UX Architect —
Splunk Cybersecurity

Formed and led a cross-functional team to define a 3-year strategic vision for the end-to-end customer experience of the Splunk security portfolio (Enterprise Security, SOAR, User Behavior Analytics, and Threat Intel). Led design thinking workshops and customer experience research, identified key experience themes, built customer journey storyboard illustrating vision, and worked with functional leads to align on roadmap plan. Vision and process was voted top Big Idea by leadership team.

Process and Results

  1. Identified Strategic Need
    2.
  2. Formed Multi-Disciplinary Team
    3.
  3. Ran Design Thinking Workshop
    4.
  4. Identified Experience Themes
    5.
  5. Led Process and Timeline
    6.
  1. Conducted Customer Research
    2.
  2. Outlined Experience Journey
    3.
  3. Built Interactive Storyboard
    4.
  4. Impact on 3-Year Roadmap
    5.
  5. Voted Top Big Idea
    6.

1. Identified Strategic Need

I was relatively new to Splunk when I started conversations on customer experience with functional leaders in the securtiy area. Several voiced a lack of clarity and consensus on the long-term plan for integration of our security products and, especially, how we would bring the solution to market. I introduced my End-to-End (E2E) Experience Framework and received enthusiastic support for this approach to defining a security experience vision for Splunk.

2. Formed Multi-Disciplinary Team

I asked each of the functional leads (VPs mostly) to nominate people who could contribute to the definition of an E2E security experience. One goal was to better align the product and technology (P&T) teams with the go to market (GTM) teams. I recruited each team member and trained them in the E2E experience approach we were taking. P&T teams included Product Design, PM, Docs, Engineering, and Product Marketing. The GTM teams included Market Strategy, Sales (from three regions), Customer Success, CX Strategy, and Education. Our internal CISO office acted as a customer.

3. Ran Design Thinking Workshop

I coached each functional team on how to bring their E2E perspective to a workshop, including how they see the target customer and their goals, new ideas for the solution and the value proposition, competitors and differentiators, and the As Is and To Be experience journeys. The workshop was remote, three-half days, with a diverge, converge, plan format. We used FigJam for real time remote brainstorming and collaboration. At the end of the workshop we had hundreds of ideas categorized and prioritized on an effort / impact matrix identifying quick wins and high impact ideas.

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4. Identified Experience Themes

In the afternoons of and after the workshop, my team and I analyzed the functional teams inputs and the workshop ideation. We looked at both where ideas landed in the E2E journey phases and where we had common or related ideas. We had asked workshop participants to rate each idea in terms of effort and impact. Using all of this analysis we identified ten themes that would guide our storyboarding and prototyping. We also identified open questions and existing work in progress for each theme.

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5. Led Process and Timeline

Here is the process and timeline from a midpoint in the project. This was a project unlike any other at Splunk, so I was inventing the process based on my experience at other companies. Coordinating with all ten functional teams was a challenge because each had their own timelines and deadlines for deliverables. At this point we had just finished the workshop and were prepping for the customer sessions.

6. Conducted Customer Research

I designed a research study on how customers see their E2E experience with cybersecurity products. I conducted this at a Splunk security conference with many of our target customers in attendance. 60 participants completed a detailed survey as part of one-on-one and small group interviews. The survey included questions on each phase of the journey starting with their teams and working through goals / pain points, learn / try / buy / use / grow phases to measures of success. This study provided a good evaluation of our workshop themes and produced details that helped shape our experience storyboard.

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7. Outlined Experience Journey

Based on the workshop themes and customer research, I led the design team to outline our E2E experience journey. We used the workshop themes and customer research mapped to the E2E journey phases for four target customer segments, thinking through each customer type's problems and how they would progress through the experience to their measures of success. We put the most effort on what was identified as the biggest market opportunity: existing Splunk Platform customers who had not adopted the premium security products.

8. Built Interactive Storyboard

With the experience outlined, I led the design team to create an interactive storyboard in Figma and brought in detailed design work as part of the customer journey. Many of the detailed user interface screens used in the storyboard were created by other designers while I created the story flow, messaging, navigation, and animations. The interactive storyboard was shared with all of our functional partners who reviewed and provided input for revisions.

9. Impact on 3-Year Roadmap

The E2E Security Experience Storyboard was created concurrently with the 3-Year Product Roadmap and many of the E2E workgroup members were part of the team creating the roadmap. As part of that effort, we shaped how the themes from the E2E experience work were represented on the roadmap and identified important gaps between the roadmap and customer goals that needed more attention. We also prioritized feedback from the 10 functional teams on how the story could be improved in future iterations.

10. Voted Top Big Idea

My approach for “Outcome-Oriented E2E CX” was voted the top Big Idea at the FY24 planning kickoff including all GMs, VPs, Sr. Dir, and Distinguished Engineers in the product & technology and some go-to-market teams. There were 30-40 big ideas proposed and each participant was given 10 points to divide among ideas they would support. The E2E CX idea (embodied in our E2E Security Experience storyboard) received the most points and the most supporters and was therefore one of only three big ideas to come out of the kickoff.