Let’s Talk
2017Hangouts Chat is G-Suite's team communication and collaboration tool. While on the team, I unblocked its launch via solving over 100 accessibility bugs, managed vendors in providing launch marketing collateral, and increased employee expression by integrating GIFs.
Design lead and research lead
UX and UI design
Team lead, UX researcher, 2 PMs, the design team, and the Tenor team
Approved, then backlogged so engineering could focus on launch
Before it's launch, Chat was being tested by various companies. A plethora of feedback came in on all levels. On the employee level, user's felt that there wasn't enough joy in the product. It was a bit too professional.
Expression wasn't the biggest priority for launch. However, GIFs were one of the most requested features by users, and thus the project was given the green light.
GIFs help users communicate more effectively, are been proven to increase overall satisfaction and adoption rate by other communication tools, and help build individual and team identities.
When Allo was around, GIFs increased iOS retention by 10%, and 100% of our competitors had GIF features.
After the project was approved, it was backlogged in order to allocate ENG resourcing to securing a perfect launch.