Voice of the Partner
The Voice of the Partner Survey is an annual research effort that invites Salesforce Partners to provide comprehensive feedback on their experience working with the company. Aggregated results are shared with internal teams to measure the impact of existing partner initiatives and inform business strategy for the upcoming year.
Role: Project Management | Survey Design | User Interviews | Usability Testing | Data Analysis | Video Editing | Slide Design | Dashboard Design | Socialization
Note: Final images are intentionally absent from this case study due to the confidential nature of the results.
The Challenge
Redesign the annual survey mechanism to more accurately capture partner sentiment, and promote internal use of results.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
To ensure the survey results could be used effectively, I engaged representatives from sixteen (16) partner-adjacent teams in order to:
Understand their team's priorities and curiosities
Understand how their team uses existing data
Prioritize and finalize survey questions
Brainstorm research ideas and promotional strategies post-survey
This effort also included collaboration with several third-party vendors, internal analysts, and my direct manager.
The Original Survey
Time-consuming: over 120 questions, multiple-choice and open-ended
Not very actionable: questions and ratings did not pinpoint a specific issue
Scattered engagement: survey was advertised broadly and impersonally, during Salesforce's busiest event of the year
Manual analysis: results were calculated in Excel and linked to static charts
Design Considerations
Where did the survey and questions originate from?
How will content changes impact year-over-year analyses?
Why is there lower engagement from some user demographics vs. others?
How might we encourage internal teams to leverage results?
Survey Improvements
Decreased total question count by 33% YoY
Adopted best practices for Likert scale, using specific statements
Assigned owners to each question across the business
Engaged Communications, Marketing, Partner Management, and Exec Leadership teams to help promote the survey
Presented survey results in an interactive Tableau dashboard for internal use
Maintained detailed project documentation for future iterations
Test, Iterate, Repeat
Comprehension Testing: survey questions
Usability Testing: end-to-end survey experience (email through submission)
Usability Testing: interactive Tableau dashboard
Concept Testing: one-page visual summary of survey results
Survey landing page (before)
Survey landing page (after)
Final Deliverables
Voice of the Partner Survey
Messaging for Comms and Marketing teams
15 Custom Presentations, including:
High-level takeaways
Quantitative analyses
Direct quotes and video interview clips with partners
Interactive Tableau dashboard
Promotional Slack announcements
Digital celebration badges for Salesforce employees who received shout-outs
Outcomes
20% YoY increase in response from AppExchange partners
50% YoY increase in survey completion rate
Standardized process for executing the survey annually
Stronger quantitative data, supported by qualitative feedback
Insights easily accessed by partner-adjacent teams
Survey results reinforced upcoming initiatives