WorkinBox
A mobile inbox that connects to Salesforce to help salespeople get work done on-the-go.
I was a founding team member and worked closely with the CEO on product direction and all things design.
WorkinBox allows salespeople to be more productive on the go by allowing them to process their inbox more quickly, respond to more messages on the go and create follow-up tasks in their Salesforce task list.
Tylr Mobile was founded on the idea that people should be able to get more work done on the go. Our platform enables this through applications that are easily configured to the specific needs of individual companies. The key question when we founded the company was how to take this platform to market - what should our first application be?
We focused on salespeople first, given that this role feels the pain of mobile work more than most. We then observed dozens of salespeople working on the go and talked to them about their jobs - particularly the time they spend away from their desk.
A lesson learned from Tylr features here in my writing.
We boiled the problem of mobile email for salespeople into 3 areas:
Prioritization – Messages from customers are likely the most important messages in a salesperson's inbox, but they are buried below a deluge of less important messages. Response times are hindered or messages are lost below the fold.
Related Information – In order to take action after reading an email a salesperson often needs access to information from another system. Do I owe this customer anything? Who else has met with this customer? Have we sold to this customer recently? Particularly on mobile, it's too painful to find this information and take action so messages aren't dealt with until they can be accessed at the desk.
Action – Most required actions are difficult to complete on mobile email. Frequently a message is simply too difficult to type or a document is not accessible or another system needs to be accessed. Again, messages languish in the inbox until they are easier to respond to and act on.
