Akwaï
Create a new experience for your social media
Year Nov 2022 - Nov 2023
The company
Talk is a social media agency mainly focused on restaurants, providing two services: photoshoot sessions and managing social media planning on Instagram and Facebook. Social media plays a crucial role for restaurants as it provides a cost-effective means of marketing, enhances customer engagement, allows for direct communication, and helps create a positive online presence that can drive both online and offline business. However, restaurant owners lack the time and knowledge to take care of this crucial aspect. This is where Talk positions their services.
My role
I joined the tech team to contribute to the product vision that we will pursue in the future. I was responsible for managing the product roadmap, prioritizing features, establishing an agile environment and processes for the development team, product design, and ownership. We functioned as a task force within the agency, exclusively focused on the product while the agency continued its operations. Gradually, we organized tests and implemented new processes for the account manager team while simultaneously launching the MVP and new features.
The project
Problem
“How can users oversee and observe their social media scheduling ?”
The primary project aimed to simplify access to a tool that manages media planning for social media. The initial MVP was intended for use by our account managers first, with the goal of streamlining the agency's existing processes at that time.
Users interview and benchmark
While investigating other social media management tools (such as Hootsuite, Agora Pulse, and so on), I identified several criticisms from our account management team (through interviews) and online reviews. Many of these tools were hard to use for beginners and hard to scale for a large number of social media accounts.
Main outcomes: interface and accessibilties issues, competitors lack of innovative features
Hootsuite review
The user interface is weak, it's not user-friendly nor is it practical or modern looking. It has a tendency to leg, it also isn't mobile friendly, they do have an app, but again it's not easy to navigate.
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Account manager interview
The interface is outdated and confusing. It became extremely laggy and slow while operating a lot of different social media account.
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Features
As mentioned earlier I analyzed some major paint point in the social media management tools that already exist. It helped me to create new features and improve the core of the initial features.
Solution
Media planning is mostly weekly with no preview of your content and your feed
Insight
Solution
Insight
Insert section for content pool
Solution
Insight
Aided AI partner
Solution
Penmanship is essential for engaging your audience
Insight
Interface
The interface underwent multiple iterations, progressing from wireframing to high-fidelity mockups, as we reached Version 1 of the MVP.
Usuability tests
In order to validate all the processes outlined above, I created a test scenario where 10 of our account managers were placed in context with each journey and objectives. The goal was to identify potential inconsistencies throughout the interface and assess usability.
The test was conducted on-site or online with screen sharing and divided into multiple tasks, where testers graded the level of satisfaction for each task.
Overall, users feedback tend to reach the initial goal of the MVP
After usability tests, we provided the MVP to the AM team to gradually familiarize themselves with the product. They could build media plans and export them directly to Hootsuite. Despite lacking publishing features at the time, testing showed that AMs were significantly more efficient in creating social media plans on our tool.
Design system
Creating a design system was also one of the major projects that the dev team and I wanted to undertake to increase efficiency throughout the product lifecycle.
We utilized Material UI for standard component interactions, modified the style, and developed custom components when necessary. The pastel colors and branding are based on the Akwaï agency's graphic chart.
Product management
One of my key roles was also to oversee the product vision and roadmap. I worked closely with the founders and department heads to validate our product direction and ensure alignment across the organization regarding the product.
I also ensured agility within the development team by managing feature specifications and prioritization. I organized our processes through multiple steps, including using Linear to track our backlog, conducting daily standup meetings, holding product sprint reviews, retrospectives, and planning sessions.
