Aisera deploys intelligent virtual assistants that are integrated with employees communications channels (i.e. Slack, MS Teams, Copilot, Google Chat, etc.) to improve employee productivity. Think of a virtual assistant as your super coworker who can fix any IT issues or find answers to your questions!
This is a case study of a "Campaigns" feature, which enables managers to seamlessly broadcast targeted messages and surveys across multiple communication channels.
/background
Business problem.
When we first introduced AI virtual agents into workplace communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, our mission was clear: enhance employee productivity through seamless, intelligent assistance. Soon we learned that as with any innovation, success wasn’t just about building the technology—it was about ensuring employees actually used it.
Despite launching AI-powered virtual agents across multiple organizations, engagement levels remained lower than targeted ~ 37%. Employees, accustomed to traditional workflows, weren’t naturally turning to the AI assistants for help. We needed a way to shift behaviors, encouraging teams to see these virtual agents as a valuable part of their daily routines.
Low adoption limits Aisera's impact, as employees bypass Virtual Agents, submitting tickets directly to help desk and thus driving up client costs.
I led end-to-end product design, research, conveyed the envisioned user experience to engineering teams to validate its technical feasibility, collected feedback.
/result
We streamlined the solution for the MVP to ensure a lighter, on-time launch in the fast-paced, ever-evolving AI space.
By shifting from a passive support model to an active engagement model, we increased repeat usage and improved long-term user retention.
65%
Avg. User Adoption Rate(up by 28%)
Launched MVP
The North Star design principles.
✨ The Product Design strategy focused on balancing user needs with technical feasibility, prioritizing features that delivered the most value while aligning with business goals.
✨ By defining clear user flows and validating technical assumptions early, the strategy aimed to minimize risks and create a seamless, user-centered experience.
/process
Meeting Users Where They Are.
Our team met to discuss the potential reasons for why the engagement level was low for certain clients.
Potential reasons:
Lack of trust
Poor first experience
Generational hesitation
Unsure of how to engage
Unclear value proposition
And this is where we identified the opportunity. Looking at the nature of our product and the reality of integrations with other channels, we prioritized the bottom 3 areas.
HMW make virtual assistants proactive to encourage employee engagement?
To address this challenge, I designed a Campaigns feature that empowers department managers to:
Send targeted campaigns to specific user groups
Enable personalized, strategic communication across organizational channels
User groups.
We identified the user groups: Campaign creator, who is typically an IT or HR Manager who needs to distribute the information, often our champion.
Manager's pain points:
IT / HR alert awareness
Effective information sharing
Ensuring engagement and action taken when required
Minimizing operational costs
Another user group: End user, an employee who receives a campaign message.
Employee's pain point:
Stayed informed about important events
Stay focused and productive
Minimizing risks and strengthening confidence in our solution.
Given the complexity and potential robustness of this feature—so much so that entire products are dedicated to it—our team had a meeting where we discussed the prioritization of the features needed to be delivered for the MVP.
We narrowed the list down to a few key functionalities:
Platform compatibility
Creating personalized user groups
Easy-to-edit templates
Analytics & reporting
Simplicity was key.
Managers needed a fast and simple way to create and schedule campaigns. As I designed the experience, we uncovered a few UX uncertainties. How intuitive was the flow? To answer this question, I conducted usability testing and sought feedback from subject matter experts.
1. HMW help our users create a campaign faster?
Two critical insights drove the need for campaign templates:
Option A:Global Campaign Library. I envisioned a centralized repository across all tenants. A manager could browse the global library, import the most relevant templates into their local environment, and then use them to create new campaigns. This approach provided structure and control but added an extra step before campaign creation.
Low-fidelity sketch
Option B: Templates Integrated Directly into the Campaign Creation Flow. Instead of requiring managers to import templates separately, a campaign builder would simply click “New Campaign,” and in the next step, they’d be presented with a searchable list of templates to choose from.
Low-fidelity sketch
To determine which approach worked best, I ran usability tests. The results were clear: Option B significantly outperformed Option A. Users completed the task faster and felt more confident in the process.
2. HMW simplify the process of selecting user groups?
From user interviews, I learned that managers needed flexibility—they wanted to upload CSV files but also required ways to narrow down recipient lists efficiently 🤔 With these insights, I explored two design directions:
Option A: Leveraging the existing filter component. This approach built on our current UI patterns, adding two key functionalities: 1. CSV file upload to accommodate user needs. 2. Filtering options to help managers refine recipient lists within the platform.
High-fidelity design
Option B: Operators. I split the selection process into distinct steps: 1. CSV file upload on a dedicated page. 2.Operators—a widely recognized pattern across platforms that aligns with users' existing mental models.
High-fidelity design
Users found operators more intuitive to use. The results were promising. But when I presented this direction to our engineering team, I got strong pushback. Our user service infrastructure lacked the robustness needed to implement this design effectively.
The final MVP design for selecting user groups is a balance between minimum requirement from our user group and technical constraints.
/insights
The Insights page design incorporates metrics based on the findings from research and working sessions.
High-fidelity design
To mitigate end-user pain points, I added "Remind Later" button to provide flexible user interaction and implemented notification settings to reduce potential distractions.
High-fidelity design
/result
By shifting from a passive support model to an active engagement model, we increased repeat usage and improved long-term user retention.
65%
Avg. User Adoption Rate(up by 28%)
Please contact me for the click-through prototype and more details of this project!
volhadouban@gmail.com
/lessons learned
Embracing the MVP Mindset: Deliver, Learn, Iterate.
For this project, maintaining design integrity while ensuring timely MVP delivery was crucial. There were many extra features I could have added, but using usability testing and a prioritization matrix helped me focus on what mattered most. This allowed me to create a simple, efficient version that was easy to launch and improve.
This is a Team Sport.
By working closely with customer success team members, I quickly connected with our champions to gather valuable insights, which was crucial as time was of the essence.
