ow automation and simplification of the sales process eliminated customer and team frustrations, increasing sales by 12% and reducing onboarding time by 25%.
Company:
Ben Visa Vale, startup of Santander Group
Type of project:
Service design
Outcomes / Outputs:
+12% increasing sales
-25% reducing onboarding time
Date:
Oct 2019 – April 2020 (6 months)
Role: Head de UX/CX
As Head of UX, I led the project from the discovery phase to implementation. Overseeing a design team and collaborating with product, engineering, and sales teams, I ensured strategic alignment and prioritized scalable, impactful solutions. My responsibilities included facilitating workshops, prototyping, and validating the solutions.
Context and Problem
Ben, a startup within the Santander Group, faced challenges in scaling its operations due to a manual, slow, and non-integrated sales process involving multiple stakeholders and disconnected systems. These challenges jeopardized the company’s goals to reach 445 HR clients and generate R$88 million in annual revenue.
Customer and User Pains:
Lack of clarity in the contracting process, leading to frustration and drop-offs before implementation.
Delays in contract formalization and onboarding caused significant operational bottlenecks.
Dependence on manual email exchanges for simulations and approvals reduced efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Operational Pains:
Rework caused by communication breakdowns between internal and external teams.
Process bottlenecks hampering growth pace.
Lack of incentives and tools for bank managers to effectively promote the product.
Solution Delivered
A solução focou na redefinição completa da jornada de vendas, utilizando metodologias ágeis e Design Thinking, com foco na redução de fricções e integração de processos. Os principais resultados entregues incluíram:
Redesign of the Sales Journey (“To Be”):
Simplified bureaucratic processes with clear, integrated workflows.
Developed a unified portal to manage the entire journey, from prospecting to implementation.
Automation and System Integration:
Created a single platform to eliminate fragmented systems and manual tasks.
Established seamless integration between Santander and Ben’s systems, streamlining client onboarding.
Empowerment and Incentivization of Sales Teams:
Designed clear, engaging support materials for managers.
Introduced proposal simulators to accelerate negotiations.
Development of a Scalable Roadmap:
Aligned priorities with business growth objectives, focusing on short- and mid-term impacts.
Process and Methodology:
Understanding the Scenario
(Preliminary and Deep-Dive Phases)
At the project’s inception, the product and sales teams had already conducted some research and proposed initial solutions. However, their efforts lacked structure and clarity, leaving the teams uncertain about the next steps.
The design team’s involvement was pivotal in “organizing the house.” We leveraged existing insights to identify the core problem and establish a clearer, more efficient process.
Building on Previous Discovery
We needed to extract value from the research already conducted and reorganize the insights. The product and sales teams struggled to utilize the data strategically. My role as a facilitator was critical, guiding the design team to optimize these insights and prioritize effectively.
Positive feedback from the Group Product Manager (GPM) underscored how design brought clarity to the process. This ability to reorganize and maximize existing resources, a skill often undervalued in design teams, was a central driver of the success.
What We Did:
Facilitated workshops with stakeholders to uncover pain points and opportunities.
Applied frameworks like “Is, Is Not; Does, Does Not” to align expectations and eliminate ambiguities in the sales workflow.
Key Insights:
- Operational inefficiencies and customer frustrations stemmed from manual, unclear processes.
- The lack of integration hampered both customer visibility and internal collaboration.
Stakeholder Research and Mapping the Current Journey (“As Is”)
We began by mapping the existing journey (“As Is”), leveraging previously collected information while introducing a fresh perspective on structuring the data effectively.
My role included assisting with recruiting and conducting interviews, leading the analysis of findings, and ensuring the design approach targeted the most critical friction points. These efforts reduced confusion and generated a structured roadmap for the next steps.
What We Did: Conducted 10 interviews with customers, sales managers, and support teams to identify high-friction moments in the workflow.
Mapped the entire customer lifecycle, detailing the responsibilities of each involved area.
Created cross-functional journey maps to highlight differences in experiences between internal stakeholders and customers.
Key Insights: Misaligned information between Ben’s and the bank’s systems caused significant frustration.
Customers sought greater predictability and autonomy in formalizing contracts.
Internal teams struggled with fragmented processes, leading to inefficiencies and delays.
Persona Definition and Prioritization
To guide the redesign process, we created four key personas: Account Manager, Consultant, Sales Manager, and Customer. Each represented distinct responsibilities and challenges within the sales journey. These personas became essential in roadmap prioritization, helping us pinpoint areas with the most significant impact potential.
What We Did: Developed personas linked to the sales journey, detailing specific challenges and responsibilities.
Crafted persona-driven journey maps to strategically identify high-impact areas for onboarding and acquisition improvements.
Key Insights: Personas clarified the journeys most critical to redesign, particularly those tied to onboarding and acquisition.
Customers desired greater predictability, while consultants required more agile tools for faster responses.
Impact: Focused on aligning customer needs with business objectives to improve onboarding and acquisition processes.
Co-Creation Workshops and Opportunity Mapping
To ensure alignment across departments, we organized opportunity mapping workshops with sales, operations, and product teams. Using the “As Is” journey as a baseline, we identified areas for improvement and developed a near-service blueprint integrating operational and technological perspectives.
What We Did: Facilitated co-creation sessions with cross-functional teams to discuss opportunities and prioritize solutions.
Directed discussions to ensure initiatives were correctly prioritized and aligned with a shared vision.
Incorporated operational and technical insights to create a comprehensive near-service blueprint.
Key Insights: The absence of clear boundaries for responsibilities led to inefficiencies and delays.
Cross-departmental alignment revealed critical gaps in integration between Ben Visa and Santander systems.
Designing the Ideal Journey (“To Be”)
Building on validated opportunities, we conducted further co-creation sessions with product, operations, and design teams to define an ideal “To Be” journey. This design aimed not only to address immediate challenges but also to ensure the product team had all the resources necessary for ongoing improvement.
What We Did:
Led co-creation workshops to develop an ideal workflow focused on simplification, efficiency, and predictability.
Developed prototypes for a unified portal, consolidating all touchpoints in the sales journey.
Centralized and automated processes to eliminate delays and reduce communication friction.
Key Insights:
Over-customization of processes created unnecessary delays.
Clear role definitions between Ben Visa and Santander teams were crucial for smoother workflows.
Integration between Ben Visa and Santander systems was essential to eliminate redundancies and miscommunication.
Prioritization and Initiative Roadmap
Based on the insights and concepts developed in the ideal journey (“To Be”), we assisted the GPM of the Business Unit in structuring a prioritized initiative roadmap. This roadmap focused on scalability and operational efficiency, highlighting the functionalities and projects with the most immediate impact on the sales process.
My leadership played a crucial role in maintaining constant alignment with the GPMs, Product Director, and holding company, ensuring the project’s success.
Integration and Process Automation
The integration between Ben Visa’s and Santander’s systems was one of the project’s most critical phases. Automating and integrating these systems eliminated bottlenecks that previously delayed the sales process, resulting in a 25% reduction in onboarding time.
My role involved direct collaboration with Ben Visa’s engineering teams and the holding company to ensure that solutions were technically viable and aligned with stakeholder needs. Acting as a facilitator, I bridged the gaps between areas, ensuring seamless communication and execution.
A key decision I contributed to was splitting the integration effort across bank teams that could accelerate delivery.
Results and Key Learnings
By focusing on cross-functional collaboration, structured personas, and a clear “To Be” journey, the project addressed customer and stakeholder pain points effectively. The redesigned process improved workflow efficiency, aligned responsibilities across teams, and provided a scalable roadmap for future iterations.
Results:
Enhanced operational efficiency through integrated and scalable workflows.
Significant improvements in customer experience and sales team engagement.
Key Learnings:
Customer-centric and operational projects require seamless system integration and alignment of stakeholder expectations.
Collaborative workshops are essential for identifying bottlenecks and developing solutions that meet both user and business needs.