Product Case Study

Contextual Agent Tools for Zendesk: Interaction History & Customer Overview

Launched timeline tools in Zendesk to give agents full visibility across complex user journeys.

Product Case Study

Contextual Agent Tools for Zendesk: Interaction History & Customer Overview

Launched timeline tools in Zendesk to give agents full visibility across complex user journeys.

Product Case Study

Contextual Agent Tools for Zendesk: Interaction History & Customer Overview

Launched timeline tools in Zendesk to give agents full visibility across complex user journeys.

“Kate brought a rare blend of empathy and clarity to this project. Our agents finally have the context they need—without the clutter.”

Biz/Org

Zendesk

Year

2020-2021

CX SaaS

Product Strategy

Product Overview

“Now I know what’s going on before I even say hello.”

This feature set gave agents instant visibility into prior customer touchpoints and key context.

  • Defined UX for surfacing recent conversations, order status, and customer sentiment.

  • Coordinated across product and CX teams to identify critical context fields.

  • Helped architect a live data panel for CRM and custom source integration.

  • Balanced context with speed: the right info, in the right moment.

  • Drove alignment on what agents need to resolve cases faster.

Product Goals

How might we help agents understand the full story before taking action?

Zendesk agents often work blind - juggling tabs and tickets just to figure out what's happening. These tools aimed to reduce time-to-context and improve the experience for both agents and customers.

  • Reduce first-response time and back-and-forth.

  • Avoid duplicate work across agents or teams.

  • Provide contextual clues to guide better outcomes.

  • Help new agents ramp quickly with high confidence.

Challenges

  • Context needs varied widely by company and use case.

  • Pulling from multiple sources risked performance issues.

  • Required thoughtful UI to avoid visual overload.

  • Couldn’t slow down agent workflows for the sake of completeness.


Solutions

  • Created lightweight context panel that updated in real time.

  • Prioritized fields through agent ridealongs and data analysis.

  • Exposed customization options for admins to tailor views.

  • Benchmarked performance and iterated based on usability testing.

Outcome & Impact

  • Reduced agent handle time and increased resolution accuracy.

  • Boosted CSAT for teams using contextual views.

  • Became a core part of Zendesk’s agent workspace strategy.

  • Supported larger CX transformation initiatives.