I worked with a leading global e-commerce and multimedia retailer that offers a wide range of products, including home goods, fashion, electronics, and beauty items. The company, which engages millions of customers through various channels—most prominently its television broadcasts—operates in several markets across North America, Europe, and Asia.
As the company expanded rapidly, it outgrew its existing software solutions. The outdated merchandising software struggled to keep up with the growing demands, lacking essential features and failing to provide necessary data. It became clear that a new, robust software solution was necessary to meet the evolving needs of the enterprise.
I facilitated a design thinking workshop for a leading global e-commerce retailer with 30 cross-functional participants to identify issues with their current software, ideate on solutions, and align on a shared vision for the future MVP.
Deliverables
Goal Setting
Workshop Prep
Facilitation
Follow-up actions
Output synthesis
Affinity Mapping
User Flows
UI Design
Design System
Stakeholder Management
Team Lead Design
The Challenge
Getting Ready
My first mission: audit the existing product and identify workshop topics that would resonate with everyone.
What made this complex was the diverse group of participants: around 30 people from 4 different countries, 3 departments, and all levels of seniority—including a VP - whose presence was a little intimidating at first! 🫢
I conducted about 20 in-depth user interviews in one-hour session with experts from all countries and channels (Programming, Planning, Digital, Social Media and Management) to collected feedback, ensuring a globally inclusive approach and uncover existing pain points and needs.
From the insights I gathered in the interviews, I created an affinity map with which I was able to identify 5 key areas that were relevant to all participants and hence the ones I wanted to focus on in the workshop:
Automation
We were currently performing too many time-consuming and repetitive manual tasks.
Smart Search (AI)
The existing search functionality was very limited. It basically only allowed to search for a specific item.
Real Time data
Not enough real-time data was available resulting in an ineffective work process and limiting knowledge about performance.
Multi-platform approach
All platforms were working in silos. The data exchange was currently happening via meetings or emails. This process lacked transparency and was very time consuming.
Event Management
There was no unified process for managing different kinds of promotions nor any visibility of ongoing promotions throughout the channels.
The Big day! 😱
To warm up the group, we did some ice breaker exercises (which produced some very interesting results) that foreshadowed the activities we would do in the following group work in a fun way.
Afterwards the participants were divided into small groups. Each group would go off and work on the tasks for one of the 5 areas. Due to the amount of participants I briefed 2 additional moderators to help me facilitate these group sessions.
After the time was up, we would come back together and each group would present their results. After all the topics were discussed, the participants allocated points to the ideas. This allowed us to get a picture of what features were our must haves for the MVP, and which ones were perhaps less important or could wait until later.
Post-workshop, I faced the daunting task of translating about 1001 requirements into actionable screens. I created an affinity diagram to get a visual overview of all the data. From this the product manager and I analyzed the results and defined a roadmap for the MVP and subsequent iterations. I led discussions with stakeholders and project leads, communicating the design strategy and ensuring alignment with the overarching project goals. This also involved directing discussions with the development team, navigating tech challenges, and exchanging insights for seamless implementation.
Then it finally got a little more practical and I sketched out user flows iterating on them in weekly meetings with the respective user groups. Additionally, I also led collaboration with the team in Japan, which had its own unique set of challenges. 😅 As a last step I created a basic design system and first visual designs to hand over to the in-house designers for completion.
To comply with my NDAs, I have omitted confidential information. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of the client.
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