Atlas SQL
To provide our secondary personas, analysts, first class access to their MongoDB Atlas data from their coveted SQL-based tools.
HOME
CREATIVE
YEAR
2022 - 2023
ROLE
Product design
Stakeholder management
User testing
TEAM
1 Product manager
3 Engineers
Goal and my role
While MongoDB Atlas is a powerhouse for data storage and management, there is a growing need to target the data analytics space. In order to do so, we want to scale our existing tooling - Atlas SQL. How might allow analytic users to frictionlessly activate, connect, and manage MongoDB data with external SQL tools?
I was the lead product designer of the Atlas SQL Interface for about a year and lead various feature introduction and improvement efforts.
Business and engineering needs
Throughout this time, design priorities came primarily from business requirements, engineering feasibility and insights into user needs. These included:
Increase investment into analytics users by simplifying the first touch experience for Atlas SQL.
Grandfather out the static payment plan and introduce an improved and scale by usage one.
Connect the UI with our user’s main programmatic interface experiences through further SQL schema management of downstream data.
Decouple Atlas SQL from Data Federation manual set up to reduce needed engineering resources for large background data federation instances.
Deprecate the legacy BI Connector tool to redirect engineering and support resources to a more scalable analytics tool.
Decoupled from data federation
The biggest MVP requirement was to decrease the barrier to entry for Atlas SQL by bringing the access to the home page, automating and abstracting background Data Federation set up happening, and allowing for advanced configuration options for experienced users.
Deprecated BI connector
After developing a quick start way to activate Atlas SQL, our secondary concern was to direct our current BI Connector customers towards this new option. I worked closely with my PM to create a deprecation timeline for when in the user journey to surface what kind of messaging. Sensitivity was needed to ensure the correct users were being informed in advance.
Added SQL schema management
Finally, after the top two priorities were address and implemented, a third round of product improvement occurred. In this sprint, adding in additional Atlas SQL schema management capabilities within the UI was prioritized.
Success tracking
An A/B test experiment was ran between these two treatments:
A: Variant with original manual Data Federation instance creation.
B: Variant with the quick start Atlas SQL experience entrance in the connect modal and cluster card.
SQL Awareness: # of organizations that clicked on the “Connect” CTAs
SQL Acquisitions: # of organizations that ran an Atlas SQL query
Average SQL queries per organization
Due to the statistically significant success of the above experiment, the quick start Atlas SQL experience was officially implemented. Segment tracking was also implement to monitor it’s usage in comparison with the deprecation of BI Connector:
Quarter over quarter: Total Atlas SQL meaningful usage organization
Quarter over quarter: Total Atlas SQL weekly active organizations
Quarter over quarter: Total BI Connector weekly active organizations
Additonal work
Conducted further work with user research and design systems from project findings:
4 External user interviews to gather insights for future Atlas SQL features
Standardized deprecation component patterns and guidelines
Added new actionable banner component to our design systems