio
Recognizing the value of internal perspectives, I organized sessions with our internal partners to comprehensively grasp the needs of our administrators, thereby steering my design process.
To facilitate this, I orchestrated a Design Studio – dedicated time for collaboration with stakeholders and internal partners – aimed at collective problem-solving and gaining a shared understanding of what our users were thinking a feeling once arriving to the billing page.
I assembled a group of 7 internal stakeholders and harnessed the User Story/Jobs to Be Done Framework to structure our deliberations. This framework generated statements like: "As a company admin, WHEN I ____ I want to see ____ so that_____" – an approach that illuminates the underlying motivations behind these needs.
The focus
Using dot voting, one of my favorite prioritization methods, we identified our three most important JTBD statements to focus on:
As an admin, when I log in for chargeback information, to confirm # of users in MURAL vs. Software catalog, I want to see the total number of members and who they are, so that I can cross reference the data and ensure those who are using MURAL are also being charged
As an admin anytime I check the billing page I want to see which members require a membership and which don't (for example all active and deactivated members) so that I can see how many memberships we are utilizing, but also how many users are on the platform but we are not paying for
As an admin when I need to deprovision unused accounts I want to see a filter of all accounts not used in 30, 60, 90 days so that I can deprovision accounts/ transfer data
The outcome
The new enterprise billing experience was launched in June 2023. This would serve as the next step in the evolution of the Admin experience. I'm most proud about advocating to keep the main thing the main thing; if not for my design thinking tools, this page could've easily conflated user account management with billing. Decoupling contractual data from user management was essential.
The long term
While my time with Mural transitioned in June 2023, the plan is to inch closer towards a complete revamping of our admin experience, we're calling it Admin 2.0. We wanted to make a more intuitive, feature robust, and cohesive admin portal that helped enterprise level admins achieve their all goals in one place. As you see below, I designed the interaction and visual experience of the Admin 2.0 billing page, which has an updated top navigation and side navigation, and their subsequent experiences, all a part of the more comprehensive changes developed by the Enterprise Design team. Admin 2.0 is expected to launch in Q4 of 2023/ Q1 2024.
The learnings
This project was a fascinating experience and I learned the following:
Collaboration tools like Slack and Loom will be my best friends
Collaborating with a multidisciplinary team, which included a product manager, several engineers, and dedicated design partners from customer success and enterprise engagement teams, required effective communication and feedback loops. Leveraging collaboration tools like Slack and Loom I ensured ongoing transparency and invited valuable input. These tools facilitated real-time progress updates and insights sharing, creating a shared understanding amongst the team even when working asynchronously.
Always consider systems, the right location is just as important as the right information
Amid a plethora of ideas and stakeholder input aiming to elevate the user experience, a crucial lesson emerged – the significance of system-wide thinking. Stakeholders illuminated diverse administrator needs. Yet, it became paramount for me to navigate and advocate that not all elements belonged on the billing page. The billing page demanded a dedicated focus on contractual data, while user management tasks found would find their rightful place on the User's and Groups page.
Guiding the team's perception and subsequent support involved sharing established design principles and heurisitcs. This strategic approach garnered the necessary backing to distribute pertinent data and corresponding actions optimally across the admin interface.
Working with what I've got while keeping the future in mind is the best play
Encountering technical constraints, such as the absence of a Salesforce integration, proved to be a challenge. However, this did not deter me from adopting a forward-thinking approach. I consistently factored in the long-term perspective, ensuring that our present decisions would harmoniously resonate with future developments and downstream outcomes.