Facility Communication Tools
In a contactless world, storEDGE wasn't effectively supporting communication between storage facility operators and tenants. With no active product manager or roadmap, I partnered with our product owner to define what we should work on next. Through customer research, we identified Documents and Communications as a critical gap and led a series of improvements that significantly increased both feature satisfaction and overall NPS.
Team
Product Owner and engineering team of 4 across frontend and backend.
The Problem
storEDGE provided basic tools for communicating with tenants, but they weren't keeping up with how facilities actually operated. Operators relied on these tools to:
- Share facility information
- Communicate billing and delinquency
- Document tenant or unit issues
- Upsell additional services
Despite their importance, these workflows were difficult to manage.
To work around these gaps, operators:
- Used personal email to manage conversations
- Relied on third-party tools for texting
- Avoided document editing due to lack of confidence
This created disconnected workflows and made it harder to keep communication tied to tenant records.
The Opportunity
With no defined roadmap, we needed to determine where to focus. I partnered with our product owner to help define priorities using customer data. An importance vs. satisfaction analysis revealed that most core features were performing well, but Documents and Communications stood out as highly important and underperforming. This made them the highest-leverage opportunity to improve.
Research & Insights
Document editing lacked trust
I dug deeper ino the issues through customer interviews and targeted surveys. The problem wasn't just a lack of features, it was that core tasks were difficult to complete with confidence. 60% of users reported low confidence in editing documents. The experience felt unpredictable, which led many to avoid it entirely.
Communication was happening outside the product
77% of users relied on third-party tools to fill gaps, especially for texting. This broke the connection between communication and tenant records.
Texting was the preferred channel
Tenants consistently responded faster to text than email or phone calls, but storEDGE's tools were too limited to support real conversations.
Operators needed flexibility, not just templates
Beyond automated messages, operators needed to send one-off communications, attachments, and links tied to real scenarios. These insights made it clear that improving communication wasn't about adding features — it was about making core workflows usable, reliable, and connected.
Customers really love texting us… we email, we call, we write letters, but ultimately they get a text and respond to that… They don't want to call us back!
Defining the Approach
We formulated a set of targeted hypotheses and focused on a few key areas:
- Improve document editing and formatting confidence
- Expand communication tools to support real conversations
- Keep communication tied to tenant records
Instead of redesigning everything at once, we approached this as a series of smaller, validated improvements that could be layered into the existing product.
The Solution
We introduced a set of enhancements focused on making communication and documentation easier, more flexible, and more connected to tenant data. Document editing was rebuilt with a more predictable editor and improved formatting tools, making it easier for operators to create and manage content without relying on external tools. Communication tools were expanded to support real workflows. Email gained attachments, formatting, and the ability to insert links and e-sign documents. Texting was upgraded to support longer conversations and media, with the ability to save attachments directly to tenant records. We also supported one-off communication, allowing operators to send messages outside of predefined templates while keeping everything tied to the tenant profile. We chose to focus on improving core workflows like attachments and texting rather than lower-impact enhancements, ensuring we delivered the most value within limited development time.
Impact
After rolling out these improvements over the course of a year, we saw meaningful gains:
- NPS increased from 24 → 45
- Satisfaction for Documents & Communications improved from neutral to highly satisfied
- Reduced reliance on third-party communication tools
This work helped close a critical gap in the product and improved one of the most important day-to-day workflows for operators.
Closing
This project shifted storEDGE from offering basic communication tools to supporting how operators actually communicate with tenants. By focusing on core workflows and reducing reliance on external tools, we made communication a more integrated and reliable part of the product.