I created a new 
analytics for VK users, overcoming uncertain project requirements

I created a new analytics for VK, overcoming 
uncertain project requirements

I created a new analytics for VK users, overcoming uncertain project requirements

*

*VK is the largest social network in Eastern Europe

*VK — largest social network in Eastern Europe

Years

2022-2023

Role

Product Designer

Platforms

Web

Result

Beta-release

Platforms

Web, Mobile, Desktop
Web, Mobile,
Desktop

Result

From 0 to 4500 MAU
From 0
to 4500 MAU

Platforms

Web, Mobile, Desktop

Result

From 0 to 4500 MAU

About

Project goal

Revamp VK's statistics to provide users with a comprehensive and accessible analytics platform

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

Why we needed it

Users and opinion leaders, expressed dissatisfaction with the existing statistics, finding them inadequate for their needs

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

Business interest

Improving the analytics platform aimed to attract and retain content creators and their audiences

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

Challenges

1. Unclear project requirements:

The project began without specific guidelines, making it difficult to define the scope and objectives

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

2. Absence of a project manager

Without a designated project manager, my team had to assume additional responsibilities

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

3. Balancing user needs and tech constraints

Aligning user desires for detailed statistics with VK's technical capabilities required careful planning and negotiation

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

It's important to stay in the loop with other teams at your company. It makes transitions smoother and allows you to reuse their successful solutions.

Imagine, one day you get a message from your product owner, saying that
opinion leaders are complaining about how statistics at VK works.

VK is a large Russian social network with 100 million MAU that you work at.

How are you going to react?

Imagine, one day you get a message from your product owner, saying that
opinion leaders are complaining about how statistics at VK works.

VK is a large Russian social network with 100 million MAU that you work at.

How are you going to react?

Imagine, one day you get a message from your product owner, saying that opinion leaders are complaining about how statistics at VK works.

VK is a large Russian social network with 100 million MAU that you work at.

How are you going to react?

Imagine, one day you get a message from your product owner, saying that
opinion leaders are complaining about how statistics at VK works.

VK is a large Russian social network with 100 million MAU that you work at.

How are you going to react?

Imagine, one day you get a message from your product owner, saying that
opinion leaders are complaining about how statistics at VK works.

VK is a large Russian social network with 100 million MAU that you work at.

How are you going to react?

Look, people say our statistics are useless, and many people agree with them. Can we do something about it?

Look, people say our statistics are useless, and many people agree with them. Can we do something about it?

Look, people say our statistics are useless, and many people agree with them. Can we do something about it?

I’ll check with the dev team if we can get something nice out of the data we have!

I’ll check with the dev team if we can get something nice out of the data we have!

Look, people say our statistics are useless, and many people agree with them. Can we do something about it?

I’ll check with the dev team if we can get something nice out of the data we have!

Making changes because
of a few complaints?

Making changes because of a few complaines?

We care about user experience,
but it was in business's interests as well

We care about user experience,
but it was in business's interests as well

We care about user experience,
but it was in business's interests as well

VK’s reputation has been struggling during the last few years, and we fight for good public reviews. We want people to enjoy the product at every step of their journey. That’s why it was important to make them feel at home.

Business:

needs to win over content creators and their followers to increase DAU/MAU

Team:

needs more context, and a clear plan of what to do

Users:

want to access detailed statistics of the content they publish on VK

Let’s dive into the project

Goal: make VK’s statistics great again

Goal: make VK’s statistics great again

Goal: make VK’s statistics great again

In another words, to take all statistics and metrics we show to users
that are hidden all over the social network and turn it into one usable product

Brave team members were there to help

Brave team members were there to help

Brave team members were there to help

VK’s old statistics dashboard was a dark wood of old code, it was hard to get something useful out of it. But our team of brave developers, analysts, and UX researchers wanted to turn it into a nice place to stay

What

What

What

Constraints?

Constraints?

Constraints?

That?

That?

That?

Ideas?

Ideas?

Ideas?

How

How

How

Why

Why

Why

should

should

should

What to do?

What to do?

What to do?

Who

Who

Who

Any ideas?

Any ideas?

Any ideas?

How to make decisions?

How to make decisions?

How to make decisions?

Where

Where

Where

How to display

How to display

How to display

Based on what?

Based on what?

Based on what?

Working on a task without clear requirements raises many questions
and brings chaos

Working on a task without clear requirments raises many questions and brings chaos

But once you make a plan, it becomes an exciting journey with your team

But once you make a plan, it becomes an exciting journey with your team

When we decided that our statistics needed an upgrade, we felt lost. We didn’t know where to begin — our goal seemed too big to bite. So I thought that maybe together we’ll find some answers — we scheduled a meeting, and during this hour we created a plan and shared responsibilities.

First team meeting

First team meeting

First team meeting

Competitors analysis

Competitors analysis

Competitors analysis

User interviews

User interviews

User interviews

Determining the requirements

Determining the requirements

Determining the requirements

Understanding the technical constrains

Understanding the technical constrains

Understanding the technical constrains

June

Jun

July

Jul

What statistics do competitors provide?

What, when, and how should we do?

How users work with statistics and what metrics do they really need?

How users work with statistics
and what metrics do they need?

How should we connect users’ desires with our technical capabilities?

How should we connect users’ desires with our capabilities?

Can we really do everything we want to?

Collecting feedback & making adjustments

August

Aug

Prototyping & usability testing

Prototyping & usability testing

Prototyping & usability testing

Are we going in the right direction?

Final design & testing

Final design & testing

Final design & testing

Implementation

Implementation

Implementation

Testing

Testing

Testing

Beta-release & collecting feedback

Beta-release & collecting feedback

Beta-release & collecting feedback

Challenge in trying on a new role

Challenge in trying
on a new role

Our team consisted of developers, analysts, researchers, and me. Since we didn’t have a project manager, someone had to take on their responsibilities.

We shared PM’s functions

Planning and assigning tasks

Monitoring project progress

Setting deadlines

+ Design

+ Development

Solving issues that arise

Negotiating with other VK teams

Preparing project documentation

Ensuring stakeholder satisfaction

We shared PM’s functions

Planning and assigning tasks

Monitoring project progress

Setting deadlines

Solving issues that arise

Negotiating with other VK teams

Preparing project documentation

Ensuring stakeholder satisfaction

We launched the MVP in 3 months.
Was it easy? No. Was it fun? Yes!

During the last user tests 90% of participants successfully completed all assigned tasks and located all metrics they labeled as important.

Feedback

It works better than
YouTube Studio!

It works
better than
YouTube
Studio!

It works better

than YouTube

Studio!

That’s what

users said

Key takeaways

Don’t know what to do — talk to your team
Don’t know what to do —
talk to your team

Don’t know what to do — talk to your team

There is no point in wasting time trying to figure out everything on your own, and there is no shame in asking for help. Communication is key to productivity.

Every team needs a leader

On this project, we did not have an assigned manager, so someone had to take the initiative and step into these shoes. Without a leader, our team felt lost and it was hard to make any decisions.

Users are the best source of information

We did not have clear requirements for this project. However, our users, the ones for whom we were creating this statistics dashboard, were willing to share their needs and pain points with us, so we knew where to start.

User page’s general analytics

Content analytics

Content detailed info