Swipe Right for a Job

Starting Point

TLDR

Encentiv Energy's a Saas comany with a secondary product called UtilityGenius. UG is a website for contractors to find rebates from utilities. Quickly finding rebates are instrumental in helping put together proposals and winning contracts. Encentiv currently sells software for manufacturers to help contractors put together proposals only using its products, but some contractors want to use more than one manufacturer.
‍
Contractors appreciate how fast they can find rebates on our website but sometimes have to come back multiple times if proposals sit too long and or they get the job and need to make sure the rebates haven't changed.

So a question was proposed, Can we build a proposal tool directly on UtilityGenius so that rebates are auto-includes and updated on the contractors project proposal, and eventual project?

Problem

Currently contractors don't have a way to auto-update proposals and then the projects scopes with rebates as the utilities change them. Searching for rebates again and again to ensure they aren't uncharging can be a time consuming process, time the projects managers don't always have.

Solutions

Take UtilityGenius' already existing rebate search engine and combine it with a proposal tool to create a seamless and easy workflow for project managers.

Challenges

1. How do we simplify a rather text and form heavy tool?
2. How do we make this product better than other project proposal tools on the market?
3. How will this new feature, called Projects, integrate into the current website?

User Knowledge & Testing

During the Encentiv Energy quarterly report meetings, I took the last five minutes to ask a few questions specifically about the current proposal tools used, and frustrations with updating rebates. I was able to take the answers with extended interviews I did regularly with UtilityGenius customers to build an initial idea of what our customers need out of a proposal tool.

Automation would save time

"I'd say the majority of my job is putting together proposals. The other thing I do that takes the most time is reviewing approved projects to make sure none of the rebates changed so we charge the client correctly and order the right products... so I do think using your proposal tool that automatically built in the rebates would be incredible as long as all the data could be added in quickly."
-Project Director

Clients care about product and cost

"Rebates are how we win with customers. If they want to do the product for the lowest cost, then when they get the proposal they are upset the products are on the low end. But if we give them the quality of product they want, they can't handle the price. Rebates give us the happy medium of great products with a price tag that makes the customers happy too."
-Project Manager

Can you add the graph?

"So we use the mini proposal software tool from Encentiv and one thing our customers love is the graph. Being able to see how and when they will start to profit from the products and rebates always help sell our proposal over others. If you are making a similar tool from UtilityGenius I'd love to see the graph included."
-Current user of our mini proposal software tool.

Wireframes

Whiteboard

From the CTO and I's first brainstorm I began to take the ideas to the whiteboard. I made initial sketches and erased and added as we brainstormed more ideas.

Landing page

I started to think what will the first screen the user see. We decided we wanted all the users projects on their landing screen so then I needed to piece it together. We have always used cards to organize information so I wanted to keep the card style to keep continuity across the website.

Projects Creation

I used the same style and information Encentiv uses for their proposal software, but played with different version of organizing the information.

Individual view

The sidebar was such a big challenge because it's a large awkward gap. In the first wireframes cycle I tried just filling the gap with the building type icon.

Side bar solution

Another side bar solution I tried was bringing up the project information and pay off graph to the side bar.

View all posts

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge One

How do we simplify a rather text and form heavy tool?

Projects are text heavy forms. If a building has six rooms and each room needs twelve new lights and for every new light you need to include all the information of the existing fixture and then all the information for the replacement/new fixture, you can see how overwhelming everything can get.

Solution One: Make use of dropdown menus so that product lines can be closed to avoid too much mess.

Solution Two: Autosave to prevent information getting lost.

Challenge Two

How do we make this product better than the product it will replace?

Encentiv Energy, UtilityGenius' parent company, has a product incredibly similar that lives on manufacturers' websites for contractors using its product. There is also separate tools contractors use that are from another company or just pen and paper. We needed to make sure our tool would better than the rest.

Solution One: Make sure the rebate information would auto-fill in the side bar so it is always seen. The rebates are what helps us stand out.

Solution Two: Let users pick multiple manufacturers verses Encentiv's current tool that only allows the manufacturer that owns the software.

Challenge Three

How will this new feature integrate into the current website?

Currently UtilityGenius is just a search engine for rebates; adding a project tool will be a completely different service offered on the same website. The reason the two tools live within the same website is because of the common connection of rebate searching.

Solution One: I designed a landing page just for project to keep the two products separate.

Solution Two: The first time a user enters project they are directed to an onboarding tool that teaches them what the projects tool is for, how to use it, and how it is different from the rebate search engine.

Takeaways

This project is a prime example of why it is so important to go back through multiple iterations and not try to reinvent the wheel. Going through the multiple ideation rounds helped me find how we could make the project proposal tool stand on its own while still living in the rebate search engine ecosystem.
Not trying to reinvent the wheel was a massive key to success because it helped me stay on our timeline. I used what I had already created with the buildings project to give me the initial wireframes and flows for how projects proposal could operate. The solid already tested foundation helped me then focus on the details and making sure all the MVPs were hit.

Proposal Tool for Contractors