SaaS Product Modernization (m11n)
A leader in field service software for pest control companies, PestPac is used by local mom and pop establishments to enterprise businesses like Rentokill, the #1 pest control company worldwide.
While powerful and feature-rich, as a mature SaaS product, the modernization initiative sought to address PestPac’s dated UI and UX.
See before and after.
Role
Product design manager
Problem / Challenge
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis showed ease of use as a recurrent pain point.
Redesigning the entire product’s UI while simultaneously improving the UX was a massive undertaking. Below is a brief summary of the challenges encountered and the solutions implemented.
A project of this scale required cross-functional collaboration.
The Sales team required all new imagery.
The Learning & Development team was tasked with reviewing and revising the extensive library of product documentation.
The Support team had to be kept informed throughout the release process to ensure readiness for addressing customer concerns and logging defects..
The C-Suite needed to reassure key customers that core functionality would remain intact.
Complexity
With over 900 pages—many of which are user-generated—an exact count was not feasible. The software carried significant technical debt, numerous feature flags, and extensive customizations, making the design, development, and testing processes very challenging.
Resourcing
The team initially included two designers and temporary offshore engineering and QA teams. Midway through the project, the junior designer departed for another opportunity, leaving me as the sole designer supporting a team of 40 engineers.
Delivery
The modernization of the company’s flagship product was a well-publicized roadmap initiative, and the promised release date was non-negotiable.
Research / Discovery
When I first joined the company, the design team had recently transitioned from Zeplin to Figma. I leveraged insights from recent audits to build a component library aimed at improving consistency, reusability, and efficiency.
One small, but telling, example: finding ~10 slight different hex codes used for the standard “gold” action button. [image]
In 2021, we introduced the Tidal Design System, which established foundational guidelines around typography, color palette and usage, spacing standards, and alignment, among other elements.
While the design system provided a valuable framework, our user base had specific needs that required careful consideration..
For example, what would be the impact of scaling up field heights from 17px to 40px? Beyond layout implications, we had to consider how this change would affect users, who had adapted their workflows to use dense layouts that fit within their viewport.
Design process
Pendo stats
We began by auditing all pages, which revealed recurring layout patterns the evolved the years.
Using Pendo analytics, we identified the most frequently visited pages and organized them into three tiers.
Given resource and time constraints, we prioritized design efforts to maximize impact.
High-visibility elements—such as navigation menus, page headers/titles, and advanced search—were addressed first.
Even foundational improvements, like standardizing page margins, significantly improved readability.
To further enhance usability, we standardized layout alignment and spacing, and transitioned from title case to sentence case.
Final Designs
Compare before and after images of high traffic pages. Monthly these pages see 10K users and 500K - 1million+ visits.
Before: Appointment Scheduler
After: Appointment Scheduler
Before: Post Service Orders
After: Post Service Orders
Before: Advanced Search
After: Advanced Search
Before: Location Detail
After: Location Detail
Before: Visual Navigator
After: Visual Navigator
Impact / Next Steps
Users develop strong muscle memory, and even well-intentioned changes can feel disruptive.
When the modernized UI was initially released, a significant portion of user feedback centered around eye strain caused by the new white background.
While most of the company’s other products—some of which integrate with PestPac—already used the same default white background, we listened and took the feedback seriously.
This initiative impacted every page of the product. Thanks to thorough QA and regression testing, only minor defects were reported following the initial release.
As the first of the company’s more mature products to undergo modernization, PestPac served as a pilot. I was able to share key learnings and best practices with other teams as they began similar efforts..
This was the first phase of the modernization initiative. Visit the design system navigation case study to see details about phase 2 (coming soon).
At the Beyond Service 2024 conference, the CTO showcased the modernization work during his keynote address.
You can read media coverage of the modernization launch here.