SurveyMonkey (Usabilla), 2021
Status: released
Duration: ~ 2 years
Role: Project Design Lead
Survey builder
Goal
The Usabilla Customer Experience (CX) solution consisted of six different products, each supporting a specific use case and featuring its own survey builder. The goal of this project was to create a new survey builder that could support any feedback collection use case, replacing six existing builders. This project was part of a larger effort to create the new Usabilla platform.
Outcome
We built a modern, easy-to-use survey builder in combination with a new mechanism for surfacing survey questions: channels.
Improved user efficiency by 42% for surveys with two channels and by 28% for single-channel surveys, as measured by time to task completion
Nominated for most innovative CX solution at the US Customer Experience Awards 2022
Drove strong adoption of the survey builder — launched with our first channel (API) — among top-tier clients including Mercedes-Benz, Rabobank, and Deutsche Telekom, validating the solution’s value in high-demand enterprise environments
The new Usabilla survey builder.
User problem
Usabilla started as a solution for collecting customer feedback through feedback buttons. Customers could place a feedback button on their website to better understand how visitors felt about their site, product, or service. When clicked, a survey would appear. Over the years, five additional products were added to support specific feedback collection use cases, such as collecting in-page feedback on websites, or collecting feedback via app campaigns. Each of six products contained its own survey builder, analytics space, and tools for acting on feedback. Each operated in complete isolation, with no integration or shared functionality between them.
This platform setup made it difficult for customers to efficiently collect feedback across multiple touchpoints. If they wanted to measure NPS across their site, app and email, for example, they had to create a separate survey for each touchpoint, using three survey builders. In addition, the user experience of each survey builder varied slightly, requiring customers to learn different patterns.
Business problem
Usabilla struggled to deliver new features quickly, as features had to be built across six survey builders. This impacted customer satisfaction and product momentum.
Solution
We created a modern, easy-to-use survey builder. The design was driven by a focus on simplicity and user efficiency. A simple page layout was designed with two fixed panels alongside the center canvas, allowing users to easily add questions and set preferences. Only task-relevant content was shown to enhance user focus. Efficiency was further enhanced through interactive question cards and flexible methods for adding questions, among other improvements.
Together with the survey builder, we introduced the concept of channels — a new mechanism to surface survey questions. Each channel consisted of attributes such as platform, audience, and styling options, allowing customers to fully configure where, to whom, when, and how their questions were shown. Customers could add as many channels as needed. This allowed them to surface a single set of questions across multiple customer touchpoints.
The first channel we launched with the new survey builder was an API channel, designed to collect feedback in closed environments such as ATMs or in-flight entertainment systems. Unlike other channels, its configuration was handled entirely on the customer’s side, outside of the Usabilla platform. This was especially valuable for customers with strict security or brand requirements.
Survey setup flow.
Recording of some of the interactions of the new survey builder during implementation.
Channels page.
Selecting your platform — channel setup flow.
Selecting your audience — channel setup flow.
Challenges
The biggest challenge of this project was getting to a first customer release. While this was a big project, we should have launched sooner. We spent too much time modeling and building the perfect, future-proof solution, which added unnecessary complexity. We learned that change is inevitable and unpredictable: over the course of the project, we were acquired by SurveyMonkey, leading to two reorganizations and two rebranding efforts. Releasing sooner would have made it easier to adapt to these changes, as we would have had something out there to discuss and improve. Additionally, we lacked clear delivery milestones. Having these would have helped us focus on smaller goals and shipments, creating momentum throughout the project.