Date
2023.11-2024.02
Role
Company
@teamsparta Inc.
Contribution
Designed and launched Korea’s leading CRM automation platform, combining UX strategy and data integration to scale automation, boost client revenue 6x, and secure 50+ contracts.
Situation
Situation
Situation
Our assumptions missed the mark.
User interviews and usage data told the same story: it was time to return to first principles.
As word spread, other industries began to take interest.
Businesses in education, e-commerce, and subscription services saw the potential of CRM automation, without developer bottlenecks.
We believed we had something valuable.
But like many startups, our first launch was a wake-up call: the product needed more work.
Situation
Scenario 1 : CRM Marketing Team
Scenario 2 : HR Team
To understand what was broken,
we took a closer look at how CRM messaging was actually happening in real teams.
Situation
In one office, the CRM marketing team finds themselves stuck in an endless cycle of, “Hey, can you set up this CRM automation?” as developers brace for yet another request.
Meanwhile, in HR, interview reminders are a full-time job—not because hiring is booming, but because there’s no easy way to automate the process.
Manual, error-prone, and exhausting → Reminder fatigue is real.
Challenge
In both cases, users face repetitive tasks, from interview reminders to marketing follow-ups.
The real issue? Dependency. Even simple automations require developer help, causing delays and team-wide friction.
In other words, the current CRM automation leads to
unnecessary delegation of work.
As you can see from this scenario, CRM automation was a mess, especially for startups that can't afford to spend much on maintaining their customer relationship management.
Start point
Through these scenarios, I uncovered core issues from the perspectives of professionals across industries, including operators, marketing leads, travel service managers, and even CEOs of haircare brands.
Everyone needed a CRM for different reasons, but small businesses and startups struggled since they couldn’t afford heavy investment in automation.
Start point
We initially misidentified our product’s target audience, which led us to revisit and refine our targeting strategy for better precision.
Previous wrong target
The previous mistake in targeting was underestimating how much users want to rely on developers and overlooking how important the frequency of CRM automation is.
Re-framed target
But our real overlooked target was businesses that need frequent CRM automation, see CRM as part of their product value, want to set it up without relying on developers, and have a limited budget for CRM.
Start point
What if setting up CRM automation was as simple as scheduling an alarm?
What if marketers could create and run automated campaigns on their own, without writing a single line of code or waiting on developers?
What if developers never had to deal with CRM requests again?
But still, our tool help them to maximize CRM efficiency at a more affordable price than existing management tools, allowing small businesses and startups to integrate it seamlessly into their operations.
Start point
This stage involves defining the UI hierarchy and enhancing it with visualizations while shaping the system’s framework, including user flow, IA, and data flow.
Start point
From whom to when: The 4-step CRM messaging model.
Because PMs and marketers don’t just write, they design every message.
After interviewing dozens of PMs and marketers, I uncovered a shared mental model: they don’t just write messages, they basically design them.
This insight shaped a step-by-step UI flow that mirrors how they naturally think.
UI walkthrough
Let's walk through the how I created effic's efficient 4 steps! throughout Jessica & Emma's eyes. Without relying on developers.
UI walkthrough
Step 1 : Select Recipients
Who should I send this CRM to?
In this step, users choose who the message should go to, using predefined customer or candidate groups.