A trip to the call center and Product Backlog through the eyes of the developer
Support is the place users go to to help you create a better product. Of course, if you are willing to listen to them. Every month we receive more than 175,000 appeals in support, which can be compared with the population of the whole of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Naturally, I want to reduce this figure, since a product with an ideal user experience does not need support. In addition, a separate cost item of the company is the maintenance of several call centers, each call costs a certain amount. Analysis of these problems can be a serious basis for filling the product backlog with the tasks of improving processes, functional logic and introducing new features.
In the summer of 2018, the QIWI Wallet team - developers, testers, designers - split into two groups and went to call centers in Kaluga and Chelyabinsk in order to find out what problems our users face. Making an analogy, we can say that direct contact of the development team with the user is not the extinguishing of a burning fire, it is the creation of a fire safety system.
')
To work in the field
Jules Breton
Under the cut, I will briefly talk about how it was, and why it is useful to get out of the office and watch how people use your product.
We are talking about the conduct of communication which leads primarily to further improve the product. During the four days spent in the call center, two days were given to calls (each of us could not only listen to calls while sitting next to the operator, but also independently answer users' questions while going through the script) and two days for tickets. Before that, we were trained, and everything was not as difficult as at first glance.
The theme of the appeals was repeated, and by the end of the second day the main categories could be distinguished.
Here is our top 5:
This allows you to deal with the "development in a vacuum" syndrome, it is very valuable to get an outside view on how people use the application. Programmers rarely have to see their features in action, almost as rarely as they get current feedback from people who use the product on a daily basis. When developing a product, it is easy to get stuck in your own point of view - a UI or feature that may seem intuitive to you will not seem natural in the eyes of customers. Communicating with them helps to understand another point of view and optimize the approach to design to make it more understandable. After the trip we spent two days summing up. They were divided into several teams, and on the first day they wrote down the problems they encountered while communicating with users on the blackboard, and on the second day they presented team solutions.
There were also coincidences; however, as a result, we received more than 160 tickets, which were included in the call center of the call center. Many of them have already been made, some of them have no solution, some affect other teams and have been transferred to them. In general, the number of calls in support throughout the year is kept at approximately the same level (175-180 thousand per month). For example, in the fall, the Maps section (card order, detailed information on them) was thoroughly redesigned in mobile applications, but the number of calls for card products issues was and remained at the same level.
Does this mean that the work is done in vain? No, and it is difficult to make an unequivocal conclusion, since it is the totality of the work of a large number of people and teams, it is difficult to identify an improvement in the context of a single feature.
The best product is not the one that is built with the most efficient algorithms or the cleanest code. This is the product that users need, which they want to see. Support helps developers to take a fresh look at the product and their work, not to forget about the final result.
It helps to see the big picture as a whole: as the product grows, it becomes more mature, the developers focus on the functionality they create. There is not always time to think about a complete picture and about your place in the whole company. It is important to realize that the obvious to the programmer is not always so obvious to others.
And with a small offtopic - we will soon have a mitap for iOS developers.
Naturally, I want to reduce this figure, since a product with an ideal user experience does not need support. In addition, a separate cost item of the company is the maintenance of several call centers, each call costs a certain amount. Analysis of these problems can be a serious basis for filling the product backlog with the tasks of improving processes, functional logic and introducing new features.
In the summer of 2018, the QIWI Wallet team - developers, testers, designers - split into two groups and went to call centers in Kaluga and Chelyabinsk in order to find out what problems our users face. Making an analogy, we can say that direct contact of the development team with the user is not the extinguishing of a burning fire, it is the creation of a fire safety system.
')
To work in the field
Jules Breton
Under the cut, I will briefly talk about how it was, and why it is useful to get out of the office and watch how people use your product.
Call center
We are talking about the conduct of communication which leads primarily to further improve the product. During the four days spent in the call center, two days were given to calls (each of us could not only listen to calls while sitting next to the operator, but also independently answer users' questions while going through the script) and two days for tickets. Before that, we were trained, and everything was not as difficult as at first glance.
The theme of the appeals was repeated, and by the end of the second day the main categories could be distinguished.
Here is our top 5:
- Erroneous outgoing transfers from wallet to wallet (now we are preparing a payment cancel feature that will significantly reduce the number of calls)
- They learn general information about how to make payments, that is, they actually learn how to use the product.
- Incorrect replenishment.
- Questions on the passage of a complete and simplified user identification.
- Questions on plastic cards Visa. Most questions on dates of delivery.
This allows you to deal with the "development in a vacuum" syndrome, it is very valuable to get an outside view on how people use the application. Programmers rarely have to see their features in action, almost as rarely as they get current feedback from people who use the product on a daily basis. When developing a product, it is easy to get stuck in your own point of view - a UI or feature that may seem intuitive to you will not seem natural in the eyes of customers. Communicating with them helps to understand another point of view and optimize the approach to design to make it more understandable. After the trip we spent two days summing up. They were divided into several teams, and on the first day they wrote down the problems they encountered while communicating with users on the blackboard, and on the second day they presented team solutions.
There were also coincidences; however, as a result, we received more than 160 tickets, which were included in the call center of the call center. Many of them have already been made, some of them have no solution, some affect other teams and have been transferred to them. In general, the number of calls in support throughout the year is kept at approximately the same level (175-180 thousand per month). For example, in the fall, the Maps section (card order, detailed information on them) was thoroughly redesigned in mobile applications, but the number of calls for card products issues was and remained at the same level.
Does this mean that the work is done in vain? No, and it is difficult to make an unequivocal conclusion, since it is the totality of the work of a large number of people and teams, it is difficult to identify an improvement in the context of a single feature.
Total
The best product is not the one that is built with the most efficient algorithms or the cleanest code. This is the product that users need, which they want to see. Support helps developers to take a fresh look at the product and their work, not to forget about the final result.
It helps to see the big picture as a whole: as the product grows, it becomes more mature, the developers focus on the functionality they create. There is not always time to think about a complete picture and about your place in the whole company. It is important to realize that the obvious to the programmer is not always so obvious to others.
And with a small offtopic - we will soon have a mitap for iOS developers.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/459230/
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