CASE STUDY • Projects • UX Research • Content Design

Palmetto virtual site survey

In 2021, Palmetto launched a virtual site survey to support an online sales and fulfillment flow for custom residential solar. The survey guided customers through a series of photo prompts and questions to collect crucial information about their homes.

Palmetto’s goal was to reduce unnecessary costs by eliminating the need for an on-site solar survey. However, completion rates were low and often lacked the detail required, resulting in delays, errors, and frustration for teams and customers.

ROLE
UX Writer

COMPANY
Palmetto

TEAMS
Product • Fulfillment • Build • UX Design

YEARS
2021-2023

CHALLENGE //

To replace the on-site survey, we needed better results.

OPPORTUNITY //

The virtual site survey offered new ways to engage with and learn from our customers.

If successful, it could reduce solar costs and unlock valuable insights to enhance the customer journey.

Palmetto’s end-to-end solar energy solutions help you plug into savings with less time and no hassle.

Marketing copy written by Trystin Sova

CONTEXT //

In August 2020, Palmetto closed Series B funding with a $29M raise intended to accelerate tech enablements across product and service offerings.

Our teams were resourced, growing, and busy as we developed products and features for a digital platform experience.

APPROACH //

Research. Iterate. Repeat.

We needed to understand why completion rates were low, where to focus our efforts, and how to deliver an experience that customers could easily use.

We were also in the beautiful but scrappy stage of a growing clean tech startup with competing priorities, tech limitations, API roadblocks, and the like. Our approach would be iterative and content-focused, minimizing the need for product engineering support.

DISCOVERY //

Content Audit

Provisional guidelines and best practices

  • The existing content lived in an online survey platform.

    It had been pieced together by our build partner team, who oversaw the design, permitting, and installation process.

  • To begin, I inventoried all UI content, including headers, titles, descriptions, labels, buttons, and error messages.

    Text patterns and formats were varied, creating a disjointed user experience.

  • Before editing the content, I outlined guidelines and best practices, specifying the capitalization, length, format, and function for each UI component.

    Our voice would be friendly, helpful, and concise—empowering customers with clear information and expectations.

    • Edited all content per new UI guidelines

    • Introduced a friendly, expectation-setting intro

    • Applied conditional logic to avoid non-applicable questions

    • Revised confirmation screen with next-step details

MIGRATION //

Once initial updates were complete, we migrated the content from SurveyMonkey to GitHub—the central repository for our website and consumer platform.

This move allowed for more flexibility and control over the UI, better integration with the website and platform experience, and richer data insights.

Black SurveyMonkey logo with a transparent background

SurveyMonkey logo

GitHub logo

  • Dream it.

    10.21 7:00-8:00PM

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • Build it.

    10.21 7:00-8:00PM

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • Grow it.

    10.21 7:00-8:00PM

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

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IMPACT //

Screenshot of the Vital Roots description on the Edible Beats website

Image of the Vital Roots description on the Edible Beats website