Switch - Building the workspace on-demand platform

Role & Responsibilities

Note* Switch is a product built by REinvent, the property-tech startup company founded in 2020. This project started in July 2020 and launched to the Singapore market within 3 months in October 2020. 

As design lead, my responsibilities centers around two major areas:

Design

Lead the design of creating a new form of interaction for the product and technology. Guide major rethinking and designs of a product set, involving improvements to information architecture or interaction patterns.
Direct the team to create user-focused design, run ad hoc user testings and surveys to advocate for users at all stages. Nurturing data-driven design culture, flag note-worthy data on multiple occasions.
Strategically involved in product and feature definition. Ensure the design evolves with consistent user experience upon every new version released. Provide solutions around difficult project constraints that has emerged along development process.
Provide useful and actionable feedback on multiple team members’ work. Articulate in a fair and efficient way especially on the “why”. Encouraging an environment where disagreements and contrasting opinions are welcomed to enhance the design quality.

Team leadership

Manage a team of five effectively, maintaining a happy and committed team that is focused on delivering high quality design with positive team chemistry. Mediate difficult conversations between others in the wider team, help direct reports to come to a good solution around performance, title, attitude or compensation.

Protect the team, ensuring they are always clear on the goal, at the same time work to create space for them to make decisions and grow. Manage stakeholder expectations and serve as the bridge in conversations between HOD and team.
Lead the team's design delivery momentum and ensure the quality of product shipped is consistently high. Define multiple interlinked problems across various areas of the product, work with team to provide structural solution and drive implementation.

Project Background

Switch is the Airbnb of workspaces, it is a platform product to meet the worldwide work-from-anywhere trend. We believe in building a workspace-on-demand platform can bring innovation to the market and help shape the way people consume spaces.

Key Selling points

Under the influence of COVID, people around the world are in need for new workspace options other than home and fixed offices more than ever. Believing in space-as-a-service, the best way to accommodate the need is with the model of paying for access not ownership, this model is similar to some common applications such as Netflix, Spotify and Uber, which embraces the concept of sharing economy. As of today, Switch has proved that this model is viable and profitable with workspaces.

Key product offerings

Serving as a platform, Switch is a network that connects workspace supplies and demands with a mindfully crafted app. People can find workspaces from various space providers based on location, distance, price, amenity, workspace type, usage type and more. Usage type refers to the way people pay for the workspace and it is at the core of Switch product offering. With Switch, user can enjoy a “walk-in“ visit where you only have to pay for what you use by the minute, or go with the traditional way, make a booking beforehand.

The workspace providers on Switch includes but not limited to Switch booth network, shopping malls/commercial complexes, co-working spaces, traditional office spaces, hotels and residential complexes. Right now, Switch offers the following workspace types:

Target users

Based on user interview and user survey, we have identified 1) user’s current workspace options 2) working patterns and 3) frequency of alternative workspace needs as the key differentiator for user types. See below for the two primary personas:

Switch was launched in Singapore in 2020 and is continuously expanding the market globally. Visit official website for more information.

Process & Approach

Throughout the sprint-based product development process, the product design team has been working closely with product managers and engineers, where squads were formed to maximize efficiency. In every sprint (=2 weeks), the design process is compressed yet solid; in general, after receiving product feature briefing from the product manager, the following steps will be taken to complete the design for a new feature or existing feature improvement.

Design

• Product research - Find similar features on 3-5 products, both online and offline if possible, to 1) breakdown and study the design for inspiration, reference and avoid bad user experience, 2) compare the planned feature to other competitors to see if we can further enhance user need fulfillment.
• Product design - Conceptualize key page layout and user flow, then go into detail design by following branding guideline to create new components that aligns with the visual look and feel, or take existing components from the design system.
• Deliver & iterate - Brief all related parties on the new design, receive feedback and alternate design.

research & data

Over the course of 1.5 years, the team conducted three main user research and continuously tracked key performance metrics.

• Heavy user interview - Conduct user interview on 10 heavy users. Definition of heavy user is based on cohort analysis, users who joined the Switch platform for at least 6 months and 1) has more than 10 total stays, 2) has an order in the last 30 days. The goal of this interview is to verify value proposition, build persona and gain deeper understanding on users’ decision pattern.
• Heavy user survey - Conduct user survey and received 157 responses. Gain an overall understanding on demographics, user needs (reason to use, stay time etc.) and NPS. The survey result was mainly used to provide product feature planning insights, it was also used to help shape Switch primary personas.

• Usability testing - Set up 2 tasks to test out key user journeys on 6 internal team members to discover usability issues. The testing result was used to help us make crucial design decision on the homepage revamp later on.
• Competitor analysis - Select 14 similar products from various markets that offer similar workspace option to compare value proposition, user segmentation, business model and product design.
• Data tracking - Continuously track key metrics including: GTV, MAU (active user = user who stays in the app for at least 10 seconds), MAUP, app install (new install, re-install, update install), app open (stay time irrelevant), user registration, total stay, total usage and more.

Design Results

The scope of the Switch product design is a mini eco-system; with mobile app in the center, key features are made possible by the operation happening backstage on web-portals, usage and feedback results from mobile app are aggregated and flow back to web-portals and Superset (data analysis platform); official website serves as the major online marketing tool, where key product offerings are communicated, site visitors can easily take action to become an user as well.

In turns of design, with the branding guideline setting the basis of color and typography, each product has a standalone design system as some of the UI elements are unique to the platform. All designs are created to optimize user experience while aligning the overall look and feel. Lastly, a product writing guideline is created and followed so that all UI copies appear on screen are standardized.

Main Achievements

• Create cross-platform designs on app, WeChat mini-program, web portal and official website by optimizing usability, simplicity and consistency, pixel by pixel.
• Design the user experience for core user journeys including 1) check in and check out of workspaces with QR code and prevent malicious use on app, 2) enterprise user self-serve registration via official website 3) Feedback receiving channel with very little man power.
• Establish design systems including 1) fundamental components that will be used repeatedly such as input fields, selector, dropdown menu, table, date & time picker, pagination and more, 2) common UI elements that can be used cross-platform.
• Collaborate with engineering team to build synced up component libraries.