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.
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.