Reduce customer frustration and streamline workflows, achieving a 5%+ decrease in customer support tickets within a month.
Product Management
Product Design
10 Weeks
1 Product Designer
Third-Party Apps
Engineering
Customer Support
Agile Development
Opportunity Solution Tree
Data Analysis
Project Management
Usability Tests
A/B Testing
The Problem
On the Pinwheel phone, kids cannot manage apps directly for safety reasons. Instead, caregivers are responsible for overseeing all app management. However, the current process for updating apps is manual and cumbersome, leading to customer frustration and a high volume of support tickets.
Caregivers are not well informed about the app update report process, which leads to confusion and frustration when trying to initiate updates.
The process requires multiple steps that involve both customers and our Customer Support team, making it time-consuming for everyone involved.
the challenge
Solution
Parents can now directly request app updates within the Caregiver Portal, reducing time and effort.
Internally, these requests bypass the Customer Support team and go directly to the relevant teams, conserving valuable resources.
Define the Problem Scope
Currently, apps on Pinwheel phones are not automatically updated, as each update need to be manually verified by our team for safety compliance. With hundreds of apps being updated daily, monitoring all changes manually is impractical. As a result, updates often occur only after caregivers request them.
Given the constraint of manual updates, I investigated the full process to understand how this impacts both users and internal teams. By examining the customer journey and internal workflows, I sought to uncover pain points, delays, and inefficiencies that stem from this manual process.
User Journey Flow
The Customer Care team receives update requests and manually forwards them to the relevant internal team via Slack. The internal team then updates the app on the backend. This process contributes to about 10% of the Customer Care team’s workload, adding significant strain to an already busy team.
Design problem
Ideation
Aiming to make the process as efficient as possible, I began brainstorming and sketching ideas that fell into two main categories: requesting updates directly from the kid’s Pinwheel phone and requesting updates from the Caregiver Portal.
Design Decision
Implementing the direct request feature from the Pinwheel phone raised privacy and safety concerns, as it involved direct interaction between children and our team (adult strangers). Thus, we need to gather comprehensive feedback from both team experts and caregivers.
While updating apps directly from the Pinwheel phone is technically feasible, it was an untested approach for our team, making the effort required for internal processing and seamless integration uncertain and potentially costly.
Design Concept
Design Requirements
Concise Clarity
Intuitive entry point; clear, informative, and straight-forward instructions.
Proactive Feedback
Anticipate and communicate progress and errors.
Error Minimization
Minimize the impact of typos and address the potential high volume of repetitive or excessive requests.
Design Testing & Decision
Two ideas were explored:
Main Page Integration - a centralized "Update" button on the App Library main page, for quicker feature adoption
App-Specific Buttons - an "Update" button within each individual app’s detail view, smoother transition into the page architecture.
To test the visibility of each option and gauge user preference, I ran a A/B version usability test, which showed that more users find the app-specific button more visible. Hence, I opted for the App-Specific Button design.
23% Discovery & Success Rate
68% Discovery & Success Rate
Previously, requesting app updates involved a cumbersome five-step process that required switching between devices and took over 5 minutes. Now, with the streamlined design on the Caregiver Portal, users can request updates in just one click within 2 minutes. This solution not only simplifies the entry point but also enhances the entire update request workflow, both externally for users and internally for the team.
Before
After
50%
User Request Time
The time required for customers to make a request was reduced from over 6 minutes to just 2-3 minutes, improving user efficiency and reducing user frustration.
5%+
Customer Support Tickets within 1 month
By October 2023 — just over 1 month after implementing the feature — we saw a 5%+ reduction in Customer Support tickets related to app update requests, allowing the Customer Care team to focus on more complex, high-value customer issues and improving overall support efficiency..
Reflections
What I Learned
Designing a solution goes beyond user needs—it must also align with technical feasibility and business priorities. Understanding these constraints early helped me make informed design decisions and prioritize effectively.
Early communication with internal teams about potential solutions is essential for understanding feasibility and constraints. Through these conversations, I learned that an automated update system was already planned in the product roadmap. This insight allowed me to focus on a short-term solution that would bridge the gap until full automation became feasible.
What I would do differently
We waited until the design was nearly complete to gather user feedback, which fortunately aligned with their needs. If I were to do it again, I would validate the problem and ideas earlier through quick concept testing, such as sharing an improved app update workflow in words for early feedback. In an agile environment, where iteration is key, involving customers sooner helps refine ideas faster and ensures we build the right feature from the start.