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Save and Remind in Microsoft Teams
UX Design • Interaction Design • UI Design • Prototyping
Introduction
Helping Teams users get back to important conversations
Microsoft Teams helps more than 350 monthly active users collaborate at work.
However, currently, a lot of users find it difficult to get back to important conversations in Teams that they defer while they are busy. How might we help them get back to these conversations so that they can stay on top of everything?
In the concept value test, Teams customers voted the Save & Reminders feature as a top priority.
Role
Lead Product Designer handling end-to-end design for this experience
Duration
6 months
Discover
As part of the effort to launch the new Teams version 3, the need of getting back to important conversation also had to be addressed for our Teams users since there was no solution currently solving it. In order to understand the need of getting back, I had to understand 'Why do users defer important conversations'? I partnered with a Design Research team and conducted a open-ended research inquiry with 12 Information Workers across US, UK and India.
Users defer conversations because
Users of Teams are Information Workers. These Information Workers use productivity and collaboration tools like Teams to stay-on-top of things happening in the organization. Following are the two main reasons when they defer a conversation to get back to it -
"I don't have time at the moment but I have to get back to this by 6 PM today"
ex. Follow-up, to-do, etc.
"This maybe important but I will get back to this when I need to"
ex. Read later, Save it, etc.
Journey of deferring and getting back to a message
Problems
There is no way to capture a conversation to get back to inside Teams.
With the existing inconsistent methods, it is easy to forget getting back to deferred conversation.
There is no single place to view all deferred conversations together.
Scope
Since MAU of Chat section is highest in Teams, the scope was focused to Chat. This strategy gives us the opportunity for creating maximum impact without investing in other areas altogether at once.
Define
Jobs to be done
Capture
As a user, I want to defer a message, so that I can get back to it when I am free.
Recall
As a user, I want to remember to get back to the deferred message, so that I can act on it in time.
Retrieve
As a user, I want to access all deferred messages at once, so that I can keep track of everything I deferred.
Design
Exploring Ideas
Based on our problems and the JTBDs, I started exploring the following ideas to address them
Flags and Reminders
✅ Extending concept from Outlook
❌ Two features to capture message in two ways
❌ Different access mechanism for Flags and Reminders
❌ Flag indicates 'Report an issue' and has a cultural negative connotation
Mark for later
✅ One feature to capture in two ways
✅ One access mechanism and destination
❌ New concept requires learning
Tags
✅ One feature to capture in multiple ways
❌ Different access mechanisms for different Tags
❌ New concept requires learning
❌ Tags feature already exists in Teams
Save & Reminders
❌ Two features to capture message in two ways
✅ One access mechanism and destination
✅ Familiar concepts don't require learning
❌ Already used differently in M365 ecosystem
Hypothesis:
Users want one simple feature addressing all jobs together rather than multiple feature addressing each job individually since multiple features confuse users and bloat the product.
To test out the hypothesis I created a prototype for Mark for later, I collaborated with User Research team to conduct a concept testing session(open ended enquiry) with 12 participants. This research session gave us the following insights:
Capture needs to be simple and familiar.
A way to remind users about the deferred message is important.
A single home for all deferred item is must-have in Teams
It is important to mark the follow-up as complete.
Defer on mobile is more likely. Follow-up on desktop happens conventionally.
Our hypothesis was disproven and based on our learnings from the concept testing,I proposed Save and Reminder as the most appropriate solution that aligned with all the jobs.
Final Solution
Making Capture Simpler and Familiar
Save
will help a user capture a message they want to get back to when needed.
Reminder
will help a user capture a message to get back to on a particular time.
Recall to Get Back to Deferred Messages, Instantly
Reminder notification
As the reminder triggers, the user receives a notification toast and the Saved folder will become unread. Clicking on the toast takes him directly to the message.
Retrieve Everything at a Single Destination
All deferred messages together
Access all deferred message that are either Saved or set a reminder on from a single place - Saved folder.
Triage all Saved messages
Act on messages, Mark them as done or remove them from the Saved list to feel all caught up.
Impact and learnings
Impact
Design has been shipped to the internal users and based on the positive response this will be added in Teams version 3
Amongst the internal users, 80% daily active users are utilizing Save and Reminder feature.
Learning
Established and maintained robust communication channels across diverse teams to effectively advocate for my designs.
Gained a deeper understanding of the challenges in product implementation by working closely with cross-functional (Product and Engineering) stakeholders, and learned how to navigate and resolve these issues.
Thanks for reading!
