AuditBoard: Designed and matured Risk Oversight’s core features
Background
The Risk Oversight module aims to streamline and elevate risk management programs by offering integrated, visual, and intuitive features. Upon joining the team, I discovered that the module was still in its early stages within the product suite, presenting opportunities for refinement and growth. With the module in its MVP state, there was a clear need to enhance existing features and introduce new functionalities to meet evolving user needs. Our overarching challenge was to not only improve the risk management experience but also to differentiate ourselves in the market by providing users with a centralized platform for managing risks efficiently. Additionally, the sales team expressed a desire for increased confidence in showcasing Risk Oversight to potential clients. Despite initial demand for a centralized risk management system, effectively communicating the value proposition of the module remained a challenge. Addressing these complexities required strategic thinking and innovation to position Risk Oversight as a leading solution in the competitive landscape.
Overview
We explored how AuditBoard's Risk Oversight module underwent significant enhancements through the redesign and maturation of its core features. As a critical component of AuditBoard's comprehensive audit management platform, Risk Oversight played a pivotal role in helping organizations identify, assess, and mitigate risks effectively. Through a strategic design and development process, we delved into how key features were refined and optimized to provide users with a more intuitive, efficient, and impactful risk management experience.
My Role
As the sole designer, I led the product design workflow for AuditBoard's Risk Oversight module, collaborating closely with subject matter experts, product managers, and engineers. My responsibilities included auditing the existing MVP, gathering customer feedback, and creating a feature roadmap. I negotiated with tech and product leads to ensure impactful and feasible designs, while tracking data for optimizations. Throughout, I championed design thinking principles to drive innovation and user-centricity
Conducted several new interviews to update our personas to better dictate how we would optimize and create new features.
A detailed user flow of our MVP to audit and find areas of improvement.
Revisited and updated our user journeys to better understand our users
Approach
Our team was tasked with driving success for this new product, and we pursued this goal through a systematic approach. Firstly, we revisited and optimized the MVP based on feedback, quantitative data, and industry best practices. This involved a comprehensive review of personas, a reassessment of the user journey, and an audit of the MVP. Insights gleaned from data tools informed our decisions, allowing us to prioritize design solutions that offered quick but high-impact improvements.
Additionally, we focused on creating new features and maturing the product based on insights from customer interviews, research, and data analysis. Collaborating closely with my product manager and engineer, we followed a structured process for each new feature. This involved problem framing, identifying constraints, understanding the context, iterative whiteboarding and design, thorough design reviews and validation, production, and subsequent iterations as needed. Finally, we took time to reflect on each phase, identifying areas for improvement to inform our approach in future endeavors.
Outcome
As a team, our primary focus was on effectively selling the Risk Oversight (RO) product. We conducted demos showcasing an updated MVP and new features to prospective clients, leveraging the support of our exceptional sales team. Throughout 2020, our efforts yielded exponential success for the new product module. One key metric we used to measure success was the number of sales references obtained. These references indicated customers willing to endorse our product to prospective clients through direct communication. Initially aiming for three sales references by the end of Q3, we exceeded expectations by securing four references. Additionally, our efforts resulted in significant client acquisition, with 78 new clients and a total of 117 signed clients. Furthermore, we successfully managed over 39,000 risks, demonstrating a substantial increase of over 4,000 risks compared to previous metrics.
Quick design iterations and updates
Pendo data to track how our users were interacting with our product
Released Features
Risk Proposal: This feature enables risk assessment assignees to propose or suggest new risks during an assessment. Risk assessment admins have the ability to review these suggestions and add them to the risk register if appropriate
Risk Hierarchy: This feature introduces a new page and set of fields that can be configured to visually represent the relationship between risks in a hierarchy.
Risk Action Plans: These plans are documented, tracked, and managed activities outlining a company's response to risk. Similar to issues and tasks, they are assigned to an individual owner for tactical execution. The status and tracking of an action plan can significantly impact overall risk levels, serving as an indicator of the company's effectiveness in addressing or mitigating risks.
Risk Response and Details: Risk Oversight aims to provide clients with an integrated experience, allowing them to leverage all AuditBoard features cohesively to gain a comprehensive view of risk and manage it effectively from a single page. This page serves as the central hub where all risk mitigation and related activities can be visualized simultaneously.
Key Risk Indicators: These are business metrics associated with risks, intended to offer insight into the performance of various systems. By measuring performance, they facilitate quantifying risk health and monitoring performance trends over time in a manner that is faster and more cost-effective than traditional assessments.