Campaign Budget Planning
Budget planning optimizes your marketing budgets to maximize ROI, streamlining campaign expenditure planning and forecasting across various categories on a single unified platform.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Contribution
User interview, stakeholder interview, user journey mapping, MVP, roadmap, and high-fidelity design
Duration
Jan 2021 - One month then paused, Apr - Jun 2021
Collaboration
Product Manager, Director of User Research, Engineers, Design Manager, Product Designer, and Success Director
Overview Problem
Previously, campaign and budget planning were managed through disjointed systems, requiring manual alignment and reconciliation of financials. Fragmented workflows and disconnected processes not only degraded employee experiences but also lowered the standard of work.
Consequently, this setup resulted in unreliable and inconsistent Excel-based financial reporting that was largely manual.
Design Process
My process through this ambiguous project was similar to a Double-diamond Structure. I gathered as much research as possible to have a better understanding of the users and industry (Divergent) of budget planning and then synthesized and framed those data into action (convergent). I came up with various design ideas (Divergent), then took those ideas, thought about the users, reflected on how users will use this, and improved those designs (Convergent).
Credit: Dan Nessler’s Double-diamond Structure
Research
Users Interview
Discovery phase aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the users, industry, and stakeholders.
-
Siemens UK Team
Walking us through how the Siemens team currently plans and budgets for campaigns
-
Philips UK Team
Walking us through how the Philips team currently plans and budgets for campaigns
Users Shared Supporting Documents
To gain insight into their workflow, we requested users' willingness to share supporting documents illustrating their day-to-day tasks. Below is a sample Excel file demonstrating their budget planning process.
“We’re not building the next financial product.”
— Simon Adler, Sprinklr Area VP Solution Consulting EMEA
Analyze Research and Synthesize Information
Distilled Interviews
We review research findings and distill language, terminology, and workflows to enhance understanding of both the financial industry and user needs.
Personas
Collaborating closely with the Research Team enables us to develop personas, aiding in a deeper understanding of their respective roles, particularly within the context of budget planning.
“Identify the top 3-5 high-level use cases that could deliver 80% of the product's value and address the most critical problems customers face in its absence.”
— Duc Bao (or someone off the internet)
Affinity Diagram
Below is an image from the Affinity Diagram workshop, attended by the Product Manager, Design Manager, and Designers, where we categorized features, functions, and ideas into themes. Creating a space for all ideas to be recognized ensured full participation and engagement.
User Journey
In collaboration with my Product Manager, we mapped out high-level user journeys to ensure effective design and communication between designers and the Product Manager.
Design
UI Reference
I browsed Dribbble to seek inspiration and spark ideas.
Ideations
These images depict my early ideation process.
High-Fidelity Design
These are a few of the high-fidelity designs after numerous final iterations.
All Budgets
Allocate Budget
Campaign Budget
Campaign Overview with Budget Attached
Campaign Third Pane with Budget Attached
Budget Performance Report Dashboard
Prototype
Several prototype videos highlight how each persona navigates through their tasks.
Persona
Business Unit Owner
Role in Budget Planning
As a Business Unit, I need to secure budget allocation for all Business Unit-related activities, which involves tasks such as adding, allocating, and distributing budget sources.
Persona
Marketing Manager
Role in Budget Planning
As a Marketing Manager, I need to allocate and distribute the budget to the Campaigns and Sub-Campaigns.
Persona
Data Analyst
Role in Budget Planning
As a Data Analyst, I need to deliver daily, weekly, and monthly budget performance reports to stakeholders at both the Business Unit and Marketing levels. This includes providing detailed reporting on budget categories such as SEO and Content Creation.
Outcome
We revisited our design and presented it again to the stakeholders and involved users. Subsequently, we handed off the design to development, but we are uncertain whether it's currently live.