The CDP was created to provide Amazon like ordering and delivery tracking experience for customers who purchase by the truck or trainload. It's like an MVP along the lines of Uber Freight with data tailored by industry and use case.
e-Commerce has a lot of moving parts but essentially we combined two and added features to make what is now known as the CDP.
One key item to solve was to mitigate the call volume to the Operations Manager who was responsible for user education and onboarding. They were receiving repetitive calls over tasking them with having to run tutorials for end users. We experimented with a product called WalkMe but the initiative was really just a band aid and didn't address the real usability problems causing so much confusion to begin with.
The WalkMe initiative was worked in tandem with their analytics contact.
I believe that just fixing the basic problems the product had would eliminate all the issues. Thus, eliminating the need for WalkMe's usage.
The CSRs saw the portal as a threat. Most costumers believed that the portal would not provide the same service level as contacting their rep on the phone. There's a level of psychological and cultural shift getting everyone to embrace change.
Order Tracking is one of the most desired capabilities in an eCommerce tool. Based on customer feedback, this was a highly important feature to add to gain a competitive advantage. It accounted for the majority of calls into the CSRs.
The original system provided this information to the customer utilizing an Oracle backend. But that's all it did. The project's mission was to merge that in with other capabilities essentially.
The work was done in Miro and Figma. These two tools lead to a fantastic collaborative remote experience. Jeremy and I talked everyday via Teams or phone. In the beginning stages, the hardest part for me was just understanding where everything was since assets were all over the place in terms of software.
As part of our discovery phase I investigated different ways we could show data in tables. Additionally, how we could surface detail panels through means of accordion treatments and panel slide additions by reading Medium articles and checking out other products.
This feature is a must have addition. I spent time looking at competitor products and researching various ways we could possibly approach this. Additionally, I looked into what technology we could use to integrate like Mapbox.
The original system provided this information to the customers utilizing an Oracle backend. The project's mission was to merge that in with other capabilities essentially. After a year or so the business would change directions and start the request to transition to a product called Link.
The beginning of my process included Team calls and sketching to wrap my head around the tool.
Here I was thinking of app layout and how the map control manifests itself in the Orders View. The sketches also provided key direction for the larger overall redesign that was part of the later announced effort called Control Tower.
The project resulted in a more cohesive look and feel once the design system was brought into play. When viewing the application along side the other products in the landscape, everything is more consistent and projects a more professional appearance. This can lead to more trust in the system.
WestRock experienced some major changes impacting the team. One of them was a strategic shift in the Products team focus on the usage of an Oracle backend causing a migration to Link. Additionally, breaking off key functionality and moving forward with a new tool called Control Tower that basically contains all of the essential functions of CDP minus some inherited issues from the legacy app.
The products accessibility was greatly improved as well!
I left the company during this project and have not had a chance to see the final delivered results. But, the design really made huge UI and user flow improvements. I don't see how end user calls for assistance couldn't go down afterwards. It's leaps and bounds ahead of where it started.
Launch Prototype
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
zane@zaneparker.com