Having lived in the corporate world for much my career, I have in recent times come to appreciate the unique perspective it has given me. Like many colleagues I have witness many inefficiencies experienced in much of corporate America.
Enter Social Media
Also, like many others, I too have adopted many of the tools and sites that help us keep in touch with friends, family and co-workers. It has become increasingly easy to find out what others are doing, yet in everyday work most people I talk to are less sure what their co-workers are working on. The new in vogue management term for this is “lack of transparency”. Regardless, of what some might call it, it is a reality for many.
There’s got to be a better way
Frustrated by the corporate tools I had become accustomed to and inspired by the new wave of social applications, ideas began to emerge, after lots and lots of research to see what was currently available. For a number of different reasons the available tools did not meet what I was looking for, but certainly some deeply influenced our thinking. The result was the following prototypes that have served for guiding the product we plan on releasing.
Pictures and thousands of words
Over a weekend, I decided to explore what the screens for such an application may look like. Four simple screens to embody the vision. During this discovery phase three 3 concepts emerged. First, were contacts, the people and companies with whom you do business. Some software developers will recognize this as parties1. Second, tasks or todo list, the things that need to get done. And finally, the updates, the things that are happening or have occurred since you last checked. Sometimes also referred to as the activity stream.
The Home Screen
The aim here was to provide a way to see the activities that are happening around you in one simple view. As you can see below, emails received, tasks completed and updates posted are easily distinguishable at a glance. Things that need further follow up can be clicked on for further details, while others disregarded for the time being. And if there is ever a need, simply go back in time, the history is saved with all the details.
Contact Details
The intent of this screen was to demonstrate how a user could update the contact directly with notes, tasks, etc. These notes and tasks are saved as part of the contact and can be referred to later, but are also updates for others in the company to stay informed.
The Contact List Screen
A simple way to navigate the list of contacts which can be annotated as seen above or for information lookup. The list has some filters to aid while searching for a particular contact.
Editing a Person
This screen captures what the editing experience may be like, giving generous space between entry fields for clarity. It also demonstrates a permission system to allow users to set a particular visibility option and keep sensitive data private.
So what’s next
We liked these ideas so much we decided to turn it into a product and have been working feverishly on it every since. We hope you’ll stay tuned as we start to make announcements about our product offering. In the mean time if you’d like to be part of our beta program please go to http://slatecrm.com and sign up.
- Eddy
1. Analysis Patterns - Fowler
