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Zoom Retirement Study
UX Research
A qualitative user research study to help product owners understand user needs for video conferencing and reduce friction during toolset migration.
full case study
about
As part of the company's platform simplification effort, Blue Shield of California (BSC) made the decision to retire Zoom and rely on Microsoft Teams as its sole video conferencing tool. The goal of UX research in this initiative was to identify critical business operations that will be affected by the retirement of Zoom and to provide product owners with a better understanding of the video conferencing needs of the users they help support.
01
participant selection
Zoom user data broken down by business unit and number of meetings per month. Business unit names were redacted for privacy.
Product owners provided the UX team with data taken from Zoom on the company's licensed users' activity. We chose to survey and interview users who fit one or more of the following criteria:
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High frequency of meetings
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Webinar hosts
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Hosts with external attendees (i.e. perspective members and/or vendors)
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Business units with high video conferencing tool usage overall
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research methodology
Results section of 16 question Userzoom survey.
user zoom survey
A Userzoom survey consisting of 16 questions was created to help the UX research team narrow down the list of potential users to interview. Survey links were sent to those who were identified to have heavy usage of Zoom, particularly those who used its webinar feature frequently.
Figjam file containing notes from user interviews. User and business unit names were redacted for privacy.
user interviews
35 BSC employees across 16 business units were interviewed. We asked users to explain what a day in their life looks like in their role and to elaborate on their specific Zoom use case(s). Interview notes were recorded into Figjam and organized by business unit.
User interviews were the primary research method for this study because it allowed users to talk about their video conferencing needs as well as any concerns they had about the transition to Microsoft Teams Premium.
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data analysis & key findings
Mind maps of specific users and key insights from their interviews. Users' names were redacted for privacy.
Organization of key interview insights into themes.
data analysis
Insights from user interviews were organized into mind maps and common themes as we started to develop the final deliverable. We believed it was important to highlight the pros/cons of both Zoom and Teams, critical features, possible impacts to workflows, as well as perceptions/behaviors users had surrounding the toolset transition.
key findings
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The sales team would be the most heavily impacted by the Zoom retirement, as the majority of their work is external-facing.
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The corporate events team, who holds large enterprise-wide events via Zoom, were unsure if Teams Premium has the capacity or features needed to continue hosting events of the same high production value.
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Areas of the business who interact with members of Congress or other government officials would also be heavily impacted, as these external parties primarily use Zoom
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Participants were concerned about the company being perceived as "difficult to work with" for using a less widely-used video conferencing tool
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user personas
Along with presenting the key insights and common themes found from user interviews, user personas were created as part of the final deliverable to help product owners understand the different types of BSC employees that utilize video conferencing. A total of 8 personas were created, with each persona representing one of the unique Zoom use cases that were identified through user interviews. The 8 personas included:
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The Host/Facilitator
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The Coordinator
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The Big Event Host
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The Everything Person
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The Skeptic
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The International Host
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The Traveler
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The Learner
05
study outcomes
impacts
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Due to UX research findings, the DEX team was able to extend 400 Zoom licenses for the sales team for an additional 6 months after the initial Zoom retirement timeline, enabling them to successfully transition their work over to Teams Premium
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The corporate events team were given 10 Webex licenses in order to continue hosting high production value events
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Overall, the efforts of this project saved the company $550K annually