
Identifying the Business Problem
What is the proto-persona that we are targeting? What benefit would they gain from our tool?
The users that we were planning to target
Appian prioritizes an easy self-service experience, ensuring that every product on their platform is intuitive. Users should understand what to expect at every stage and from each interaction on every screen.
It was expected that process mining capabilities would be integrated in this direction. The targeted users are executives, business analysts, and consultants who are unlikely to understand the complex layers of process mining analysis.
From now on, in this project, we will refer to the previously described group of users as ‘the Appian targeted user’ to distinguish them from current Process Mining users.
The current Process Mining users.
Lana Labs developed advanced software that enabled their customer success team to quickly generate charts and filter process data into subsets, providing meaningful insights to clients through presentations.
The interface is characterized by a non-guided user experience, presenting users with a series of visualizations organized through a side navigation without providing clear instructions. The use of complex process mining terminology can be challenging for those with limited understanding. Additionally, unintuitive interactive elements may lead to confusion or incorrect assumptions about how to interact with the interface.
It is unrealistic to expect that the Appian targeted user will even know how to initiate the first interaction with the existing software. The numerous cryptic tabs and UI elements do not create a user-friendly experience.
Through numerous interviews with the Lana Labs customer success team, I identified a common pattern applicable to most of their projects: using the process diagram as the core element for presenting data to customers.
Translating the investigation flow into a user-friendly format is one of the most challenging aspects, especially for users who may be unfamiliar with process mining techniques.
Although numerous variables contribute to the overall investigation flow design, I want to emphasize the two most critical factors that guided our team through a vast array of ideas and potential solutions.
- How do I as a user know that I am focusing on the most relevant data?
- How can I, as a user, understand which areas of the process I am focusing on?

Franziska Thiel
Product Manager @ Appian Process Mining
“Meetings with Javi are always blessing because he is very prepared, keeps them concise and to the point. Overall, working with Javi is fun, effective and always results in high quality solutions.”
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