App Creation Case Study:
Travel Arrangers View
on myCWT Mobile
At CWT, most of the products we built were meant for business travelers. This case study shows our work process for a new view within our mobile app, myCWT Mobile, dedicated to Travel Arrangers (TA). These are employees who book and manage travel for others within their company.
1. Defining the goal
Our first step in this project was to distill the goals, to better understand what is it that we were trying to achieve. In this case, it was a service we wanted to provide to our clients, which would differentiate us from the competition.
We gathered some initial data that showed some great potential in catering to Travel Arrangers, who had no existing solutions built for them.
106K
Travel Arranger profiles
55%
of calls to agents are done by TAs
~50%
of booking is done by TAs
~2.1M
trips booked by
TA's per year
Main Goals
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Create a differentiated offering for TA's
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Reduce number of calls to CWT agents by TA's
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Increase client and traveler awareness of myCWT Mobile
Main KPI's
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20k monthly TA users
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Reduce TA calls to agents by 10% (of trip information and booking intents)
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10K monthly hotel bookings by TA's
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2K monthly referrals to travelers
2. Preliminary research
It was the first time we’d built anything for TAs, and we had no idea what they needed. We knew we wanted to create a product that would help their daily work, but what? As we planned to support their work, it was important for us to learn about how they arrange travel, so we could understand how to solve their pain points and offer better services to cater to their needs.
A. Interviews
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In-person interviews with Travel Arrangers from multiple clients in the US and UK (Minneapolis, London and St. Louis.)
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Follow-up with remote interviews with 20 global travel arrangers (EMEA & APAC).
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Participants were interviewed about the way they booked travel, the tools they used, and their main concerns.
The first thing we noticed was that Travel Arrangers can be segmented into two personas: Travel Arrangers and Executive Assistants.
Personas A: The Executive Assistant
The traveler's personal assistant, who needs to arrange travel in addition to everything else they do. They're deeply concerned with the traveler's well-being, and consider themselves responsible for every little detail of the trip.
Executive Assistants are Considered responsible for everything, from booking, to setting the meetings and making sure all goes as planned. In the middle of the night, or during the weekend, they make themselves available for the travelers, as they see it as part of their job. Therefore, they need information about the travelers' trips to be delivered to them, even outside of work hours.
Personas B: Travel Arrangers
Travel Arrangers are responsible for managing travel for several employees in the company, as a full-time role or in addition to another position, They mostly act as guardians of the company travel policy and maintain processes.
Travel Arrangers don't see themselves responsible for anything other than the things they have to do, and stop being arrangers when their work day is done. They will try to do what is best for the traveler and the company, but will not sacrifice personal time. In their eyes, their role is to book the trips, and help when needed to some extent.
B. Data analysis
When looking at our user profiles through the eyes of our personas, it was clear that the Executive Assistant persona is the main one for us to cater to. Furthermore, we came to realize that it was the persona that needed a mobile app.
Our Personas!
3. Design iteration
We brainstormed different solutions from various P.O.V. of our personas. Our goal was to distill a value offering that would be based on user needs, but also meet the product's goals. We challenged our assumptions and created new ideas to solve the problem. We looked for a way to serve as many perspectives as possible.
We started working on multiple low-fidelity concepts and prototyped them. Our goal was to run a high-level assessment of our design ideas before development. We tested our concepts with potential users of this app who matched our Executive Assistant persona.
After each test, we adjusted the design according to the feedback, and tested again. This iterative process allowed us to rapidly and effectively test our assumptions and improve. By the end of the design iteration process, we had a design concept that we were much more confident matched the users’ needs.
Methods and Tools
Un-moderated, online tests with Travel Arrangers
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Platform: Usertesting.com
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Screener questions were set in the survey to ensure the target profiles were met
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5 different tests were conducted on 12 different concepts
4. Wireframing & Definitions
Final Design!
Viewing all the managed
travelers' upcoming trips
Switching between travel
and TA modes
Viewing all the managed
travelers and their trips
5. Impact
Our new tool was well received by our clients and Travel Arrangers, who appreciated having a tool tailored to their needs. We followed up with multiple user studies and kept tracking our usage data to measure the impact.
Usage data:
36K
monthly unique
TA users
2.4K
monthly hotel bookings by TA’s
-10%
reduction in calls to agents by TA's
1K
monthly referrals
to travelers
User testimonials:
" I love the option to view and monitor my travelers’ trips when I'm not in the office"
" I make sure to tell all my travelers to download and use the myCWT app. That way, they can see their own travel information and don't need my help as much.""
"I always use other tools to monitor trips, but myCWT feels like it was built for me!"