PROJECT GOAL

Design a notifications framework for the CX Cloud web app, extending into the CX Cloud mobile app and email.

Users have made it clear - they want notifications for CX Cloud. This is especially critical for the mobile app we are designing, where notifications are the #1 requested feature.

MY ROLE: PRODUCT DESIGN & STRATEGY DIRECTOR

Product strategy & design vision
Design deliverables - e2e
Managed research planning and execution
Led executive design reviews
Stakeholder engagement: Director and VP levels
Mentored the working team of 6 designers, strategists and researchers

CROSS-CHANNEL NOTIFICATIONS

DESIGN STRATEGY

Mobile notifications are ubiquitous and more user-friendly than browser notifications, so we took a mobile-first design approach. However, users told us they wouldn’t complete complex workflows on mobile—they preferred to wait until they were back at their computer.

This meant we needed real-time consistency across both channels and a way for users to flag items on mobile for easy access later on their computer. To achieve this, we designed mobile and web experiences simultaneously to ensure a seamless transition between devices.

PAIN POINTS

Notification overload; users receive too many notifications from Cisco
Disjointed communication; too many teams send notifications via email
Inefficient alert discovery; users don’t want to search email for alerts
Lack of control; limited ability to customize notification preferences
Mixed messaging; important alerts get buried under marketing emails
No centralized system; CX Cloud lacks integration with notification platforms

BACKGROUND

CX Cloud users need a way to stay informed about critical network issues, but the platform currently lacks a proactive communication mechanism to deliver these updates.

CX Cloud users have no way to know about important network issues without logging in to the app on their computer.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

DISCOVERY

We quickly launched multiple user research activities, including quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, to identify priority areas.

Simultaneously, our strategist analyzed all potential event triggers for notifications, ensuring we focused on the most impactful use cases.

USER DEFINITION & RESEARCH

Through research we were able to define three main personas, two on the customer side, and one on the partner side.

Example: Customer: Enactor (Proprietary information excluded in image below)

Effective notification management is crucial for minimizing distractions, reducing stress, and prioritizing information"
Rahul - Network Architect

"Tailoring notifications to specific business needs with real-time alerts help maintain focus, manage complex environments, and stay informed"
Claire - Sr. Systems Engineer

DEFINITION & PRIORITIZATION

What qualifies as a notification?
When is a notification warranted?
Do triggers for these events already exist, or do we need to build them?

SO WHAT NOW?

We partnered with the research team to determine which events warranted a notification.

To do this, we mapped customer journeys and corresponding use cases to identify key notification opportunities.

We then created a prioritization matrix, analyzing and grouping opportunities by type, behavior, and priority. With an initial prioritized list, we collaborated with product managers and business analysts to refine it further.

Next, we returned to user testing to validate our assumptions. The results provided a foundation for design, development LOE, and resourcing estimates.

ALIGNING ROADMAPS

To ensure a good customer experience, we needed to align the roadmaps of three separate projects—Notifications Platform, Web App, and Mobile App—and synchronize feature launches across all three.

Why Alignment Was Critical:

User receives a mobile push notification
User flags an item for later, a common use case
User logs in on a computer to follow up—the flagged list must be available on the desktop app

Without this synchronization, the experience would be fragmented, making it harder for users to transition seamlessly between devices.

MOBILE APP

KEY
FEATURES

DESKTOP APP

NOTIFICATIONS

KEY FEATURES LIST

Detailed controls, filters, and settings – Users can customize focus areas, criticality levels, channels, and time boundaries
Real-time synchronization – Seamless consistency across mobile and web channels
Flagging – Users can flag notifications or items (e.g., cases, assets, licenses) for easy follow-up later
Assignment functionality – Ability to assign notifications to a team member
Contextual support case creation – Users can generate a support case directly from a notification

SETTINGS

Network Engineers value detailed control over what, how, and when they receive notifications. The most important settings included:

Criticality
Frequency
Channel (mobile push, email, etc.)

This ensured they could tailor notifications to their specific needs without unnecessary noise.

FLAGGING FOR EASY FOLLOW UP

Flagging, especially for items experiencing issues, was a highly rated mobile app feature in our research. It allowed users to bookmark important items for easy access later on their computer.

Mobile users wanted to stay informed about network issues but didn’t necessarily want to troubleshoot or fix them from their phone.