The power of Google x Deloitte Digital - a new portal for the Google Partner Advantage Program. Empowering partners with the tools, technology, and support they need to move businesses forward with Google.
Design Lead | Deloitte Digital USA | 2018/2019
Google Partners are certified individuals or businesses who sell, build and support Google Cloud products. Deloitte Digital was engaged to design and build the Google Partners Portal using Agile, launching an MVP which is now live.
THE GOALHigher affinity results in higher use - driving revenue.
The goal was to increase engagement and adoption, making the platform as simple to use as possible. The more partners engage, the more opportunity they have to “level up” within the Google Partner Advantage Program - growing revenue for themselves, and Google.
THE CHALLENGENavigating the waters between business interests and technology constraints, without compromising the user experience.
We worked with numerous technical constraints under the current Salesforce platform.
Although keeping this platform made sense for the business from a continuity perspective, Salesforce isn’t as flexible as other platform providers when it comes to design.
Please note: Not all features shown may have been released to the public at the time of reading.
At scale
16 months of
design and dev
3000+ training
registrations
21 applications
retired
25 integrations
on MVP
3M+ accounts
verified
71K + partners
users
My role
As Design Lead, my scope included:
Understanding Google’s priorities, and balancing these with user needs
Setting expectations for the delivery team - as well as empowering and motivating each team member
Planning (and conducting some of the) user research, including subsequent reporting
Supporting the designers through wireframing and prototyping activities
Workshop facilitation.
Co-workers: Nancy Nazarian (Content Strategy), Kris Jun (Design System), David Ford III (UX Design), Sharon Ramanian (Research), Pam Schau (Customer Experience), and others.
The work
User
profiles.
We mapped all the user profiles of those using the portal, and their needs. We called these profiles rather than personas, as these were scenario-based.
Journeys.
We started by understanding the user, then gaining stakeholder alignment on the optimal customer journeys. This enables critical decision-making when competing priorities arise. And they will arise.
User
testing.
As mentioned, there were numerous technical constraints on the current platform. Ongoing user testing allowed us to continuously optimise the portal by uncovering high-impact flows and features to prioritise for launch.
Navigation
studies.
Information architecture (IA)
This engagement required specialist attention to the information architecture and navigation, due to the sheer amount of existing content merged onto a single platform.
Open card sort (qualitative - in person)
We conducted a series of in-person, open card sorting activities. This allowed us to gain a deeper understanding as to how users expected content to be organised on the platform.
Closed card sort (quantitative - online)
We also did online, closed card sorting activities to glean statistically significant results. These results, corroborated with our qualitative insights, enabled us to recommend a more informed and elegant IA solution.
Treejack testing
We proposed a couple of different IA structures with some label changes to the current state. Our recommendation was to test the IA using a Treejack test before publishing.
Creative
concepts.
Then, the UI designers created creative concepts to bring the research insights to life. The version in production currently doesn’t have all the features seen below, as they will be delivered incrementally.
The impact
This project gave voice to the needs of various users, partners, and Googlers to create a portal which solved current pain points, while delivering an experience on par with the brand’s high standards:
Less interactions and reduction of contract turnaround time
An intuitive way to locate Google resources
Increased productivity
A streamlined experience where Partners can manage their business with Google
The consistent, clean and “googley” look and feel users trust.