"We believe that Otomatis must be rich with integrated-apps and modularized trigger/actions, so it can become more relevant to users. Also, it needs to be highly usable by offering flexibility and simplicity at the same time."
1. Emphatize
To better understand the ideas, benchmarking was done to define our target users, and comprehend them better. So, I started by conducting a research with the following goals:
First, to gather all inspirations/insights, I analyzed similar apps outside of Indonesia (the idea is relatively new in Indonesia). This helped me to understand how the existing apps are built, and how they differ with each other.
This research plays an important role to determine the approach that will be most relatable to our segments. I found that the difference could easily be seen by how the product communicates through features, copywriting, and the level of difficulty in building integrations that are suitable for their target users.
Now that I had a better understanding of how similar apps communicate to each of their target users, I wanted to discover our potential target users to determine their needs, so the design could be built according to the target users.
By creating a provisional persona, I could emphatize better, then start discovering sample use cases and how the product can communicate faster.
Next, I want to learn more about our target users' real day-to-day operations. What could be improved, what tasks were actually repetitive and should be automated, how they're dealing with a redundant business process, etc.
In this process, the higher management would usually had already started an initial pitch with potential clients, then I would do further explorations to discover whether their needs could be productized with Otomatis.
I also initiated some interviews by asking open-ended questions to learn how our target users operate and run their business daily. One of them actually already used a similar app outside of Indonesia. It helped me to better explore how they utilize the app, and what is considered valuable so that they are willing to pay monthly to use it.
Above is an image of an integration sample, created by our interview participant in Integromat. He used a lot of modules and integrations, but none of them provide any relatable Indonesian apps.
2. Define & Ideate
Now that I understood which target users Otomatis is most suitable for, also that I understood what are their goals, needs, and frustrations, I tried to define and ideate how the product will help them. From what I already acknowledged, I started to create several action items to create our first product prototype/demo.
To build the integrations that are needed by our client, I need to check if the integrations can be built by Otomatis. I had to do a feasibility analysis and see which integrations are possible.
I searched lots of official API documentations that are available to be accessed on the internet. Here is the example of Tokopedia's documentation guide: https://developer.tokopedia.com/openapi/guide/#/
From that documentation, I tried to understand what was feasible to be modularized and started to list down all use cases for Marketplace Seller.
I started the brainstorming process with pouring out all ideas while looking at the API documentation. I poured out all ideas as fast as possible while looking at specific use cases that are requested by our prospects.
After all ideas were poured out, I started to do a grouping to categorize the use cases/integrations. The categorization shows that every Marketplace Seller has main functions from operation, marketing, and accounting.
I was able to identify common patterns/functions that are going to help Marketplace Seller to do their job more effectively.
Of all that are listed in each of the 3 categories, I selected one of them. The decision was based on:
1. Feasibility Analysis
2. Suitability to our Prospects / Target Users
3. The difficulty level of the Scenario Set Up
An Automation that helps Marketplace Seller to market their product more effectively.
Example:
Auto add new customers from transactions to Mailchimp lists
An Automation that helps Marketplace Seller to manage their product more effectively
Example:
Auto update stocks in ERP App whenever there's a transaction
An Automation that helps Marketplace Seller to record financial transactions pertaining to their business
Example:
Auto create Sales Order in their ERP System when there's a new paid order.
To be able to build those 3 integrations that I had selected, I needed to start creating an overall user journey. I wanted the users to be able to create their own scenarios, and even more can build their own automation outside of the use cases that I proposed.
The goal of this product is to enable users to create integrations that are flexible, in the most simple way.
Next, I started to visualize the idea using lo-fi wireframe sketches. Hence, I could picture how it would look on interactive UI.
I started to plan the information architecture/hierarchy based on the user flow that had been created before. Then, I built a step-by-step sketches that user needs to do to achieve their goal.
3. Prototype & Test
Finally, I started to create the UI Design, so we could create the real integration or let our users try the prototype. After the UI Design is made, we can validate and test our idea.
I created the UI designs using Figma, which was used as a guideline for engineers to start creating the MVP, so then we can actually start to build an integration.
After the UI design and MVP development was built, I created several demo videos to show to our prospects.
Here is one of them which shows that Otomatis can integrate Tokopedia chat and Shopee chat to Zendesk Support. (I recommend you to watch in 1,5x speed with closed caption for better experience)
This video was re-shared by Zendesk Indonesia's Country Manager in his LinkedIn, as Otomatis has leveraged Zendesk Functions to be put in an integration with Tokopedia chat/Shopee chat.
Hopefully, this would encourage more prospects to get to know more of the idea and willing to try Otomatis.
Our other demo videos also obtained some nice reception from several SaaS businesses in Indonesia. We're currently exploring lots of applications, integrations, and use cases, so it would be more relatable to be utilized in Indonesia.
One of the most exciting things about building Otomatis is being able to experiment and take risks. The speed of the design delivery is important to quickly validate the idea.
I faced new challenges during this project that I haven’t faced before - creating a product to help integrate data between applications is quite complex. I have to understand the utilization of APIs and their functionality, also how to create a seamless experience that cuts most of the technical part when creating an integration/automation.
The next steps I would take this project through from here are:
1. Do lots of usability tests to our early adopters to gain more insights for the product
2. Continue with another feature like discovery of scenario template, to help user start the integration.
3. Continue to discover use cases/scenarios that will help Indonesian businesses to automate their repetitive tasks.