Sourcemap is a B2B supply-chain mapping company. Focused on helping brands collect supplier information to comply with regulations, mitigate risk, and source responsibly.
Company Overview
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Sourcemap facilitates the collection of supplier information that helps brands make critical decisions in their supply chain with focused reporting.
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Sourcemap consolidates customer and brand requests for information in one place, saving suppliers time and resources.
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Sourcemap is data-centered and relies on a good user experience for suppliers to input the data we report on.
Customer time to value increased from 9 months to out-of-the-box.
Customers can begin mapping their supply chains when they sign the contract and register for the platform.
Time spent on data entry for suppliers is decreased by 50% by storing company and contact information.
Suppliers no longer have to enter their basic information over and over.
Geo-location address services and API integration with other business identifiers, such as DUNS now validate supplier information.
This decreases duplicate profiles and proves suppliers information is correct.
Sourcemap saw an opportunity to improve the supplier onboarding flow to decrease customer time to value and increase data validation…. and it worked!
Research and Experience Design to optimize onboarding flow and improve user data entry at a B2B supply-chain mapping company
Project Summary
I led a qualitative user research study, scoped product requirements, and led the future product design strategy for the next iteration of the core enterprise product focused on user onboarding and data entry.
This is a confidential internal use-only enterprise software no visuals or functionality will be shown.
Responsibilities
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Qualitative user research
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Scoping product requirements
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Product design strategy
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Experience design
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Prototyping and Usability testing
Timeline & Team
This project is ongoing. 2 quarters of work has been done. This product has 4 pods working on it. A pod includes a Product Manager (PM) and 4 engineers. I am the sole Product Designer and work across prods.
Results
The project will launch its first iteration in July. The results are faster time to value for the customer, cutting our internal processes from 9 months to out-of-the-box implementation, and cleaner data collection.
7 Supplier Interviews
Goal: Understand suppliers' pain points in responding to information from customers
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Who is responsible for responding to customer requests?
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How are suppliers currently responding to requests?
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How/where do suppliers keep the information they reference for a request?
Goal/Interview Framing
5 Company Workshops
Goal: Understand how companies request information and how they would like those requests to be reported on
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What is the cadence of requests to suppliers?
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How do you send requests to a supplier?
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What are the KPIs you are expected to report on?
Goal/Interview Framing
Bi-weekly Customer Product Feedback
Goal: Recieve customer feedback on mocks and show work completed in previous sprints
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Reach an internal understanding at customer parent company of what our platform does and how it will support them in supplier information collection
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Validate work and processes
Goal/Interview Framing
I organized qualitative interview questions and facilitated workshops with suppliers, a parent company, and their companies. Keeping in mind that this product needed to be industry agnostic for all our customers and their supply chains.
I want suppliers to give us information in the fastest way possible to understand our supply chains and get the data used to make critical business decisions around sourcing.
-LVMH Sustainability Director
I want suppliers to give us the information we need for regulatory purposes and to meet our KPIs.
-Maison Director of Sourcing
I want to send the customer information they've requested as efficiently and soon as possible to continue my business relationship with them.
-Textile Manufacturer
Taking what I learned in interviews and workshops, I began to ideate on 3 main user personas the parent company user, the company user, and the supplier.
Supplier Profile
A place where suppliers can enter their contact, company, and certification information once that is shared with all requests they receive.
Centralized Requests
A central place where parent companies and companies can make bulk and single requests of suppliers for information.
Centralized Reporting
A dashboard in the parent company and company flow where reporting is visualized on the different requests.
Analyzing user personas and utilizing previous institutional knowledge we identified the key building blocks for successful supply chain management.
Supplier Profile
Centralized Requests
Centralized reporting
Building Blocks to engage all users
Supplier Onboarding
Goal: Easily let suppliers enter and validate company and contact information
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Integration with various industry APIs to provide unique identification and validation of identity
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Geo-location using Google map integration
Request Implications
Goal: Create and send requests in bulk to suppliers around information needed for KPIs
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Integration with a supplier profile means consistent data ingested
Reporting Implications
Goal: See the results of my requests and use that information to report on KPIs and make sourcing decisions
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Integration with a supplier profile creates easier ways to report on and pivot the information
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Integration with supplier profile creates automatic value through engagement metrics and automatic mapping
Our first focus was on creating a supplier profile where suppliers would be able to enter their company, contact, and registration information in an easy onboarding flow.
Customer time to value increased from 9 months to out-of-the-box.
Customers can begin mapping their supply chains when they sign the contract and register for the platform.
Time spent on data entry for suppliers is decreased by 50% by storing company and contact information.
Suppliers no longer have to enter their basic information over and over.
Geo-location address services and API integration with other business identifiers, such as DUNS now validate supplier information.
This decreases duplicate profiles and proves suppliers information is correct.
Supplier profile and onboarding now let suppliers join the platform faster, report their information sooner, and keep the data cleaner.
Key Learning #1
In B2B your customer is often not your primary user. Understanding their needs and goals and working towards fulfilling them is the highest priority.
Key Learning #2
Sometimes your design and proposed solution will not resonate with the customer's expectations. Understand how to manage their expectations from the beginning.
Key Learning #3
Working across engineering pods you need to be able to switch context quickly and keep in open communication with leads and PMs.
There are many user personas in B2B whose different needs and goals must be balanced and prioritized to create a positive user experience.
Meet James
Director of Sustainability at LVMH
Wants to:
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Understand supply chains for key material
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See overlap in sourcing
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Mitigate risks
Key Insights
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Currently has data in various disparate forms and systems
Meet Jessica
Director of Sourcing at Celine
Wants to:
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Report KPIs
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Manage certifications and audit for regulations
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Easily communicate with suppliers
Key Insights
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Only one person is responsible for handling all these requests
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The requests increase every year due to new regulations
Meet Chole
Textile manufacturer
Wants to:
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Provide customers with the information they need so they can continue their working relationship
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Show proof of certifications and audits
Key Insights
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Asked to report in many different ways and platforms
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Needs to collect information from different departments and holdings to fulfill reports