Overview
Digitizing word-of-mouth recommendations
How might we connect businesses to professional service providers in a developing market?
My notes and reflections will go here!
TUKA is a start-up founded at the Harvard Innovation Lab with the intention to help develop growing businesses in select African markets. In these markets, professional service providers (e.g., lawyers, tax advisors, marketing specialists) are primarily found through word-of-mouth where there is a higher perceived level of trust and transparency.
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This case study focuses on the first 12-weeks where TUKA is rebranded from the pilot product (which is largely manual) and the digital product is further designed and developed to stand up a true MVP.
TIME LINE
12 weeks (June - September 2023)
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ROLE(S)
Chief Product Officer
UI Designer, Product Strategist
TOOLS
Figma, Notion, Slack, Zoom​
ORGANIZATION
TUKA Technology, Inc.
This is ongoing work! I'm still helping with TUKA even though the initial push for MVP is largely done
The Problem
Finding the right professionals in Africa is hard. What do you do when your network runs dry and you can't find any recommendations?
The word-of-mouth network is, of course, limited to your network. Many African markets are actively developing, with more businesses than ever needing help. Finding reliable professional services is hard, costly, and time-consuming. Enter TUKA, an online marketplace that aims to connect these business with vetted, reliable, service providers as an alternative to relying on word-of-mouth.
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How might we develop a product that conveys trust and competence?
Product Overview
TUKA is an online marketplace for professionals service providers. The effect is two-fold - for the service providers, TUKA is a digital storefront to market their services, gain exposure, and showcase their previous work. For the clients, TUKA is a platform that fosters connections and allows them to review, rate, and pay their service providers.
TUKA'S MAIN PRODUCT FEATURES + VALUE-ADD
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One of the first professional services marketplaces in all of Africa
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Strict quality standards - independent review of all reviews submitted for all service providers
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Detailed service descriptions to enable clients to find the best providers for their unique issues (e.g., not just "law" but "employment law" or "M&A")
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Boutique matching services available upon request
I was asked to join TUKA after the initial pilot program was launched. The pilot product was a very simple user interface for clients and a simple back-end admin system and database for TUKA employees.
ABOUT THE PILOT
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Launched in April 2023 with 25 professional service providers on board
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Successfully connected 10 clients to service providers within 2 months of onboarding
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Connections were matched manually
It's quite challenging picking up a product while it's already in beta - in order to continue developing the product I had to design within the old branding while simultaneously developing new branding and preparing for a cutover
From a UI perspective, the pilot product had generic branding and lacked information about TUKA. It was also designed with base function, not an optimized user experience, in mind. In order to develop true MVP, the pilot product had be reskinned and designed in a way that it could stand alone with minimal manual processing. MVP had to convey info about TUKA, show robust storefront pages, and enable clients to be able to browse and find service providers independently.
Screens from the original pilot product
MVP DESIGN GOALS
1
Rebrand & Refine
Define new TUKA branding, re-skin old pages, and build out new pages
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Strengthen the Message
Inform all prospective clients and services providers of the TUKA value and process, creating an environment of trust and reliability
3
Simple & Intuitive
Design features that enable users to seamlessly browse TUKA and access product features
Leveraging Existing Research & Strategy
USING EXISTING RESEARCH TO INFLUENCE PRODUCT DESIGN ​
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But first - let's take a second to reflect on previous research and further solidifying user needs. By the time I joined TUKA, initial research had already been conducted to strategize the base product. My role with TUKA as not to conduct to more research or validate findings; rather, I had to use existing research and personal expertise of best practices to inform product design.
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Ultimately, there were three key user pain points that stood out and directly influenced the product strategy and design:
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PRODUCT IMPLICATION
PAIN POINT
It was extremely important to go through existing research because this was my only chance to get into the users' mindset
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Lack of Visibility and Trust
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Limited information about the firms, services, and pricing available
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Highly fragmented market
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Extremely price-sensitive market
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Need to be strategic about how much data is available to the user upfront vs. how much is kept behind a paywall
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UI must be easy to use with very little fluff/filler content that may discourage or lose users
2
Lack of Exposure for Professional Firms
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Heavy, over-reliance on referrals
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Business development is costly in a fragmented market
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Business pages must have equal but appropriate exposure to the right clients
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UI must be simple and quick to navigate where the user can easily filter for the services they need
3
Lack of Accountability
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Lack of consumer protection for clients of service providers
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Weak regulatory environment for cross-country transactions
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Both clients and service providers need to be held accountable for their services/reviews
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UI to view/leave reviews should be intuitive, comprehensive, and provide useful information
We knew that we needed to make a user-friendly product, but the came the matter of determining the features of the product.
Determining MVP features
STRATEGIZING MVP FEATURES​
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When we began planning the actual product features we had a few vague ideas that we knew we wanted to incorporate. However we wanted to make sure that we were directly addressing the pain points that preliminary research uncovered (above).
PRODUCT FEATURES
PAIN POINT
1
Clear, Informative Content
(Landing and Business Pages)
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A landing page with clear information on how TUKA works
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Business pages with relevant information
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The ability for users to ask for a quote before beginning to talk
Lack of Visibility and Trust
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Limited information about the firms, services, and pricing available
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Highly fragmented market
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Extremely price-sensitive market
It was extremely important to go through existing research because this was my only chance to get into the users' mindset
2
Service Provider Marketplace
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Ability for users to conduct a targeted, detailed search for service providers by specialty
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Service providers set up a "digital storefront" with up-to-date information
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Option for service providers to pay for premium placement on search results pages
Lack of Exposure for Professional Firms
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Heavy, over-reliance on referrals
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Business development is costly in a fragmented market
3
Verified Reviews
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TUKA will vet and verify reviews left by users
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Proof of business activity is required to leave a review
Lack of Accountability
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Lack of consumer protection for clients of service providers
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Weak regulatory environment for cross-country transactions
ADDITIONAL MVP FEATURES​
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We conducted a competitive analysis and researched similar platforms to identify additional features that we felt would be relevant to create the smoothest MVP user experience.
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4
Messaging Center
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Messaging and notifications center
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Secure portal for client and service provider admin and communication
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Ability to for the client to ask for a quote and schedule a meeting
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TUKA to make the introduction between client and service provider
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Intake Form Experiences (New vs. Returning User)
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Low barrier to entry for new users - no need to sign up to fill in a form or access basic information
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Automatically generated matches for instant results
6
Thought Leadership via Insights Articles
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Up-to-date articles for the benefit of both clients and service providers
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Fortifies TUKA's knowledge and lends credit to the matching service
Building MVP: Branding, Wireframes, & Handoff to Developers
RE-BRANDING​
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The first order of business was to start with basic branding - the pilot program was primarily in black and white and was built out of necessity. We started with some exercises to better define the brand voice. Ultimately we landed on: modern, trustworthy, and capable. We also defined the visual brand with a new logo, color palette, and typography so we could have consistent branding across the product that personified the brand voice.
Colors used for text/actions are AA compliant!
TUKA's new logo, color palette, and typography
MID AND HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES​
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For this project, time was of the essence so we did not feel a need to build an interactive prototype. Rather, we jumped straight into mid and high-fidelity wireframes, building a design system along the way to turn frequent, rapid iterations and screens.
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We paired the wireframes with a site map to ensure that we did not miss any possible interactions.
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TUKA's site map
We worked in a tight time frame so we had to decide what screens were worth designing in high-fidelity vs. which were not - it ended up depending on which pages we felt could make a bigger visual impact that could in turn influence user actions
TUKA design system / component library used for rapid wireframing
WIRE FRAMES FOR MVP FEATURES ​
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If you recall, above we noted the 6 features that we deemed as "must haves" for MVP. We narrowed down a list of dozens of potential features to these 6 critical features in order to create an effective yet elevated experience that conveyed trust and competence.
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Clear, Informative Content on the Landing Page and Business Pages
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Service Provider Marketplace
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Verified Reviews
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Messaging Center
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Intake Form Experience (for New vs. Returning Users)
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Thought Leadership (Insights Articles)
1. CLEAR, INFORMATIVE CONTENT ON THE LANDING PAGE AND BUSINESS PAGES​
Landing Page
Clear steps explaining the TUKA process
Additional information for more transparency
Trust-building narrative
The landing page actually took a lot of time because we wanted to make sure users understood how TUKA works while building trust and transparency
Business Page
Organized, key information
Clear action/buttons
2. SERVICE PROVIDER MARKETPLACE
Marketplace Page
Multiple filters for a precise search
Large cards so each service provider can stand out
Premium placement for an additional fee
3. VERIFIED REVIEWS
Write a Review Form
Required proof of transaction
Explanation of how the user's review will factor into the overall rating
4. MESSAGING CENTER
Message Center
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Messages organized by projects and then by thread for easy organization
Ability to schedule meetings or provide/accept quotes
Notification badge in navigation bar
5. INTAKE FORM EXPERIENCE (FOR NEW VS RETURNING USERS)
Intake Form and Generated Matches
Both New and Returning users fill out the same intake form
Three matches are automatically generated after the intake form is sumitted
However, for New Users critical info (company name) is blurred out
New Users are prompted to sign up for the platform before being able to contact their matches
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Once the user is signed into the platform they can name their project
Users can then choose how to contact their matches (or decline to contact)
6. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP (INSIGHT ARTICLES)
Insights Page
Articles are categorized and tagged for easy searching
User can share article to social media
Articles provide updated thought leadership to add value and establish credibility
Users are prompted to hire a service provider after they read the article about an updated standard, regulatory requirement, etc. that they may need assistance with
HAND-OFF TO DEVELOPERS & VISUAL QA​
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Although we tried to maintain a clean hand-off process, we experienced time constraints made it difficult to stick to traditional sprints. This made development an extremely iterative process with many things happening concurrently.
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We handed wireframes off to the developers directly in Figma as they were completed, and tried to keep an open line of communication throughout the development process through Figma comments, Slack, and Notion.
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We followed up development with multiple rounds of visual QA - logging visual bugs in a table in Notion for the developers to address in between pushing new builds.
Admin System + Back-end Considerations
CAPTURING FRONT-END FEATURES TO THE BACK-END ADMIN SYSTEM
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One final piece of the overall TUKA environment that I assisted with was the supporting Admin System. Every piece of data that I used or anticipated collecting in my front-end product designs had to be accounted for in the existing Admin System. This lead to a lot of back-and-forth, checking that features of the new front-end product would also be captured in the back-endAdmin System.
My responsibilities with the Admin System were NOT to redesign the interface, but to make sure it was functional and complete and able to support the front-end product. ​Below is an example of such.
Front-end: Intake Form for prospective customers
Back-end: repository for Intake Forms
NEXT STEPS - ANALYTICS & FURTHER MONETIZATION
Next, we will want to leverage the data captured in the Admin System to build out an analytics and data visualization dashboard. This quantifiable data could be used to:
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Inform us on how the successfully product is faring
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Help identify pain points/product weaknesses
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Be sold as an additional premium add-on to service providers listed on the platform to help them drum up additional business
MVP
Our MVP platform launched in mid-September! Check it out here, but please remember that we are still actively working on it to make it look and perform better.
Lessons Learned & Next Steps
LESSONS LEARNED​
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Working on TUKA was an experience unlike any other that I had had before. This was my first time joining a startup so early on in the product life. I was able to brand and design the entire MVP and assist with development and QA. It was challenging and a lot of hard work, but extremely rewarding as it utilized both my design skills and my strategic mindset.
1
The Startup
Environment
Limited time and even more limited resources, necessitating speed, craft, and resourcefulness
2
Concurrently Design and Development
Working in tandem with developers in extremely short feedback loops was sometimes a bit messy
3
Better Incorporating
Research
Everything we built was based on user research, but ideally we would have been able to do more
NEXT STEPS​
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There is still plenty to do, especially since what we have released right now is just the base MVP. Some of the items we will work on next include:
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Conducting additional user research to influence additional features
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Usability testing on the MVP
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Continuing to build out improved analytics in the back-end Admin System
THANK YOU!​
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If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out!