Salesforce
"Idea Dash" for Exec Alignment
Topics
Design Innovation
My Role
Creative Director, Researcher, Contributor, Exec Presenter
By pioneering Idea Dashes, we unlocked innovation for Sales Cloud, leading to the development of Pipeline Inspector and establishing a repeatable framework that accelerates future product evolution.
Background
“Idea Dash = A contained 3 week design sprint where a team of 2 designers take an executive idea to research, sketch and present concepts to facilitate high fidelity conversations.”
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We introduced the "Idea Dash" process to help executive leadership break the cycle of repeatedly discussing the same strategies without making progress. By leveraging guerrilla research and rough sketching, we aimed to drive discussions forward more effectively while simultaneously demonstrating the power of design to facilitate decision-making.
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Combining myself and a senior designer (typically selecting a team member who would benefit from exposure to leadership and rapid prototyping) we would spend three weeks refining the proposed idea and crafting a narrative for executive review. The discussion around the provided concepts would result in a choice:
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Approving the idea for product development.
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Requesting further exploration in another 3-week sprint.
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Discontinuing the idea if not viable.
Objective
We explored: “How might Sales Cloud support weekly 1:1 meetings between Sales Managers and Reps?” These meetings are a common ritual for sales organizations that were not being supported in the Sales Cloud product.
Key Learning
About Idea Dashes
From our first Idea Dash we learned that despite the warning that the rapid sketch process was not meant to replace the full design process, we needed to reinforce the message vigorously throughout the sprint so if the idea was moved to a product team, they were not shorted necessary exploration and design time.
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About Manager 1:1 Meetings.
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Signal Changes: In fast paced book of business with dozens of open deals, all users need to see changes and quickly understand their impact.
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Match the Speed and Flow of Discussion: In-place editing and quick data views were essential.
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Natural Language: Sales reps and managers were often not power users nor technical. They favored clear, accessible terminology and conversational calls to action.
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Visual Signals: Abstract visuals provided an intuitive overview, with drill-down options for details.
Outcomes
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Two Idea Dashes were conducted:
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Concept Exploration: Generated design ideas for discussion.
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Feedback Collection: Interviews provided insights for refinement.
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The executive team approved the idea, leading to full-scale development. The result was Pipeline Inspector, now part of Sales Cloud and influencing data visualization across the platform.
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Idea Dash as a process was embraced by leadership leading to repeated engagements streamlining the development of future products.
Foundation
Before starting any design, we validated through quick research the basic structure of a 1:1 Manager check-in.
Manager 1:1 Structure
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Did you do what we agreed on last week?
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Are the deals you have committed to close still looking solid?
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Are you tending your garden?
(Generating pipeline, working deals, etc.) -
​What’s our plan until next time?
Starting with these 4 basic topics to cover within a meeting session, we quickly set to sketch different concepts.
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To ensure our concepts covered enough differentiated ground, we discussed different attributes for the concepts to consider and own separately.
Different Concepts
Resulting in two concepts for discussion and exploration.
Concept 1: Higher Signal to Noise
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Data dense with more signal
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Visual weight leading the eye
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Data-forward
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Freeform browsing
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It’s all about the numbers
Concept 2: Simple & Directed
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Minimal UI
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Natural language
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Conversational
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Guided, agenda driven
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Focused on human/coaching
Launched Product: Pipeline Inspector
The Idea Dash facilitated concise, directed conversations around what did and did not align to the overall product strategy for Salescloud. Different disciplines could weigh in with their perspective given there were tanglible designs to references.
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As a result, it was decided to move forward with Concept 1 (with some of concept 2's summary design elements). A product team took over the detailed design and development, resulting with the launch of Pipeline Inspector, a design model that was extended to other record types within the Salesforce ecosystem.
