Many companies rely on multiple project management tools and custom-built processes to coordinate production, but these solutions can be disjointed, costly, and difficult to scale. As the beauty industry grows and consumer demand for innovation accelerates, brands need a more streamlined, transparent, and efficient approach to manufacturing management.
Dec 23’ - Sep 24’
Industry
CPG | Supply Chain
Product Design
Design System
Product Ops
Enabling users to view product specs and pricing
Design Decisions
Expansion panels were utilised to give users control over the information they viewed, preventing information overload and allowing them to access only the details they needed upon landing on the screen.
Creating a streamlined book-keeping system
Consolidating all financial documents into a single feature enabled customers to quickly access everything and view the status of invoices. This record keeping feature was transformative as it allowed customers to access a multitude of information from one location.
Design Decisions
We added an overview status panel at the top, all encompassing of orders and payments. It allowed users to quickly view the amounts in each invoice status: outstanding, pending, and paid.
Simplifying production tracking into a single screen for ease-of-access
This feature enabled customers to view real-time tracking of their product status including within a component level. This data structure was designed to mimic the information typically already provided to customers by their account managers.
Design Decisions
Tabs were utilised to enable users to quickly toggle between components, with a fixed card on the right displaying a clear hierarchy of the overall delivery date.
Given our already validated and successful business model, we adopted a lean approach to user and product research. Rather than extensive exploratory research, we focused on targeted validation and refinement. Internal stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) played a key role in shaping product requirements, ensuring alignment with business goals while streamlining the research process. This approach allowed for rapid iteration, minimising unnecessary research overhead while leveraging existing expertise for informed decision-making
Business Challenge
Customers lacked direct access to manage their projects including product information and order status. This resulted in delays whilst account managers spent significant time manually finding and organising information.
Customers lacked direct access to manage their projects including product information and order status. This resulted in delays whilst account managers spent significant time manually finding and organising information.
By analysing the existing business and customer experience workflows, we worked closely with stakeholders and SMEs to collect and define key requirements. This collaborative effort allowed us to identify core features and create a user flow that met both business objectives and user needs.
Ideal Customer Profile
With a clearer understanding of our users, we were able to develop and release features tailored to their specific needs and requirements.
Our ideal customers are large, established corporations with deep industry experience and extensive expertise. Over time, we identified a niche need within this segment— prioritising speed and innovation in the manufacturing process. This focus allowed us to tailor our solutions to meet their need for efficiency, agility, and cutting-edge capabilities.
Service Blueprint
Previously, our focus on building the product quickly in earlier features led us to neglect the service design behind the platform. The impact of this oversight became clear when it disrupted the platform's operations, leading to consequences which negatively impacted user experience.
Emotional Journey Mapping
As we introduced a self-service platform, it was essential to design an onboarding experience that positioned the platform as a tool to enhance their journey, while preserving the value of their current support systems.
Remote Moderated User Testing
The user found the UX was intuitive, as well as navigated and located information with ease. This positive feedback validated all the research and testing we had undertaken in the earlier stages.
The testing session revealed that the generic estimated timeline template was helpful, but it lacked accuracy and real-time data, which limited its usefulness for forecasting and planning. This insight highlighted the requirement for a more precise and real-time feature. Due to resource constraints it had led to a more simplified version being implemented.
This feedback aided us in prioritising to build a solution to enable real-time timelines for future releases.