Supply Chain · 2019
Making a complex vendor workflow visible
As the first UX designer supporting the team, I used service design and vendor research to bring shared direction to a supply-chain modernization effort.
Project Details
- My Contribution
- I began with vendor research, then helped create service blueprints, journey maps, and personas. We distinguished smaller vendors' access and usability needs from multinational vendors' export and data-connection needs, and used effort versus expected benefit to discuss priorities.
- Evidence
- 1,200+ vendors in scope · Service blueprint · Seven usability sessions
The Challenge
Our product supported large-scale vendor orders serving multiple locations. The workflow coordinated the assignment and transfer of goods into the appropriate shipments, with the goal of maximizing available space in shipping containers and trucks while serving the intended destinations.
What I Led
I started with vendor research. From that research, we created service blueprints, journey maps, and personas that helped the team understand its users and identify several user types. This came before team agreements and other deliverables.
Some vendors were small companies of roughly five to ten people that shipped occasionally. Others were multinational corporations with many touchpoints working on the same accounts. Smaller vendors needed the program to be easier to access and use; multinational vendors needed exports and data connections.
We used a four-quadrant matrix to discuss effort versus expected benefit and align feature priorities. There were fewer large vendors, but they accounted for more purchasing and shipping activity. The final feature order and quantitative weighting are not recalled. Seven usability sessions helped shape a clickable prototype for partner review.
What Changed
The work connected operational needs, vendor feedback, and product priorities in a shared direction that partners could review and act on.
Attribution
Project details and approximate figures are based on my firsthand recollection; original internal records are unavailable. Intended benefits and estimates are identified separately from delivered outcomes.