CREATING
IGNITIONS
SALES
PIPELINE
PIPELINE
DISCOVERY PROCESS
A user-focused discovery process
Discovery is about engaging with users to understand their needs and pain points. This approach allows us to identify and prioritise opportunities, validate assumptions, and ensure that the solutions we develop are both impactful and aligned with user and business goals.
User Interviews
The backbone of our discovery phase was engaging directly with our users through customer interviews. These conversations were carefully structured to uncover the underlying frustrations, needs, and aspirations of our core user base. By listening deeply, we sought to understand not just what wasn’t working, but why—and how it impacted their workflows and their trust in Ignition’s tools.
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
the new proposal editor proposals do not show in this list???
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
"Each month I have a managers meeting and during that meeting I bring a list of all new customers they quoted, signed, and declined that month. None of this date is searchable with NPE proposals like is was with CPE so I now having to manually track this detail in a spreadsheet. It has become really cumbersome and time consuming for me."
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
You cannot drill into any of the dashboard revenue or payments reports so it’s hard to be able to make client decisions from this limited view.
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
This feels like unnecessary extra steps to see basic reporting information.
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
want to filter which proposals I see in this section of the dashboard (see e.g. Awaiting, 100 Accepted or Archived).
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
“Feels like Ignition did a hard pivot… feels a bit like living on a building site.”
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
NPE - Drafting proposals NO longer appear under DRAFT - which is unacceptable. The placeholders are almost all gone from the Terms section which is also a big downgrade.
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
"In general, it is not easy to sort proposals by who’s a new client, what’s outstanding, etc."
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
Two steps forward... one step back.
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
“It’s not easy to pull data for this firm, and with hundreds of employees, their biggest needs are seeing proposals sent most recently.”
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
“We can only export accepted services in the services report. The proposal export doesn’t give a list of services.”
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
After 4–5 proposals we switched back… too difficult to get an overview of proposals.
sentiment_neutral
Love it but… not being able to see a list of proposals issued is a nightmare…
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
"I want to filter which proposals I see in the dashboard and have them organised better."
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
"We're paying for an online platform so exporting is a pain. Also I'd like the proposals page to show awaiting proposals like it used to. Fail to see why it is under client tab now. Makes no sense to me."
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
Please keep a list view of proposals so we can see what proposals were sent out and filter them.
sentiment_very_dissatisfied
"We need NPE reporting in-app. We can't operate a business blind."
Understanding user segments
Through user interviews, we identified three key groups:
01
Switchers
These were users who had fully transitioned to the NPE.
What motivated them to switch?
What challenges or pain points they faced after transitioning?
Early Adopters Facing Risk
Many reported they had not fully understood which features would be available or not. Suggesting our messaging around the release was inadequate.
Visibility Gaps
The lack of comprehensive visibility at an account level of proposals was causing inefficiencies. Workarounds (exports) created stale or incomplete data and meant that critical opportunities were lost, or fumbled creating frustration and, at times, serious business risks.
Mixed Sentiment
While the new features were appreciated, many early adopters expressed regret at switching too quickly due to these visibility issues, these were for both billing (focus on manual billing) and proposal views at an account level.
02
Non-Switchers
These were users who were actively using both editors.
Areas of interest
What’s stopping you from switching?
What features do you rely on most in CPE?
What would make switching worth it for you?
Comfort with Familiarity
Users were comfortable with the workflows and interface of CPE, which felt reliable and familiar. The switch to NPE, while feature-rich, required relearning processes they had optimised over years.
“The classic editor works. I know where everything is, and it just does what I need.”
Feature Gaps in NPE
Users cited missing functionality—particularly visibility gaps—as a major barrier.
Learning Curve and Perceived Risk
For many busy professionals, adopting a new tool felt like an unnecessary disruption. Switching meant time spent learning a new system, which they worried could impact their productivity or lead to mistakes.
Trust and Perception
For some users, the gaps in NPE eroded confidence. They felt the platform was “unfinished” and not yet a viable replacement for CPE.
03
Dual-Users
These were users who were actively using both editors.
Areas of interest
Why do you use both editors?
What stops you from fully switching to NPE?
What would make you fully adopt NPE?
Risk Mitigation
Some users hesitated to fully switch to NPE because they trusted CPE for mission-critical tasks. They viewed NPE as great for new clients but “not yet ready” for complex or recurring workflows.
NPE value in new flexible features but mainly as education
Many pointed to other features that were lacking in CPE as valuable but had been using NPE as a way to stay ahead of the learning curve.
Support Ticket Analysis
Insights from Support Requests
During the discovery phase, we closely analysed support request data to validate and build on what we were hearing in interviews. These requests offered a rich source of insights into the challenges users were facing with the New Proposal Editor (NPE) and provided a stark reminder of the stakes for both users and internal teams.
Learnings
The data confirmed much of what we’d already identified in interviews: users were struggling with visibility, gaps in workflows, and the absence of features they relied on in the Classic Proposal Editor (CPE). Proposal-related issues accounted for 30% of all support requests, highlighting how widespread these challenges were.
Support wasn’t just addressing usability frustrations—they were often untangling complex scenarios that required significant manual effort. This added to users’ frustrations and reinforced the urgency of delivering solutions that addressed these pain points.
Keeping Users Front and Centre
Mapping the customer journey is more than a process—it’s a way to stay grounded in why we do this work. At every stage, the goal was to keep users front of mind, as it’s their day-to-day struggles, opportunities, and successes that we’re aiming to influence. By laying out the journey visually, we could better understand their goals and pinpoint the obstacles standing in their way.
Customer Journey Map
These were completed for proposal visibility and billing,
For users, visibility challenges were at the heart of their frustrations. On one side, there were the missed opportunities—proposals falling through the cracks, unaccepted deals gathering dust, and the painful realisation of how much revenue was left on the table. On the other, there were the embarrassing errors—double billing clients or losing track of important follow-ups. Neither outcome was acceptable, and the emotional cost to users was clear in their feedback: frustration, embarrassment, and, in some cases, distrust in the tools they relied on.
A toucg decision to be made…
As the discovery phase came to a close, two critical opportunities emerged: Proposal Visibility and Billing Management. Both were high-impact areas that resonated deeply with customer feedback and aligned strongly with Ignition’s business goals. Initially, we aimed to tackle both simultaneously, but the scope was too ambitious, and leadership wisely encouraged us to focus our efforts on the most pressing need.
Pipeline
Billing
Showcase: Aligning and Deciding
To ensure the entire team and stakeholders were aligned, we conducted a showcase session. This session was designed to transparently walk everyone through the analysis, weighing customer needs, feasibility, and strategic alignment.
Both opportunities were grounded in strong user sentiment and need.
For Pipeline, users expressed frustrations with tracking proposals and their status, causing missed business opportunities.
For Billing, the inability to see upcoming invoices at an account level had led to double-billing, missed payments and potentially reputational damage.
Impact and Reach Scoring (RICE)
We introduced a prioritisation matrix that helped quantify the potential impact, reach, confidence and effort of each solution from Engineering, Support and Education.
Decision to prioritise Pipeline
Based on showcase feedback, RICE scoring, and the natural sequencing of proposals before billing in the client lifecycle, we prioritised Pipeline Visibility. This decision ensured we tackled the most immediate user pain points while laying a strong foundation for future improvements to billing workflows.
With alignment secured, we moved into Shaping, ready to turn insights into actionable solutions.
Case study continues in Shaping:
IGNITIONS
SALES