A layout, editing, and control software for laser cutting and engraving.
Reducing support tickets by optimizing license key management
"The success of the optimizing license key management project is solely the result of the talent and dedication of our UX research team.
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Their work—conducting in-depth user research, mapping complex service flows, and prioritizing impactful solutions—has already led to significant improvements in customer experience and operational efficiency for our client."
Founding Partner, CX by Design
Overview
Role: UX Researcher (Team of 3)​
Duration: 3 months (Jul - Oct, 2024)
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Fathom Notetaker, Google Docs, Zoom, ClickUp
Key Skills
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Research planning
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Desk research
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Stakeholder interviews
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Jobs to be done
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Customer journey mapping
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Service blueprints
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Information modeling
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Gap analysis
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Presentation of actionable insights to stakeholders
2,000 / 2,500
average monthly support tickets related to license key issues
LightBurn's support team struggles with managing an overwhelming volume of support tickets, of which 80% related to license key issues. Customers often faced confusion with the license renewal model, resulting in incorrect or invalid purchases.
Additionally, with new license sales plateauing due to market saturation, the business needed to shift focus to license upgrades and renewals as key revenue drivers.
Project Goal
To understand customer journeys surrounding LightBurn’s license key management and uncover gaps and opportunities within the supporting systems.
Impact
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The simplifications made to the purchase and license management process are expected to significantly reduce the number of support tickets related to license keys.
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The creation of an actionable roadmap laid the foundation for ongoing improvements in the customer experience at LightBurn.
Approach
Understanding the current state / stakeholder interviews
To start, I held interviews with the support and development teams, along with the company president to learn more about the different customer journeys, pain points, company’s goals with license keys moving forward, and the business values we needed to uphold. Simultaneously, we mapped out detailed customer flows for-
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Purchasing new licenses
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Upgrading license keys
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Renewing license keys
blueprint for the "new license purchase" flow
key
Service mapping and gap analysis
I then transformed customer flows into detailed service maps that outlined not just the user journey, but also the underlying systems and external actors at each touchpoint.
By comparing the company’s goals with the existing user experience, we identified a number of gaps/issues for improvement in license key management, purchase flows, and communication around license key renewals.
Prioritizing solutions
Next, we reworded the gaps/issues into opportunities and prioritized them using a Now, Next, Later framework. The prioritization was based on three criteria:
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Business priority
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Customer priority
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Ease of implementation
This allowed us to focus on high-impact, easily implementable solutions in the short term while setting up a roadmap for more complex, long-term improvements.
Now, Next, Later spreadsheet
Key opportunities found
Reduce customer's need to manually input license keys when logged in on LB website.
Educate customers regarding LightBurn's business model to reduce confusion when a new update is launched.
Inform customers how/where to activate their license before upgrading their key.
Focusing on the purchase experience for license key upgrades / renewals
Out of the 27 opportunities found, we focused on redesigning customer purchase experience related to license key renewals and upgrades, as they were high on the priority list.
Using the Jobs to Be Done framework, I identified the primary tasks customers needed to accomplish with redesigned purchase experience. I then developed solutions for each of those, addressing both the user needs and business goals.​
key intentions of customers related to upgrades and renewals
Ideating solutions for each intention, and mapping them with business values to ensure alignment with company goals
Creating an information model
This was followed by the creation of an information model (using an entity-relationship diagram) to map out the key objects and their attributes.
This helped us identify the natural grouping of elements, and create a foundation for the Information Architecture (IA) of the solution to be incorporated in the redesign.
Impact
Tackling complexity and redesigning buying experience
I collaborated with a UX designer to translate the insights and the information model into low-fidelity wireframes. After multiple iterations and feedback from stakeholders, the designs were refined and ultimately approved for development. These will later be tested with target users to check the effectiveness of our efforts.
Here are a few key changes made-
A. Removing customer's need to
recall their license key number
A recurrent theme in a fair amount of support tickets was the customer's issue with recalling their 32 digit long license key, and then manually inputting it to upgrade that license. Asking customers to log in before upgrading gave us an opportunity to help them recognize their keys and reduce complexity.
before
after
B. Reducing information overload and
making a more efficient customer journey
Key information regarding upgrades and software updates, which was previously hidden amongst cluttered product descriptions, was made more visible. Significant number of support tickets were related to customer's confusion regarding the license update model, so educating them was a key factor in reducing support burden.
before
after
What was accomplished?
Reduction in support tickets
The simplifications made to the purchase and license management process are expected to significantly reduce the number of support tickets related to license keys.
Strategic roadmap
The implementation of a Now, Next, Later framework has provided the client with a clear, actionable roadmap for continual improvements in customer experience.
Better customer satisfaction
By removing unnecessary complexity and better aligning with user expectations, the new purchase experience for license key upgrades/renewals is set to enhance customer satisfaction and support long-term business growth.
"Even just from a training standpoint, these (service blueprints) are going to be fantastic, right? This is the kind of stuff that people in support and dev teams typically learn through experience. But these blueprints will be really valuable, especially as they allow employees to understand what happens in these error cases and how to handle them!"
President, LightBurn