MYARROW
PROJECT:
MyArrow
CLIENT:
Arrow Electronics
AGENCY:
The BIO Agency
DATE:
Q1 2018
SKILLS:
Competitor Review
Task Modelling
Stakeholder Workshops
SME Structured Interviews
Insight Analysis
Service Blueprint Creation
Concept Generation
Sketch Wireframing
LINK:
SUMMARY
As part of a platform lift-and-shift, The BIO Agency was asked to consider how to incorporate a set of new feature areas into Arrow’s B2B e-commerce site. I joined at the start of the project, working with another CX Designer and Business Analyst.
My role was to research and design these areas, taking into account how they would integrate with both the priorities and existing working behaviours of customers and the backstage actions of Arrow staff required to deliver these services.
THE PROBLEM
Although Arrow’s share of the commercial component distribution market is substantial the majority of their trade takes place offline, either by phone or email to a sales representative. As a consequence, sales reps were spending too much time performing account administration tasks when they should have been generating new business.
To address this problem, Arrow drafted a bucket list of features which would allow a customer to self-serve. From this list I identified opportunities for design research and began planning how best to tackle.
DISCOVER PHASE
The Discover phase focused primarily on Quoting and Order Management as these areas augmented existing user journeys and were considered to have the greatest potential to transform the customer experience.
The objectives for this phase were:
- Identify customer aims & motivations
- Understand the role of MyArrow in customers’ day-to-day tasks
- Identify pain points to be addressed in the Define stage
TASK MODELLING
By mapping out the key steps, processes and interfaces used by a customer within and outside of MyArrow, I was able to derive a clearer understanding of the context of use. Furthermore, I could highlight anticipated pain points experienced by a customer undertaking each task.
BACKSTAGE PROCESS MAPPING
The customer task models created previously were augmented with the actions carried out by Arrow staff to deliver each service. As the roadmap features involved actions currently performed by a sales rep, it was important to understand where these sat in the customer experience and to identify inefficiencies.
STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Using these maps to structure the sessions I then conducted interviews with stakeholders/SMEs which allowed me to fill knowledge gaps and validate hypotheses about the steps necessary for task completion. This was repeated several times until a complete picture of the customer experience was achieved.
ANALYSIS
Where pain points were identified, it was then possible to determine the customer and business needs being impacted and how these could be addressed. Working in this procedural manner helped rationalise design decisions and allow them to be traced back at a later date. I then categorised the insights into key themes to present back to client.
DEFINE PHASE
I then ran a face-to-face client workshop in London with senior stakeholders, consisting of a series of collaborative exercises.
This helped validate Discover-phase findings, formulate high-level business needs and experience goals and prioritise areas of work.
DELIVER PHASE
With a greater understanding of client priorities, I created concept journeys & wireframes for Quoting, Order Management & Global Inventory.
I then focussed on Quoting and worked closely with the BA to define a coherent, lean and buildable experience that addressed the customer pain points identified and also reflected existing interaction patterns to reduce user friction.
These journeys formed the basis for the wireframe design that followed. During this time it became clear that the client’s understanding of the required scope was inadequate and so I worked with the BA to convey the pitfalls of descoping on both a functional and experience level, specifically around the methods of importing data into a quote request.
By providing visual communication of the various options and bringing development into the conversation we were able to steer the client successfully towards the best outcome.
A sample of these wireframes are shown below.
