Project overview

HS Content Lab was a content reciepe library that allowed HS customers to create content for their social networks. This solution came up from the colaboration of different teams: Product, engineering and marketing. The result was well-recived by the customers.

Internal data indicated a significant challenge: almost 50% of users who started a free trial on the HS platform abandoned it before achieving meaningful progress.

Further user research revealed that a key reason for inactivity was content creation paralysis. Many users, especially small business owners who handle their own social media alongside other responsibilities, found it difficult to come up with compelling content ideas. This struggle led to them becoming inactive and eventually abandoning the platform.

Conceptualize, design, prototype and test a new feature within the HS desktop platform, to reduce the time invested by customers to create social media content for their accounts and improve their presence online.

Double diamond framework

Content

The primary users affected were dubbed “Solo Superstars”—entrepreneurs or small business owners juggling multiple responsibilities.

They often lacked advanced marketing expertise and the time to develop consistent, compelling content for their audiences.

To tackle this issue, a two-part workshop series was held. The initial workshop centered on generating possible solutions, while the subsequent workshop concentrated on developing these potential concepts.

Workshop 1

Workshop-generated ideas were categorized into three groups based on their reliance on an AI-powered solution: from fully manual to fully automated. This collaborative process resulted in the development of two concepts.

Workshop 2

The second workshop focused on mapping the elements within the system that would be involved with the project: Entities, Entry points, post structure, brand and visual identity, etc.

To tackle this issue, a two-part workshop series was held. The initial workshop centered on generating possible solutions, while the subsequent workshop concentrated on developing these potential concepts.

After presenting both concepts to stakeholders, the Content Lab was selected for further development due to its straightforward approach and immediate applicability.

The Content Lab was designed with features tailored to the needs of Solo Superstars:

• Suggested Ideas: Customized content prompts generated from questionnaire responses.oncepts to stakeholders, the Content Lab was selected for further development due to its straightforward approach and immediate applicability.
• Idea Catalog: A curated library of content ideas categorized for easy navigation.
• Questionnaire: A tool to personalize content suggestions based on user input.

The concept was well received. Users particularly valued its ability to spark ideas when creativity is lacking and to generate quality “filler” content. The content categories were generally clear and made sense to users.

Additionally, the UI was praised for being intuitive, easy to navigate, and well-structured for filtering ideas efficiently.

The main suggestion for improvement was to provide more real-world examples of how other organizations have implemented similar ideas.

Rounds of improvements followed the concept testing. These enhancements aimed to make the Content Lab more user-friendly.

A promising Solution

These design were presented to the dev team so the could provide feedback and questions about the tool functionality. Unfortunately, the Content Lab was not launched due to company-wide layoffs in 2022.

Nonetheless, the project stands as a testament to user-centered design and the potential of collaborative problem-solving in addressing real-world challenges.