Citrix DaaS
Summary
I was tasked to lead the design of Desktops as a Service, a new product for Citrix to deliver apps and desktops from the cloud to simplify the complicated configuration and management of traditional on-premises software.
I had two months to design the MVP which was launched a month after. My design sprint evolved into a cross-functional collaborative team that iterated and matured the product which has since generated millions in sales and a healthy 32% year over year growth.
I had two months to design the MVP which was launched a month after. My design sprint evolved into a cross-functional collaborative team that iterated and matured the product which has since generated millions in sales and a healthy 32% year over year growth.
Role
Product design lead
Team
2 UX designers
1 Researcher
1 Documentation
3 Project Mnanagers
12+ engineers
1 Researcher
1 Documentation
3 Project Mnanagers
12+ engineers
Year
2018 - Present
Generating insights
Remote collaboration
Ideating
Whiteboarding with team
Incorporating user feedback
HMW design a simple and easy to use product?
The goal of Desktops as a Service was to tackle a new customer base – small businesses without dedicated Citrix or IT staff needing to provide apps and desktops to their employees.
I started the project by organizing a Design Sprint in which I invited a cross-functional team from sales, support, IT, PM and Engineering to collectively learn about the existing pain points and together come up with possible solutions.
Together with the principal PM I established two guiding principles to keep us true to the vision as we iterated over the years: Simple and Easy to use.
Simple experience
Traditional Citrix UIs were crowded, visually dated and full of esoteric UI elements difficult to understand.
Easy to discover
A key customer pain point has always been how difficult it is to find where to do what.
Simple to configure
Everything is easy when you know it. But when you don't, clear steps and instructions are worth gold.
Easy to use
A consistent, intuitive and performant UI facilitates daily use over extended periods of time.
Designing for perceived simplicity
I designed an eCommerce-like landing page to break away from the typical IT admin software experience and to nudge users to experience creating desktops under an hour, which at the time left customers speechless.
Facilitating collaboration
I organized a 3-day compressed design sprint including PM, engineering architects, and leads of the three different engineering teams as well as our researcher.
I believe in the power of adapting to individual characters and circumstances without losing the principle of the methodology in order to get the most collaboration out of the group. Examples of this are stopping whenever serious discrepancies arise and facilitating a healthy discussion that results in an agreement. To moderate this I typically ask lots of questions and visually document the discussion to eliminate misunderstandings and speed up the agreement.
I believe in the power of adapting to individual characters and circumstances without losing the principle of the methodology in order to get the most collaboration out of the group. Examples of this are stopping whenever serious discrepancies arise and facilitating a healthy discussion that results in an agreement. To moderate this I typically ask lots of questions and visually document the discussion to eliminate misunderstandings and speed up the agreement.
Designing for ease of use
Previously, configuration workflows happened in different parts of the platform adding to an already tall learning curve. And the platform's poor navigation added significant challenges to completing simple tasks.
To solve this, I designed a modal-within-modal system (nicknamed the blade) allowing us to present external workflows within the main UI, eliminating the need to navigate within the platform. I extended this behavior to present the details of any object in the main view or inventory menu.
To solve this, I designed a modal-within-modal system (nicknamed the blade) allowing us to present external workflows within the main UI, eliminating the need to navigate within the platform. I extended this behavior to present the details of any object in the main view or inventory menu.
Inspired by a talk on container technology and SimCity’s iPad UI, I developed the blade modal to load details and workflows into the main view to avoid user's from having to switch context when performing tasks.
Since the bulk of IT work is fixing things that are broken, I represented all objects as cards that auto-sort themselves in order of critical importance.
Designing clear and constant guidance
Insights from our initial user research indicated that even the most advanced Citrix admins were not aware of most key elements required to run desktops in the cloud. This suggested that onboarding and guidance was needed at every step. It was also apparent that it was critical to be super clear as to who needs to do what, when and where. Working with our content partners (information experience) is a part of the project I really enjoy and a critical one if the right balance between actionable information and experience is needed. And it almost always is.
Guidance and setting the right expectations before and after workflows, was key for customers to understand and learn the system.
Down to the details of making things clear – even when they are disabled.
Results
Over the years the outcome of this effort has been extremely significant for Citrix. DaaS was the first enterprise grade desktop as service solution to market.
Design patterns like the blade (contextual workflows) became wildly adopted among the rest of the design teams. Our (four in a box collaboration process which I modeled after my experience working with different teams also became widely adopted.
32% year over year growth
Key contributions to global design system
MVP launched on-time
Last NPS score: 43
