2023
How We Empowered the Central Sales Team at cult.fit to Optimise Sales Performance Monitoring Across 40+ Regional Managers.
PRODUCT DESIGN | B2B | DASHBOARD | WEB
My role
Product Designer - User Research, Conceptualisation, UI/UX Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Developer-Handoff
Team
Solo Designer with guidance
from a Lead Designer, 1 Product
Manager, 4 Engineers
Timeline
6 Weeks, Shipped in
March 2024 across all
cult.fit centers in India
CONTEXT
Overview
The Central Sales Team identified delays in communication within the team due to the lack of a standardised method for Regional Managers to monitor sales data. We set out to design a new dashboard in the Partner Portal (cult.fit's customer and partner management software), making it the go-to tool for monitoring sales and performance across centers and gyms.
The new Dashboard is now being used by more than 40 Regional Managers and has increased the overall membership sales revenue by 5%.
What is cult.fit?
Founded in 2016, cult.fit↗ is a fitness company that offers a holistic wellness experience, operating fitness centers and gyms integrated with digital services. cult.fit has scaled to 500 locations across the country and aims to make fitness accessible and enjoyable for everyone through group classes, gyms, and sports, providing users with flexibility and choice.
What is the Central Sales Team?
The Central Sales Team is responsible for meeting the organisation's sales targets. But with over 500 centers and gyms, the team is divided into 4 levels to ensure efficient management, clear accountability, and scalability.
LEVEL 1
The Central Team
The top of the hierarchy, the central team oversees nationwide sales and performance of the centers/gyms, sets targets, tracks data, and provides guidance and training to the team.
LEVEL 2
City Heads
cult.fit centers/gyms are across many cities. Each city has their own supervisor, called the City Heads. They manage the Regional Managers under their assigned city ensuring they reach their assigned sales target.
LEVEL 3
Regional Managers
Strength: 40+
Manages a geographically region comprising of around ~15 centers, ensuring revenue targets and operational standards are met.
LEVEL 4
Center Managers
Strength: 500+
Responsible for the operations and revenue of a specific center/gym. They are assigned a home center but also assist others if needed.
The monthly sale targets are systematically cascaded from the Central Team and City Heads to Regional Managers and down to the individual Center Managers allowing for clear communication and specific goal setting at each level.
OBSERVATION:
The growth team observed that there was no standardised way for the Regional Managers to compare the sales data against the sales target, leading to delayed and missed communication with the Center Managers.
RESEARCH:
Spotting hurdles in the current workflow of Regional Managers.
To hit sales targets, Regional Managers rely on daily collaboration with Center Managers, ensuring that they meet their monthly goals.
To better understand the gaps, my product manager and I connected with a few
Regional Managers from different regions and mapped out their workflow.
Image:1
Image:1
A Regional Manager explaining his daily workflow.
Problem 1: Varying format of spreadsheets were used to scan and compare sales data.
Regional managers would take a data dump from a Meta-base (the sales data repository), transfer it into a spreadsheet and create a view. This excel sheet was referred during sales reviews and identifying problems in case of any poor performance of a center/gym with the center managers.
However, the format of the spreadsheets varied across different Regional
Managers which resulted in inconsistent processes.
Image: 2
Image: 2
A Regional Manager sharing his excel sheets.
Problem 2: Real time reports & updates were communicated through through WhatsApp groups
The daily updates were shared in WhatsApp groups. Regional Managers had to manually translate these updates into actionable insights, delaying decision-making
and action.
Image: 3
Image: 3
Real-time sales data communicated through Whatsapp groups.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
How Might We Enable Regional Managers to proactively identify underperforming centers/gyms and their Center Managers to take timely action?
APPROACH:
Enable a real-time view of sales data to highlight underperforming centers/gyms based on predefined rules and introduce a performance score for the region, helping Regional Managers track progress toward their sales targets.
Here, the key stakeholders are the Regional Managers.
PROCESS:
Defining the key user needs:
The possibilities were very broad. Thus, speaking with Regional Managers helped us uncover the essential data points required for effectively comparing sales data and taking action for our MVP.
What time frame must the data cover?
Regional Managers needed data for two specific time frames:
From the start of the month up to the current day to monitor monthly progress.
For the given day to assess immediate performance.
Whose performance data is needed?
Data should provide insights for both:
Individual centers/gyms.
Individual Center Managers managing those locations.
What metrics should be compared?
The primary focus was on the 'Achieved Percentage', as it was the key indicator for deciding actions. Other data points were considered secondary but still useful for further analysis.
These data points gave us our main Goals for the real-time view:
Goal 1: Enable the Regional Manager to select specific time frames.
Goal 2: Enable view of both 'Center/gym level' and 'Center Manager' Performance.
Goal 3: Use 'Achieved Percentage' as the key metric to take quick actions.
So, where do we create the real time view?
The cult Partner portal — cult.fit's customer and partner management software was
the perfect platform to integrate the real-time view.
Image: 4
All levels of the Central Sales Team already relied on this portal for their daily tasks. It was a logical and efficient choice to build the new feature here, ensuring seamless adoption for the Regional Managers.
Image: 4
The cult.fit Partner Portal
Constrains and decision to re-use familiar Components and Modules.
We worked under 3 constrains:
1. Time Constrain
2. Low Development Effort
3. Re-using existing Components
To reduce development time and ensure a seamless user experience, we focused on reusing existing elements from the Partner Portal, which works on a modular format. This allowed us to leverage pre-built modules.
Module 1: Center Manager's Performance Bar
We repurposed the performance bar from the existing Center Manager's performance dashboard to display Regional Manager's sales progress, reducing
design and development effort.
Image: 5
Center Manager
Performance Bar
Image: 5
Center Manager's performance dashboard
Module 2: Table module from Lead Management System
The lead management system's table format was perfect for presenting sales data. This approach retained familiarity for Regional Managers as they used spreadsheets
and its filters extensively. This ensured the intuitiveness of the design.
Image: 6
Table Module of Lead Management system.
Image: 6
Regional Manager's Lead Management Dashboard
The Base Layout for the new Dashboard
After the data points, discussions about re-using components and the place for the real-time view we made a base layout for the Dashboard
Performance Bar Module to see individual Regional Performance Data
Date Module to select specific time frames
Table Module to show breakdown of the sales data at both individual center manager level and center/gym level
Image: 5
Center Manager's performance dashboard
With the base layout we were able to achieve our 'Goal 1' (Ability to select time-frame) as well as 'Goal 2' (Ability to view sales data at both Center/gym level and individual Center Manager level) for the MVP Design.
So, the next step was to iterate and solve 'Goal 3'.
Solving for using 'Achieved Percentage' as the key metric
Our Goal 3 was to use 'Achieved Percentage' as the key metric for the Regional Managers to take quick actions at a glance.
What is Achieved Percentage for the Regional Managers in cult.fit?
It is the Achieved Sales v/s Target Sales. The Target Sales changes everyday and the ideal situation for a Regional Manager is to keep the Achieved Percentage more than 80% for the Centers and it's Center Managers.
Me and my Product Manager sat down to discuss the role of 'Achieved Percentage' column. We concluded that with this column, the Regional Manager should get 2 important information at a glance:
1. The Centers and Center Managers having Achieved Percentage below 80%.
2. If the Achieved Percentage is Increasing or Decreasing as per the date selected.
Below are some of the few contesting explorations:
Option 1
Option 3 (Selected)
Option 4
Option 2
Image: 5
Center Manager's performance dashboard
After the base layout, we ideated the table module and the key metric to solve was "Achieved Percentage' column. There were distinct pros and cons for each options. These were some of the tradeoffs:
While Option 1 was the most simple and easy to read, it lacked detail about the amount of percentage increasing or decreasing.
Option 4 was detailed out but it resulted in information overload and more development effort.
Option 2 was very clear and easy to understand but utilised 2 columns which took away screen estate but had the required information.
Option 3 was the most efficient and had enough data to help the Regional Managers identify the under-performing centers/gyms and Center Managers. It also aligned with the development effort with the developers.
FINAL DESIGN:
Regional Manager's Performance Dashboard
A Dashboard designed for Regional Managers to track and monitor sale performance of centers/gyms and their center managers across their assigned
regions.
Image: 7
Image: 7
The Regional Manager Performance Dashboard
User flow and stages:
The goal: A Regional Manager should be able to seamlessly navigate to the dashboard, select the required time-frame, analyse the real-time sales data and identify necessary actions to guide the Center Managers to take the required actions to reach the sales target if they are under-performing.
Key Features:
Each feature captures an aspect of the new Performance Dashboard, adhering to the goal and requirements of the user.
01
Easily Select the Time-frame
Quick CTAs for 'Month Till Date', 'For the Day' data and the ability to select any date range ensures tracking of short-term and long-term trends.
02
Filter and Sort the Table Module
Ability to view the sales breakdown by Centers/gyms or Center managers, with a sorting filter ensuring a tailored view for targeted analysis.
03
Overall Sales Bar
A overview of total sales achieved vs. the required targets for the selected date range, offering a quick snapshot of the regional performance.
04
Achieved Percentage Column
A visually intuitive, color-coded column displaying achieved percentages, mirroring how Regional Managers traditionally used colors to mark under-performing areas in their spreadsheets, helping them quickly identify areas requiring action.
The new Performance Dashboard was shipped in February, 2024 and since it's launch, it has become the facilitator for Regional Managers during their daily huddles with the Center Managers and has helped drive more sales!
What was the result?
After the launch, our hypothesis was that all the Regional Managers would replace their spreadsheets with the new dashboard. However, we did not anticipate an increase in Overall Revenue due to the recent implementation of the new Performance Dashboard.
5%
increase in overall revenue.
40+
Regional Managers across India rely on the system daily.
*Data updated in May, 2024
The next step: A mobile view!
After Analysing the outcome, we realised the Performance Dashboard needs a mobile view too. A lot of Regional Managers often visit Centers/gyms multiple times a week to supervise and take actions to meet targets. Having a mobile view would allow them to access live sales performance data right from their palms.
However, this was just one part of a much larger plan to optimise the entire Partner Portal for mobile. But due to new OKRs and budget constrains of the organisation, the project was put on hold until further notice.