Shipping UX Wins: The Building Blocks for Continuous Product Improvement

One of the roles of a SaaS product team is to deliver user experience (UX) wins. A UX win can be defined as a small but impactful improvement to the experience of the product and interface that brings significant value to the user. Unlike headline features, which can take longer to scope, design, and develop, and requires more resources, UX wins can be quickly implemented and provide immediate benefits to customers.

The allure of gaining new users with shiny new features is often at odds with improving the satisfaction of existing customers. We all know software and apps that have stalled their product improvements as they’ve grown. It doesn’t have to be this way. A dedicated UX wins team and roadmap ensures that your product becomes more user-friendly over time—leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

At Float, I've been the dedicated product leader on UX wins which has been invaluable, both from a personal perspective and for the team as a whole. Consistently prioritizing and shipping UX wins has created a culture of continuous improvement and enabled us to focus on delivering great customer experiences rather than just a "good enough" product.

Some examples of the UX-win improvements we’ve recently shipped are:

• Enhanced filtering for a clearer picture of time off

Float's powerful search capabilities is one of our most valuable features, but the ability to filter by time off was missing. As we've introduced more availability management features such as adding your company's time off types and policies, leave tracking, and the ability for managers to approve time off requests, being able to filter by time off type has become increasingly important! Check out what it looks like here.

• Archive time off types to make scheduling time off more intuitive

Similarly, with teams adding their time off policies in Float, we noticed the need to archive time off types. This actually came from our own experience earlier in the year as we had a new time off benefit, quarterly life leave, introduced in 2023 that we needed to be able to schedule PTO for.

Balancing increased collaboration and rapport across departments with product prioritization

Over the last six months, this dedicated UX wins structure has led to increased collaboration among team members. People from different departments have been speaking up to provide feedback and ideas for how we can make Float great over good enough. This has led to a better understanding of how seemingly small requests coming through customer support, when added up, have a big impact on our customers.

It’s not all smooth sailing though. One of the challenges we've faced as an ambitious 40+ people team is prioritization. With so many potential UX wins to pursue, it can be difficult to determine which ones will bring the most value to our users. Our customer success team has played a vital role in providing us with ongoing analysis of our most common support requests. We're now collaborating with them more frequently to fast track small improvements that will help serve customers better, faster.

Another related challenge is resourcing, as some UX wins require more development work than others and at times, more work that originally anticipated. However, clear goal setting and committing to UX wins being an ongoing part of your product roadmap helps to overcome this.

The impact of UX wins on our team culture has been significant. By valuing continuous improvement and always striving to be best in class, we've fostered a culture of collaboration and innovation. Everyone on the team is invested in the product's success and feels a sense of ownership over its development. This has led to improved cross-department relationships, as well as a better understanding of our customers' day-to-day needs.

UX wins are essential for any SaaS product team that wants to deliver exceptional user experiences. By focusing on small but impactful improvements, teams can continuously improve their products and keep their customers engaged, satisfied, happy and loyal!

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