PeerPal
PeerPal is a K-12 admissions software connecting prospective students with schools.
My Role
User Research, Product Design, QA
Team
Time Frame
February 2021 - October 2021
Description
A full service management platform where admissions can track ambassador campaigns, prospective student analytics, and ambassador performance overtime.
Context
At PeerPal, I cross-collaborated with product management, engineering, and marketing to develop PeerPal's back office.
About
Through user interviews we discovered, early on, the outdated nature of admissions software. Each admissions period, prospective student information was tracked via spreadsheets. Ambassadors were sent bulk emails as a primary mode of communication. Meanwhile, campaign statistics were shared with stakeholders on printed paper. Administrators expressed frustration with poor communication, missed opportunities, and time inefficiency.
Our discovery taught us about the day to day tasks of administrators, what their relationship with ambassadors looked like, and their key objectives when running campaigns. From our findings, journey mapping PeerPal's impact from the perspective of each user - admins, ambassadors, and prospective students - would help us maintain a holistic vision for how the platform could benefit everyone.
Core-Requirements
The lives of office administrators is a juggling act. Overworked and left with very little time, PeerPal's back office interface would need to be easily navigable, with a robust set of actionable data.
Core-Requirements Included:
1. Campaigns. As an admin, I must be able to create new campaigns and view historic campaign data including website visits, conversations, sign ups, and interactions.
2. Messaging. As an admin, I must communicate with ambassadors (either individually or in bulk).
3. Management. As an admin, I must easily customize the PeerPal widget
Focusing on creating a robust "settings tab" would be fundamental for providing the advantage admins need to successfully customize their campaigns.
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Security Constraints
PeerPal was originally intended as a way to seamlessly create and manage outreach campaigns. I first designed PeerPal prioritizing campaign data and management. However, feedback from early users indicated a need for "all powerful capabilities" regarding ambassador profiles as well.
With testing, we found the definition of an ambassador can vary from school to school (they can be parents, alumni, students, or faculty). Enabling a permission based framework would be important not only from a managerial perspective but from a security as well.
Solutions
Overtime, defining value became more and more broad. It forced us to rethink how we might maximize value for all users while ensuring a timely delivery of a high-quality product. We came up with a solution that could be applied to all ambassadors, regardless of school.
Revised Requirements:
1. Quick Actions. As an admin, I need to hide and unhide profiles with a click of a toggle
2. Limitations. As an admin, I need to require an entire profile to be completed before publishing
3. Approvals. As an admin, I need to approve edits to profiles
Nevertheless, PeerPal would need the ability to scale into a more detailed platform in the future and thus, account types and their use cases were still documented.
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Moving Admissions Forward
By prioritizing user needs through the implementation of customizable profiles, bulk messaging and invitation capabilities, robust campaign analytics, as well as real-time activity, PeerPal can empower efficient decision-making and engagement strategies.
By affording users these versatile tools and insights, we were not only able to facilitate smoother operations but drive meaningful outcomes- ultimately propelling PeerPal towards sustained success in meeting the evolving conversion goals of schools and universities.
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