apple
Bring to life the first design for Truth Serum, Apple’s internal A/B and multivariate testing platform for global marketing, apps, and iTunes teams
Services
Competitor research
User research
User experience design
Product management
Agile facilitation
The Ask
We led the design of a new internal marketing tool, replacing Apple’s third party dependency on A/B and multivariate testing tools. Our main stakeholder was the head of marketing and several experts from their team. THEFT led UX and product management to set the vision, goals, priorities, and other KPIs. We passed the torch back to the internal team at the detailed visual design phase.
Our Approach
We took over when the project was midway, so we tweaked our trusted method of design. By starting at the end, we worked the system until achieving the desired result for both the business and the user.
The secrecy of this project made things tricky, requiring a guerilla research approach. We quickly validated past research and updated personas to match the current target user. With extensive competitor research we crafted a navigational structure allowing users to run hundreds of tests each week across the Apple ecosystem.
If someone sent an offer that was not approved, Apple could lose millions of dollars. The experiment setup section therefore needed two parts: a main area for users to set up assets, and a management gateway to prohibit users without correct prior approval from running a test. We worked closely with the marketing team to share feedback and iterate rapidly while facilitating an agile working model. This allowed us to product manage until delivering to the internal visual design team.
Deliverables
Our team delivered target user personas, requirements documents, site maps, responsive designs, navigation map, dashboards designs, and experiments set-up designs. We also provided default shipping methods, drag-and-drop interface to control test security down to IP address, and a customized visual editor that would allow many variations within an experiment — a feature unique to Truth Serum.
The Impact
Truth Serum saves Apple $5 million annually and is used by hundreds of thousands of marketing, iTunes, and apps employees. They can test and experiment, zoom out to see the biggest trends and break down into the weeds when testing within their markets.
Apple has become self-sufficient and secure, no longer relying on costly third-party testing tools. Internal users can set up experiments reaching millions of customers, giving them a sense of freedom while the protective features serve the more strategic needs of the business.