A foundational JTBD research study and end-to-end UX redesign to increase adoption of the 6sense Sales Intelligence platform from 23% to a category-leading experience.
01 · Context & Problem
6sense's Sales Intelligence tool promised to transform how BDRs prospect — surfacing buying signals, intent data, and contact intelligence. But the adoption numbers told a different story. A low adoption rate meant billions in pipeline were being left untouched.
"I don't understand how to sift through all the intent data. I wish 6sense provided more training for BDRs."
— Enterprise BDR, User InterviewBDRs relied on multiple disconnected tools — LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesforce, spreadsheets — because 6sense didn't integrate cleanly into their daily motion.
Researching an account before outreach took hours. Without synthesis, reps couldn't confidently prioritize who to contact or what to say.
Without contextual buying signals surfaced at the right moment, email and call scripts defaulted to generic templates with low open and reply rates.
False positives from existing customer accounts and subsidiary orgs eroded trust. Reps couldn't rely on "hot" signals without manual verification.
02 · Research Approach
Rather than jumping to solutions, we ran a structured generative research programme across both Enterprise and Enterprise Lite customers. The goal was to uncover the foundational jobs — not just feature requests — that would unlock adoption.
Cross-functional alignment on research questions, hypothesis framing, and success metrics. Defined two core research questions: what are users trying to accomplish, and where are the friction points blocking adoption?
Recruited 6 Enterprise SDRs/BDRs with >50% org credit usage, plus 5 Enterprise Lite participants to augment the sample. Used 5 probing interview questions around daily workflow, team structure, tool fit, mental models, and competitive alternatives.
Pendo product analytics revealed where users dropped off. LogRocket session replays exposed friction in real workflows — not just what users said, but what they did.
Synthesised interview transcripts into clustered themes using affinity mapping. Validated against Pendo quantitative patterns to triangulate qualitative insights with usage data.
Study participants
Primary users. Responsible for outbound prospecting, list building, and booking meetings. Measured on qualified meetings booked per quarter.
Oversees a team of 6–12 BDRs. Needs visibility into pipeline health, rep productivity, and territory coverage to coach effectively.
Receives warm handoffs from BDRs. Uses 6sense for pre-call research and deal acceleration once opportunities are in-pipe.
03 · Jobs to Be Done
From the research, a clear sequential workflow emerged. Users don't think in features — they think in jobs. These six JTBD statements became the design north stars for the entire platform redesign, grounding every decision in a real user need.
When I start prospecting, I want to understand qualification criteria and define what accounts or ICPs are my targets, so I can focus my efforts.
When I execute a prospecting plan, I want to find individual prospects matching the qualification criteria, so I get the highest qualified opportunity rate.
When I find new prospects, I want to track, store, and share all their up-to-date information needed for a sale, so I can coordinate and report on goals.
As I track my ongoing prospects, I want to be aware of and prioritize my prospect's current interests, so I can be timely and relevant with my engagement.
As I track and prioritize information, I want to engage prospects with relevant and fruitful cadence, content, tone, and approach, to maximize booking likelihood.
As I contact prospects, I want to book meetings for the highest number of qualified opportunities possible, so I can exceed quarterly goals and increase closed deals.
04 · Opportunity Mapping
With the JTBD framework established, we mapped every research pain point back to the job it disrupted. This gave us a structured backlog of opportunity areas prioritized by frequency and severity of mention.
05 · Design Process & Solutions
With a validated JTBD framework, we moved into co-working design sessions with power users and stakeholders. Three core design areas emerged from the opportunity mapping — each addressing a specific cluster of jobs to be done.
Jobs addressed: Define Targets · Prioritize Current Interests · Track Information
The redesigned dashboard surfaces the right accounts at the right time — filtered to genuine ICP matches, sorted by real-time intent, and stripped of false positives from existing customers. BDRs no longer open 6sense wondering where to start.
Jobs addressed: Find Prospects · Prioritize Current Interests · Track Information
Account view consolidates company-level intent signals with individual contact intelligence, previous interaction history, and role-based buying influence — all in one place. BDRs can now identify the right person and the right moment without leaving the platform.
Jobs addressed: Engage Prospects · Book Meetings
The GenAI email writer transforms 6sense's rich intent data into hyper-personalized outreach — not generic templates. Each email is grounded in verified signals: what the prospect is researching, their tech stack, previous touch history, and competitor intent. Reps can adjust tone and push directly to their SEP of choice.
06 · Design Principles Derived
These four principles emerged from the JTBD synthesis and became the filter for every design review and prioritization decision throughout the project.
BDRs don't just need data — they need synthesized context. Every UI element should tell a rep what to do next, not just show raw signals. Intent without interpretation is noise.
6sense lost to LinkedIn Sales Navigator not on data quality, but on workflow fit. The redesign had to embed naturally into how reps already work — not force a new process.
Every false positive in intent data destroyed a rep's confidence in the whole platform. Filtering existing customers and subsidiaries, and explaining signal sources, was non-negotiable.
The redesign had a single productivity metric: how many minutes between opening 6sense and sending a first contact attempt. Every friction point in the JTBD flow was evaluated against this.
07 · Impact & Outcomes
The JTBD framework gave the entire product team — design, engineering, and PM — a shared language for prioritization. Adoption metrics and qualitative feedback from follow-up sessions showed meaningful improvement in both usage and confidence.
"This is the first time 6sense has felt like it was actually built for how I work. I used to open it once a week; now it's my first tab in the morning."
— Enterprise BDR, post-launch feedback sessionThe JTBD framework became a living artefact adopted by the broader Revenue AI product org. It informed roadmap prioritization across multiple teams, established a baseline for future UX quality measurement, and created a common vocabulary between product, sales, and customer success for discussing user needs — not feature requests.
08 · Reflection
11 participants captured strong directional findings, but edge cases in international market needs and manager workflows were underrepresented. A second research sprint with manager-focused sessions would have strengthened the "Manage Pipeline" JTBD strand.
The project moved from research directly to design. Rapid concept testing at the low-fidelity stage — before high-fidelity mockups — would have caught information architecture issues earlier and reduced late-stage rework on the account view.
The 23% starting point was a lagging metric. Establishing leading indicators — daily active use, time-to-first-outreach, CRM export completion rates — before launch would have given us cleaner signal on what design changes actually moved the needle.
Managers drive adoption through expectation-setting and coaching. Getting manager buy-in on the new workflows — and designing manager-facing views in parallel — would have accelerated user behaviour change at rollout.