"The single most important thing to get right in a used car operation to set conditions for optimal decision making and pricing is proper inventory." —Dale Pollack
MY ROLEs
UX Architecht, UX Designer
Problem discovery and alignment, Scope definition, workflow mapping, Lo-fidelity and hi-fidelity designs and prototyping, User feedback facilitation and synthesis, Beta launch preperation
TEam
Product, Engineering, Developers, Data Scientists, Performance Managers
Tools
Mural, Figma
Background
Outdated stocking practices among dealers are leading buyers to acquire vehicles that do not align with their stocking and sales goals. The enhancements to our application aim to provide accurate data, customizable objectives based on historical sales, and a connection to the Global Search feature to minimize uncertainty in vehicle selection.
Our Founder's Vision
Our company's founder and automotive retail industry visionary, Dale Pollack, imagined a system that provided sales data-driven guidance on vehicle segments and pricing, forecasts for vehicle sourcing, and individualized stocking objectives for buyers.
Problem
How might we prioritize, design, develop, and test a list of features that we can launch in less than 6 months to bring our founder’s vision to life, and provide beneficial improvements to our current capabilities for our dealers?
Discovery "Lite"
Although we bypassed generative research with dealers because of time crunch, I still needed to understand how the Performance Management team was solving dealer problems with a massive spreadsheet that they would customize with the dealers during their regular consultations. My product partner and I worked with the spreadsheet authors, data scientists, and a few dealers to understand the current process and how this "Stocking First" strategy improved it.
Alignment was challenging due to philosophical differences between Performance Management and Data Science on key calculations and metrics. However, we agreed on a scope of work that was beneficial to dealers and feasible for Engineering to deliver in a short amount of time.
After compiling notes from calls, emails, and meetings, I completed a UX canvas exercise to align all stakeholders.
Low fidelity wireframes enabled visual feedback sessions and rapid itteration.
I needed to analyze the spreadsheet used my performance mangers to determine what info was most useful to the most amount of dealers. These calculations would need to worked into our UI.
High-resolution designs came together quickly once I had full stakeholder alignment.
The subsequent feedback session with PMs and product was initially met with surprise and approval, but as that session went on we called out key use cases that needed to be addressed, and lack of a coherent flow that each of the dealer roles would follow to achieve their desired outcomes.
After several refinements, I mapped out a simpler approach that was approved for development.
The Stocking “Control Panel” allows the Used Car Manger to set stocking goals for the entire system with one simple input. While giving them full visibility into historical data and
sales projections.
Solution/Iteration
Feedback emphasized the importance of automation with flexibility, data integration, and competitive insights.
- Annual Sales Goals: Typically set by the owner or principal,often based on intuition.
- Vehicle Availability: System suggestions are limited by actual availability.
- Actual Evidence: Data is valuable for informed decisions, even if unfavorable.
- Automation with Editability: Desired with manual adjustment options.
- Appraisal Integration: Dealer request. Would enhance pricing strategies by knowing vehicle necessity.
Outcomes
Although we were unable to launch the feature in time for the trade show, my collaborative efforts and rapid iterations allowed me to develop a high-fidelity prototype that we previewed for dealers using their actual historical data along with future projections. This prototype received positive feedback from stakeholders and clients during the showcase, highlighting its effectiveness in improving inventory management and enabling various roles at the dealership to work from a unified stocking strategy. The dealers recognized the potential of this feature to enhance the software’s functionality and significantly increase their satisfaction and trust in the platform, ultimately laying the groundwork for improved sales in the future.