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 results are intentionally absent from this case study due to their confidential nature.
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.
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? Who is using the results?
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
Communications, Marketing, Partner Management, and Exec Leadership teams bought in to help promote the survey
Implemented best practices for survey design, making the process easier for survey takers
Clear actions tied to survey feedback — for each question in the survey, there is someone at Salesforce who owns the results
Made survey results accessible by building a Tableau dashboard for internal use
Created 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
New Voice of the Partner Survey
New Tableau dashboard with survey results, designed in collaboration with Analytics
New celebration badges for Salesforce employees who received positive shout-outs from partners in the survey
16 custom slide decks, with findings and recommendations presented to each business leader
Outcomes
20% YoY increase in response from AppExchange partners
50% YoY increase in survey completion rate
Usable insights easily accessible by internal teams who serve Salesforce partners
Confirmation that upcoming initiatives aligned with partner priorities
Developed a standardized process for executing the survey annually
Stronger quantitative data, directly supported by qualitative feedback