Guardian design
Guardian design
2024
Builder.ai
Guardian is an in-house tool designed to centralize the management of:
• Support tickets,
• Users,
• Teams
Previously, support engineers relied on a combination of third-party tools like ClickUp for ticket tracking and manual processes for user and team management. This fragmented approach created inefficiencies and a lack of cohesion in their workflows.
ROLE
Product designer
RESPONSIBILITIES
UX/UI
Product strategy
Prototyping
TEAM
Jordan James, Product Manager
Chiranjib Ghosal, UI developer
Bhaskar Pandey, Frontend Developer
Tanvi Tyagi, Backend Developer
PROBLEM / WHY IT WAS NEEDED
As the volume of IDE (Integrated Development Environment) support tickets increased, existing tools like ClickUp and manual workflows became insufficient to ensure timely responses. This resulted in delays in ticket resolution. It also limited managers' ability to monitor these delays effectively.
As the volume of IDE (Integrated Development Environment) support tickets increased, existing tools like ClickUp and manual workflows became insufficient to ensure timely responses. This resulted in delays in ticket resolution. It also limited managers' ability to monitor these delays effectively.
OUR VISION
Centralize Management: Create a single platform where support engineers and managers could manage tickets, teams, and users.
Automate Ticket Assignments: Ensure no ticket is left unassigned, reducing wait times.
Increase Manager Visibility: Notify managers of SLA breaches and provide an overview of key support metrics.
Centralize Management: Create a single platform where support engineers and managers could manage tickets, teams, and users.
Automate Ticket Assignments: Ensure no ticket is left unassigned, reducing wait times.
Increase Manager Visibility: Notify managers of SLA breaches and provide an overview of key support metrics.
RESEARCH
Data Analysis:
We analyzed the past 3 months of ticket data to identify patterns, bottlenecks, and causes of SLA breaches(tasks not meeting promised time frames).
Key Research Insights:
Unassigned Tickets: Many tickets were left unassigned, especially on weekends, leading to slower responses and a growing backlog.
Missed Deadlines (SLA Breaches): Managers were frustrated because they only noticed missed deadlines after they happened, with no system to alert them beforehand.
Manual Team Management: Support engineers spent too much time managing team rosters and roles manually, which slowed down their daily tasks.
Limited Visibility: Managers didn’t have a single view of important support metrics, forcing them to manually compile reports for updates.
Data Analysis:
We analyzed the past 3 months of ticket data to identify patterns, bottlenecks, and causes of SLA breaches(tasks not meeting promised time frames).
Key Research Insights:
Unassigned Tickets: Many tickets were left unassigned, especially on weekends, leading to slower responses and a growing backlog.
Missed Deadlines (SLA Breaches): Managers were frustrated because they only noticed missed deadlines after they happened, with no system to alert them beforehand.
Manual Team Management: Support engineers spent too much time managing team rosters and roles manually, which slowed down their daily tasks.
Limited Visibility: Managers didn’t have a single view of important support metrics, forcing them to manually compile reports for updates.
USer profiles
USer profiles
ACTIONS
ACTIONS
Pain Points/ Opportunities
Pain Points/ Opportunities
Rachit
(Support engineer)
Rachit
(Support engineer)
Thoughts: How many tickets I have today? Which ones are on highest priority
Thoughts: How many tickets I have today? Which ones are on highest priority
Actions: Checks tickets page and filters tasks by assignee and SLA
Actions: Checks tickets page and filters tasks by assignee and SLA
Checks all tickets page and filters tasks by assignee and SLA.
Checks all tickets page and filters tasks by assignee and SLA.
Changes the timing of shift/ rota in users section
Changes the timing of shift/ rota in users section
Pain Point: High ticket volumes during peak times create stress.
Opportunity: Add escalations with predefined options, to escalate tickets without disrupting workflow.
Pain Point: High ticket volumes during peak times create stress.
Opportunity: Add escalations with predefined options, to escalate tickets without disrupting workflow.
Millie (Manager)
Millie (Manager)
Thoughts: How can I improve the workflow. I need to identify which areas need my attention
Thoughts: How can I improve the workflow. I need to identify which areas need my attention
Actions: Checks dashboard frequently to overview performance.
Actions: Checks dashboard frequently to overview performance.
Checks tickets performance in dashboard page and sees what teams are doing
Checks tickets performance in dashboard page and sees what teams are doing
Sets rules for auto assigning tickets in automations section
Sets rules for auto assigning tickets in automations section
Pain Point: The need for clearer notifications and more customizable dashboards.
Opportunity: Include notification summaries with actionable links.
Pain Point: The need for clearer notifications and more customizable dashboards.
Opportunity: Include notification summaries with actionable links.
FEATURE - ALL TICKETS PAGE
Research Insight: Support engineers often filtered tickets by status, so we prioritized advanced filtering features.
Design Decision: We introduced filters like team filter, status filter, SLA filter, filter by tags etc to help engineers quickly find and prioritize specific types of tickets.
Since stakeholders required more than seven columns, we added a horizontal scroll to the table. This approach helps reduce cognitive overload by avoiding an overwhelming amount of information at once.
Clicking on any ticket row opens its details, where the ticket can be managed, or acted upon, such as escalating it.
Research Insight: Support engineers often filtered tickets by status, so we prioritized advanced filtering features.
Design Decision: We introduced filters like team filter, status filter, SLA filter, filter by tags etc to help engineers quickly find and prioritize specific types of tickets.
Since stakeholders required more than seven columns, we added a horizontal scroll to the table. This approach helps reduce cognitive overload by avoiding an overwhelming amount of information at once.
Clicking on any ticket row opens its details, where the ticket can be managed, or acted upon, such as escalating it.
FEATURE - DASHBOARD
Managers needed real-time updates on ticket performance.
So we built a visual dashboard. It shows metrics like open tickets, breached tickets, and causes of breaches etc. Managers can track team and engineer performance from here. They can see what needs attention and how breaches change over time. This can help them plan the workflow more efficiently.
Managers needed real-time updates on ticket performance.
So we built a visual dashboard. It shows metrics like open tickets, breached tickets, and causes of breaches etc. Managers can track team and engineer performance from here. They can see what needs attention and how breaches change over time. This can help them plan the workflow more efficiently.
FEATURE - TEAMS AND USERS
We created a Teams page to help manage bulk actions like changing roles and assigning teams and managing team rotas. (A team rota is a schedule that outlines which team members are assigned to work at specific times).
We also designed the Users page to help engineers easily manage user shift timings and helps managers to track availability of engineers.
We created a Teams page to help manage bulk actions like changing roles and assigning teams and managing team rotas. (A team rota is a schedule that outlines which team members are assigned to work at specific times).
We also designed the Users page to help engineers easily manage user shift timings and helps managers to track availability of engineers.
The teams have levels to them. Inside a team exists multiple support levels (L1,L2,L3) and there are sub teams working on different levels. Here is example, Assembly_v1 is a team, L1, L2 are support levels that this team works on. Blocks frontend is a sub team of Assembly_v1 team working for L1 support level.
The teams have levels to them. Inside a team exists multiple support levels (L1,L2,L3) and there are sub teams working on different levels. Here is example, Assembly_v1 is a team, L1, L2 are support levels that this team works on. Blocks frontend is a sub team of Assembly_v1 team working for L1 support level.
FEATURE - AUTOMATIONS
To further streamline support operations, I designed an Automations Page in Guardian. This page allows support engineers and managers to create custom automation rules for ticket assignment and escalation. Users can set "if-this-then-that" conditions, such as:
If a ticket contains the keyword "urgent," assign it to the Priority Support Team.
If a ticket subject includes "billing," route it to the Billing Support team.
If a ticket remains unassigned for more than 2 hours, escalate it to a manager.
This page empowers teams to reduce manual intervention, ensuring faster ticket routing and improving SLA compliance.
To further streamline support operations, I designed an Automations Page in Guardian. This page allows support engineers and managers to create custom automation rules for ticket assignment and escalation. Users can set "if-this-then-that" conditions, such as:
If a ticket contains the keyword "urgent," assign it to the Priority Support Team.
If a ticket subject includes "billing," route it to the Billing Support team.
If a ticket remains unassigned for more than 2 hours, escalate it to a manager.
This page empowers teams to reduce manual intervention, ensuring faster ticket routing and improving SLA compliance.
RESULTS
We designed the All Tickets and Dashboard pages for the MVP in three weeks, allowing us to launch Guardian quickly. The All Tickets page helped support engineers manage the growing number of tickets, while the Dashboard page provided managers with a clear overview of ticket performance. Post launch, we added features like the Teams, Users, and Automations pages. The product manager was happy with enhanced user experience, and both support engineers and managers found it easier and more efficient to manage their work.
We designed the All Tickets and Dashboard pages for the MVP in three weeks, allowing us to launch Guardian quickly. The All Tickets page helped support engineers manage the growing number of tickets, while the Dashboard page provided managers with a clear overview of ticket performance. Post launch, we added features like the Teams, Users, and Automations pages. The product manager was happy with enhanced user experience, and both support engineers and managers found it easier and more efficient to manage their work.
NEXT STEPS
We aim to enhance our dashboards by making them customizable.
To achieve this, we are developing dashboards specifically for team performance and individual user performance. Currently, we have a common dashboard for all tickets, which can be filtered by team to assess their performance. However, we’ve realized that the current metrics, such as the total number of open tickets and average resolution time, focus on general ticket statistics and may not fully capture team dynamics. For instance, a team handling fewer tickets might be dealing with more complex, high-priority issues, which isn’t reflected in the existing metrics. Therefore, we need to prioritize different metrics to better evaluate team performance.
This is our next focus.
We aim to enhance our dashboards by making them customizable.
To achieve this, we are developing dashboards specifically for team performance and individual user performance. Currently, we have a common dashboard for all tickets, which can be filtered by team to assess their performance. However, we’ve realized that the current metrics, such as the total number of open tickets and average resolution time, focus on general ticket statistics and may not fully capture team dynamics. For instance, a team handling fewer tickets might be dealing with more complex, high-priority issues, which isn’t reflected in the existing metrics. Therefore, we need to prioritize different metrics to better evaluate team performance.
This is our next focus.