Making enterprise group creation simpler

More admins created their first groups

First-session group creation rose 40%. Philippine Airlines used the feature to create crew groups within days of onboarding.¹

The change let admins convert the email distribution lists they already had instead of rebuilding groups by hand. I led research with enterprise admins, problem framing, interaction design and prototype testing. We shipped the first version within four weeks.

Helping admins get their teams started

Microsoft Kaizala connected desk workers and frontline employees through large communication groups. Company admins used the Kaizala Management Portal to create groups and manage thousands of users.

The portal was often the first step in getting an organisation onto the mobile app. Yet admins dropped off after their first login, created fewer than 10% of the groups expected for their company size, and returned when account managers reminded them.

Microsoft retired Kaizala in 2023.

My role

I led research with enterprise admins, problem framing, interaction design and prototype testing. I worked with product management, engineering and account teams to agree on the solution. We shipped the first version within four weeks and iterated for another eight weeks.

Start with the groups admins already had

I interviewed enterprise admins across industries and reviewed first-session behaviour. With the product manager, I analysed where admins abandoned group creation.

Seven out of ten admins created groups from existing email distribution lists. They already had the membership information, but the portal made them collect email addresses and rebuild each group by hand.

Low group creation also limited mobile app adoption: employees needed groups to join. Account managers and Microsoft support teams were helping customers complete work the portal should have supported.

Give the homepage a next step

The original homepage showed existing groups and buttons for creating new ones. Admins still had to work out where to start.

I designed the homepage to suggest groups from the enterprise directory, show adoption metrics and identify users who had not registered. Admins could see both the next setup action and who still needed to join.

Two decisions shaped the flow

Convert distribution lists into groups

We showed email distribution lists as group suggestions on the homepage. Admins could convert a list into a group without preparing a spreadsheet or entering members one by one.

Full organisation-wide creation in one click was a frequent request, but it required more engineering work. We shipped distribution-list-based creation first, then used adoption gains to make the case for deeper automation.

Use familiar groups instead of asking admins to interpret templates

We tested purpose-based templates, such as Project Team and Regional Office, against suggestions from the enterprise directory. Admins preferred the distribution lists because they recognised the teams and membership.

I added success confirmations and a prompt to create the next group, so admins could repeat the setup without returning to the beginning.

Results and the next problem

First-session group creation increased by 40%. We also saw more downstream mobile app downloads, less dependence on account managers and better activation-funnel completion.

Philippine Airlines was one of the customers that used the feature to create crew groups within days of onboarding. This product video shows the workflow.

Admins completed setup faster, but returned less often once that work was done. We needed to give them a reason to return, which informed later work on reporting and organisational analytics.

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