UX · Telecom · Portal · Project management
From Friction to Flow: Reimagining Partner Management
A self-serve hub where sales partners register deals, find current collateral and get help, which cut partner-management workload by 42%.
Role
Research, strategy, UI, testing, project management
Team
4 teams plus business leaders
Testing
Test with about 10 users
25 testers, 20 pilot partners
Status
Figma
-42% partner workload
Overview
Sangoma is a leading Unified Communications as a Service provider. It needed one place where sales partners could register customer deals, get up-to-date product resources and stay informed, while taking work off internal teams.
Goals
Lighten internal workload
Help partners finish sales
Keep everything current
Build to scale
The problem
With no centralized partner hub, sales partners frequently relied on outdated resources or contacted support for routine needs. The fragmented experience created friction throughout the sales process, increased the risk of misinformation, and tied up internal teams with work that could be self-served.
What I learned from users
Partner interviews gave me one person to design for: Matthew, a partner who sells Sangoma products and needs current information and fast deal registration.
He has to ask a sales rep to register every deal
Led to Register a deal
Promotional material arrives by email and is often out of date
Led to the Resource library
He is unsure whether a product has been sunset or replaced
Led to Product news on the dashboard
How I worked
Discover
Define
Design
Test
Pilot
Launch
1
Listen
Surveyed partners, then ran 10 interviews and built a persona for stakeholders.
2
Structure
A 10-partner card sort and prioritization survey informed the MVP sitemap, aligning stakeholders and engineering around a shared vision.
3
Explore
Wireframed several directions and adapted design-system patterns to the portal platform.
4
Test
Usability-tested the high-fidelity design with 25 unaffiliated users.
5
Pilot
20 opted-in partners joined moderated tests, A/B tests and surveys.
6
Launch
Rolled out in phases: Gold and Silver, then Bronze, then everyone else.
Sitemap and content ownership
After the card sort and priority survey I drew the MVP sitemap. In the stakeholder review, each section was colored by the team that would supply its content, with open questions flagged.
MVP sitemap
Stakeholder review: owners and open questions. Teams: Product Management, Marketing, Development, Sales, Support.
Partner level tile
Updated by hand. Sales and Development agree the process and record it in the Partner Portal folder.
Upcoming training
Will populate from the Sangoma events page.
Invoices
Open question: whether and how often they generate automatically in the portal.
Low-fidelity mockups
I wireframed the two screens with the most layout decisions first, so stakeholders could react to structure before any visual design.
Register a deal
Resource library
Key decisions
Decision 1
Engage users before structuring
Early research taught me what partners struggled with and gave me people to recruit for testing later.
Decision 2
Test with 25, not 10
Stakeholders did not trust 10 testers. I set out the timeline and budget impact and we agreed on 20 to 25.
Decision 3
Roll out by partner tier
Gold and Silver first meant bugs surfaced early, and the data built confidence inside the company.
Decision 4
Design inside platform limits
The out-of-the-box portal platform limited design-system components, so I adapted common patterns to keep it practical and intuitive.
User flows
The screen map shows how partners move between sections. The task paths trace the five jobs partners come to do, including where a task loops back or branches.
Final designs
Six screens, each annotated with what changed from the earlier mockups and why. A My deals screen was added late, because registered deals need somewhere to live.
Markers are small dots. Select one to see its number and open its note, or use Markers off to see the screen clear. Where an earlier mockup exists, switch to Earlier mockup or Side by side to compare.
Screen 1 of 6
Dashboard
Partners see their tier, their sales and what needs action the moment they sign in.
Screen 2 of 6
Register a deal
Partners enter customer details and one or more products, check a live preview, and generate the deal. An invoice is created and can be downloaded.
Screen 3 of 6
My deals
Every registered deal in one place, with the ones that need action on top. This screen was added during the design work.
Screen 4 of 6
Resource library
Co-branded marketing collateral, always the latest version, organized the way partners browse for it.
Screen 5 of 6
Sales history
A complete record of sales that partners can filter by status, export to CSV, or download invoice by invoice.
Screen 6 of 6
Support
Partners can open a ticket or go straight to their partner manager. Silver and Gold partners get 24/7 priority access to dedicated Sangoma staff. Verified partners and agents are directed to the contact form.
Testing and iteration
My usual approach
Test with about 10 users
What we did
25 unaffiliated users through UserTesting.com, then 20 opted-in partners in a pilot
The results
-42%
partner-management workload in six months
25
users in usability testing
3
rollout phases by partner tier
The 42% comes from internal call and chat logs. Email data was not fully captured, but sales representatives also reported a clear drop in partner emails.
Reflections
What worked
Talking to users early, rolling out in stages, and staying transparent with stakeholders who had never worked with UX. That built trust and a sense of ownership.
What was hard
Four teams plus business leaders each prioritized different things, and it was never clear who would supply and approve content.
What I would change
Set content deadlines at regular touchpoints, and agree early with development on what the MVP can hold, because added requests stretched the timeline.