Consumer battery choices
Understanding Enel X's Consumers' Battery Choices
Scroll to Explore
OVERVIEW
In February, Enel X released a pre-production of their Optima application. It is an application that allows users to view the analytics for their installed solar energy batteries. The tool was still in pre-production so had potential to be improved.
The Problem
The team lacked a holistic understanding of how users were currently using Optima and where opportunities existed to improve the experience.
We needed to uncover user needs while aligning design and development perspectives before the next iteration.
We needed to uncover user needs while aligning design and development perspectives before the next iteration.
The Solution
I scoped the design approach and facilitated strategic workshops to gather insights from users, designers, and developers.
These sessions helped uncover pain points, align stakeholders, and define opportunities for the next phase of Optima’s evolution.
To learn more about the results please check this.
These sessions helped uncover pain points, align stakeholders, and define opportunities for the next phase of Optima’s evolution.
To learn more about the results please check this.
Duration
3 Months (Feb - Apr 2023)
Role
UX Researcher
Design Sprint Architect
Product Strategy &
Design Scoping
Design Sprint Architect
Product Strategy &
Design Scoping
Client
Enel X
Background
Painpoints
Limited visibility into user behaviors
Stakeholder misalignment
Unclear product direction
Original UI
Optima homepage
Goal
Create a shared understanding of user needs and product opportunities to guide the next iteration of Optima
The Problem
How might we
better understand users’ workflows and challenges to identify meaningful opportunities for improving Optima?
The Approach
I scoped the research strategy and facilitated workshops with users, designers, and developers...
Task-based
Usability test
Understanding How Current Users Operate Optima
matrix map
Understanding the Relative Importance of Our Takeaways Based on Efforts & Impact
feasibility & Desirability
scorecard
Understanding the Rank of Our Takeaways Based on a Sum of Feasibility & Desirability
design thinking
workshop
Gaining Input from Managers, Developers, and Analysts to Create a Greater Sense of Community / Collaboration within Our Team
roadmap
Aligning and Communicating our UX Team's Future Work and Improvement Tasks
Synthesis
Connecting Research Back to the Product—Identifying Patterns, Prioritizing Opportunities, and Translating Insights into a Clear Path Forward
Task-based
Usability Test
Our goal was to understand how solution engineers complete their workflow, identify usability issues, and uncover opportunities to improve efficiency, trust, and decision-making.
Understanding User Behavior
Stakeholders
Product Manager
Engineering Team
Design Team
5 Optima Users
3 Internal Solution Engineers
2 External Customers
All with varied experience levels and job functions.
2 External Customers
All with varied experience levels and job functions.
Method
We conducted moderated task-based usability tests where participants completed realistic workflows using provided files while thinking aloud.
Sessions included pre-interview questions, task observation, and follow-up discussion.
Sessions included pre-interview questions, task observation, and follow-up discussion.
Research Analysis through:
Tagged observations into themes
Clustered pain points
Generated "Summary Insight" cards with key takeaways
Technique
The rainbow sheet is a spreadsheet document where we recorded behavioral patterns of our participants. Each participant is assigned a color, and a label (P1 toP5). Every time a participant completed a step in our task, we would fill the cell in.
Benefits
Once completed, our team scanned the sheet to identify the most common behaviors among our participants. Here we:
Mapped participant behaviors step-by-step
Identified recurring friction points
Compared success rates across participants
Outcomes
The study uncovered three recurring usability issues that informed the next design iteration:
Identified high-priority workflow bottlenecks affecting task completion.
Uncovered recurring navigation and information architecture issues across multiple participants.
Revealed terminology that conflicted with users' mental models, reducing confidence throughout the workflow
Facilitation insights
The most valuable insights came from moments of hesitation, not moments of success.
While participants often completed their tasks successfully, the moments where they paused, searched, or sought reassurance revealed the most valuable opportunities for improvement. Observing behavior—not just listening to feedback—helped uncover usability issues that participants themselves couldn't always articulate.
Matrix map
To translate research insights into actionable next steps, I created matrix maps that helped the team identify priority areas through shared evaluation and alignment.
Evaluating Opportunities
Stakeholders
Collaborated with the cross-functional team leads to evaluate user pain points, weigh technical feasibility, and align on priorities for the next design phase.
Product Manager
Project Lead
Developer Lead
Method
Identified the key takeaways from usability testing to carry into the next iteration
Built matrix maps plotting each takeaway by effort and impact
Layered both maps to reveal where our priorities matched and where they diverged
Negotiated final placement of each takeaway based on where the two maps overlapped
Analysis
Compared the UX team's effort/impact placements against the product team's independently
Used the layered map to identify takeaways that both teams rated high-impact, low-effort, these became first-phase priorities
Flagged takeaways where UX and product disagreed on effort or impact as discussion points, not settled decisions
Outcomes
Identified the highest-impact, lowest-effort takeaways for immediate action in the next design iteration
Surfaced misalignment between UX and product's read on effort and impact before it became a roadmap conflict
Built shared buy-in across design and product by grounding prioritization in a visual, not a debate
Facilitation insights
Where the two maps disagreed mattered more than where they matched
One thing I'd ask before finalizing: does the layered map visually show disagreement clearly (like items that moved quadrants between the UX and product versions), or does it just show final agreed placement? If it's the former, lean into that "disagreement made visible" angle since it's a much stronger design/facilitation story than just "we made a matrix and picked priorities.
Feasibility & Desirability Scorecard
While the matrix maps showed where our priorities broadly aligned, we used a feasibility and desirability scorecard to quantitatively resolve the takeaways that were close calls.
Validating Priorities
Stakeholders
Collaborated with the product manager and design team to independently score each takeaway before comparing results.
Product Manager
Design Team
Method
Created a feasibility and desirability column for each takeaway
Individually scored each prioritization to avoid anchoring on one another's judgment
Compared total scores across the team to determine final ranking
Analysis
Ranked all takeaways by combined feasibility and desirability score
High-scoring takeaways moved into the next design iteration
Low-scoring takeaways were routed to a North Star roadmap, a longer-term iteration addressing remaining user wants post-launch, rather than being dropped
Outcomes
Ranked all takeaways by combined feasibility and desirability score
Prioritized the highest-scoring takeaways for the immediate next iteration
Established a North Star roadmap to ensure lower-scoring but still valid user wants weren't lost, just deferred
Facilitation insights
Shared
Understanding comes before shared solutions.
Facilitating the workshop helped align product, engineering, and design around a common understanding of user needs before evaluating potential solutions. Framing ideas through both desirability and feasibility encouraged collaborative decision-making and helped the team prioritize concepts with the greatest potential impact.
Roadmap
We translated research insights into a prioritized roadmap that aligned design, engineering, and product around the highest-impact opportunities.
Strategic Prioritization
Stakeholders
UX Designer (Me)
Lead UX Designer
Product Manager
Engineering Team
Business Stakeholder
Method
Synthesized research findings into design opportunities
Prioritized initiatives by impact and implementation effort
Organized work into Must Haves, Quick Wins, and Filler Work
Sequenced initiatives into a phased roadmap.
Analysis
Synthesized research findings into actionable initiatives
Evaluated impact, effort, and business value
Prioritized work based on user needs and implementation feasibility
Outcomes
Established a shared product roadmap that aligned design, research, and engineering
Prioritized high-impact improvements for the next product iteration
Created a single source of truth for future planning and decision-making
Improved visibility into short-, medium-, and long-term initiatives
Facilitation insights
Prioritization is about creating alignment, not just making a list
Facilitating roadmap discussions highlighted that teams often agreed on the problems but differed on urgency. Using a shared prioritization framework helped build consensus and gave everyone a clear understanding of what came next.
bridge between research and design
Turning Research
into Strategy
By combining multiple research methods, we uncovered multiple insights that became the foundation for redesigning the Optima experience.
Shared Product Direction
Research findings were synthesized into a prioritized roadmap that aligned design, product, and engineering around what to build next.
Actionable Design Priorities
Validated user insights informed high-impact improvements, reducing uncertainty and creating a focused direction for the next iteration.
Research Growth
Leading research synthesis and collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders strengthened my ability to transform qualitative insights into strategic product decisions.