Our Projects
Scorpion Lean UX
Implementation
Overview
Scorpion is a SaaS company that provides AI-powered digital marketing solutions for local businesses. In early 2024, Scorpion partnered with genioLAB to launch a pilot initiative focused on implementing a scalable Lean UX process.
Our team envisioned a robust design framework that would elevate product development by fostering research, iteration, and user-centered collaboration. Branded as the “Lean, Mean UX Machine Team,” the initiative aimed to build a sustainable UX practice from the ground up—selecting appropriate research tools, defining key collaborator roles, establishing process cadence, and documenting best practices.
Grounded in real-world design challenges, genioLAB supported Scorpion in fostering a culture of continuous learning and cross-functional collaboration. The goal was to deliver better user experiences while driving product innovation and long-term success.
Project Duration
December 2023–October 2024
The Problem
Scorpion’s product development environment moved at a fast pace and often relied on a “design it, build it, and see if users like it” mindset. While agile in theory, this approach frequently resulted in misaligned features, lower user satisfaction, and increased development costs due to repeated redesigns and fixes.
Goal
To address these challenges, genioLAB helped shift Scorpion’s focus toward a structured UX process built on research, collaboration, and iteration. The aim was to embed user insights early in the design lifecycle—improving usability, reducing rework, and creating products that better aligned with user expectations and business goals.
Our Role
As the lead UX and product design agency on this initiative, genioLAB developed and executed a strategic pilot plan that included collaborative workshops, ready-to-use templates, and a Lean UX guide tailored for future product teams. The team also partnered with Scorpion’s project leadership to integrate this new workflow into their project management ecosystem, creating a dedicated Lean UX directory to track progress, align stakeholders, and support time-efficient execution.
Starting from the Beginning
Identifying Key Pain Points
In Scorpion’s fast-paced environment, genioLAB quickly identified the need for a structured UX process. Although some stakeholders initially expressed skepticism—concerned about the time, cost, and resource demands—we recognized that even a foundational UX framework could significantly enhance product development.
This realization was grounded in recurring challenges common to organizations without an embedded UX culture: disconnected research efforts, assumption-based feature planning, and limited cross-functional alignment.
Our initial audit of the existing UX process uncovered the following gaps:
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Research was primarily conducted by the Product Marketing team, with findings stored in Confluence and limited involvement from the design team.
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Feature decisions were often driven by competitive analysis, client requests, or internal assumptions rather than user data.
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Most user validation occurred post-launch, largely triggered by complaints or support inquiries focused on feature usability.
With this feedback, we created a clear roadmap to build momentum and introduce Lean UX gradually—starting small, proving value, and scaling through collaboration.
Next Steps
1
Established a UX Vision and Strategy
Objective: Define a UX vision aligned with Scorpion’s product and company goals, and socialize it across departments.
Action: genioLAB worked with internal leaders to select a small feature for a pilot study. A team of internal early adopters was assembled to participate in the first UX research effort. This approach minimized friction while demonstrating the value of structured UX practices.
2
Created Cross-Functional UX Teams
Objective: Integrate UX into every stage of product development through diverse collaboration.
Action: genioLAB helped form a team of eight professionals: two designers, one product manager, three developers (front-end, back-end, QA), one product marketer, and one project manager—ensuring representation across disciplines.
3
Integrated Designers into the Research Process
Objective: Connect designers directly with users to ground design in real needs and behaviors.
Action: Designers participated in all research activities conducted for each feature, enabling direct application of insights into design decisions.
4
Centralized and Shared Research Findings
Objective: Improve accessibility and collaboration by centralizing insights.
Action: genioLAB guided the evaluation of research tools, and the team selected Great Question for its robust features and AI-driven analysis. This tool became the single source of truth for UX data and insights.
5
Used Evidence-Based Decision Making
Objective: Shift feature prioritization toward user needs supported by qualitative and quantitative data.
Action: While evidence-based decisions were still evolving, my team and I collaborated with engineering, product marketing, and data science teams to develop a plan for integrating research insights into daily workflows.
6
Conducted Regular Usability Testing
Objective: Identify usability issues early and improve product alignment with user expectations.
Action: For the first time, usability testing became a formal part of the development process. With each sprint, testing became a routine part of the Agile “think” and “make” phases.
7
Implemented Rapid Prototyping and Iteration
Objective: Design, test, and refine features quickly to minimize waste.
Action: Prototypes were built using Figma and Protopie, and genioLAB collaborated with developers to integrate these into the existing component library—streamlining the iteration cycle.
8
Established Continuous User Feedback Loops
Objective: Gather ongoing insights from real users post-launch.
Action: Using Great Question, genioLAB developed reusable templates, maintained a participant database, and tracked user interviews to ensure regular, structured feedback.
9
Leveraged Analytics and Behavioral Data
Objective: Combine qualitative and quantitative insights for a complete view of user behavior.
Action: Existing tools like Microsoft BI and Amplitude were connected to Great Question, allowing the design team to access centralized behavioral data alongside research findings for deeper analysis.
The Pilot Project
After defining our vision and strategy, we spent several weeks building the foundation for a sustainable Lean UX process. To ensure timely execution, we selected a pilot project that was straightforward yet impactful. In our first session, we identified a critical issue with one of our screens:
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Business Problem:
Clients reported difficulty accessing communication details. Users were confused about how to navigate from the activity feed to the details screen.
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Business Outcome:
Improve access efficiency by measuring how quickly users could locate the details screen.
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Users:
Clients, with a particular focus on legal professionals and attorneys.
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User Outcomes and Benefits:
By simplifying access to communication details from the activity feed, users could respond to their customers faster and more effectively.
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Solution:
Consolidate multiple screens into clearly defined sections on the main customer account screen.
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Hypothesis:
"We believe that quicker access to the details screen will be achieved if legal clients are provided with a direct pathway to critical information."
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& 8. Most Important Thing with Least Amount of Work:
Not applicable to this case study.
We quickly moved into the design phase, creating a prototype that addressed these challenges. We then conducted user testing with five clients to evaluate the new flow.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
“All users understood where to find important content, either by selecting the communication card from the activity feed or by navigating directly to the account details screen via the main screen link."
In the next sprint, we moved the feature into production, launching it shortly afterward.
For the full context, explore the Communication Suite's case study here: Communications Suite and Scorpion Connect with AI Chat.
Takeaways
Impact
The Lean UX pilot project was seamlessly integrated into the ongoing development of the Communications Suite, both for new features and revisiting existing ones. Moving forward, Scorpion continuied refining and enhancing these Lean UX practices, ensuring they support the iterative design approach and adapt as the platform evolves.
What We Learned
Challenges: The lack of a structured UX process was a problem, added with the fact that people tend to resist against the introduction of a new process, the situation became somewhat delicate: the team need to tread lightly and make strategic moves blackened by data to gain the trust of stakeholders and potential collaborators from other departments.
Key Takeaways: While establishing a new essential process is not easy, we found that people were more willing to have discussions when a plan was in place. While I had to work on this project during down time, the pay off was that people started to listen and we managed to get things going from that point on.