DocReview & Private Company Request Manager
Over my first 9 months at PitchBook I brought our data collection and sourcing tools into the future with a redesign of our main data collection and processing tool (DocReview). I also developed a tool from the ground up to collect and add new company profile data to the platform via upload and user request (PCRM). For these projects I was the lead product designer working with 1 PM 5 engineers.
Research
PitchBook hosts millions of private and public companies each holding thousands of different data points, getting all of this information onto the platform is a huge undertaking. I started to understand these processes by shadowing researchers as they went about their day. When I learned the steps I began processing data myself and evaluating our processes’ heuristics along the way.
User Flow
I took what I learned and began building out detailed user flows for each collection process noting pain points along the way.
Research Findings
1. Time is wasted context switching.
2. Researchers are forced to repeat tasks as articles resurface with new data points.
3. Researchers are motivated by matching or defeating production benchmarks and personal goals.
4. A restricted view of article copy is frustrating and inefficient
5. No ability to extract data points that were missed by the backend.
6. Difficult to read and process due to visual discrepancies and heuristic issues.
Context switching occurs when…
1. Adding new entities or data points to the platform
2. Viewing historical entities or events for a given entry.
3. Viewing core contextual information about an entity
4. Reading the full article in context.
Ideation
One benefit of developing internal tools is that you have your users to work alongside with. I made a point to collaborate and bring users into the design process at every step. I was also able to iteratively test concepts and designs with both the Seattle and Mumbai research team.
Design
Additional improvements
Additional improvements were made to the UI and visual design including a criteria builder workflow and left hand work list. Processes were streamlined to reduce of unnecessary steps surfaced to the user. This collaborative project improved the overall Product-Research relationship and design processes for internal tools. We are releasing this product in increments and I will update throughput numbers and user sentiment as it is made available to me.
Addendum
In addition to the DocReview redesign I created a new product to help with the overall data upload and processing experience for our research team. The Private Company Request Manager or PCRM allows researchers to upload lists of thousands of companies to be added to the platform. Various data requests from users or internal teams can be processed and organized using this tool instead of organizing and delegating tasks manually. This product was released July 2020 usage data will be updated as it is made available to me.
