Rapid Feature Design

From Research to Sales Enablement

Board Tenure

The Challenge

Board tenure management was identified as a high-complexity feature. Due to the time and effort required to meet user needs, it had previously been deprioritised on the roadmap. However, existing customers began requesting it urgently - some even warning they might leave if the feature wasn’t delivered soon.

Project Goals

Understand users’ true needs and pain points around board tenure
Prioritise feature requirements to define an MVP
Reduce customer pain as quickly as possible

My Role

User Researcher + Designer
I led both the research and design efforts, working closely with the PM and Sales team under tight time constraints.

My Approach

Given the time pressure, I applied a Lean UX approach. This meant running fast, iterative cycles and combining research and design into one streamlined process. I collaborated closely with Sales and PM to align business priorities with real user insights.

Research

To inform the design and prioritisation, I conducted lean user interviews focused on understanding:

Customers’ pain points related to board tenure tracking
How and why they currently manage board tenure within the product (or outside of it)
What’s most important to their workflow and their “jobs to be done”
Why those specific needs matter to their organization’s success

This helped us uncover not just feature requests, but the underlying motivations and frustrations, which guided both the MVP scope and design decisions.

Key Findings

Lack of Automation:
Users currently receive no automatic alerts when board members’ terms are nearing their end, making it hard to stay on top of timelines. Notably, the nomination and onboarding process often takes considerable time.
Fragmented Information Management:
Important board member data is tracked across disconnected systems - offline spreadsheets and the platform. This duplication wastes time and increases the risk of errors.

Solutions

MVP Solution (Short-Term Fix)
To quickly address the most pressing user pain points, the MVP focuses on:

Automated Tenure Alerts
Notify administrators when a board member’s term is nearing its end based on the organisation’s nomination timelines, helping them stay ahead of timelines.
Centralised Tenure Tracking
Allow users to input and view key tenure information directly within the platform, minimising reliance on external spreadsheets.

Long-Term Solution (Vision)
The long-term vision is to deliver a seamless, intelligent board management experience by:

Fully Integrated Board Member Profiles
Consolidate all relevant board member data into a single, unified record, allowing users to add customised input fields and choose which information to display based on their organisation’s needs. This flexibility supports a wide range of governance workflows and reduces the need for external tracking.
Data Syncing & Imports
Enable integrations and import tools to sync data from external spreadsheets and other systems, reducing manual work and ensuring consistency.

Outcome

Although I left before the feature was officially released, the work we did had a real impact. We handed off clear research insights and a solid MVP design to the Sales team. They felt confident using our materials to engage customers - and were even able to support subscription expansion based on the strength of the proposed solution.