Geolocation

Problem Statement

Business Problem

• Previous geolocation efforts left stakeholders dissatisfied due to unmet expectations, instead prioritized a new 360-photo studio process and at-home delivery.

• Enhancing geolocation could improve the supply chain by identifying high-demand locations for car movement.

• An optimized supply chain would reduce costs and streamline car relocation, maximizing profits.

Key Performance Indicators

Engagement

Guide the customer to the right location.

Google Analytics used to track engagement

Target: 70% increase use online location based tools.

My Role

As Senior Product Designer for one of the dotcom brand team; I led the discovery, design, and research efforts for geolocation.

To kick off the project, I created quick experience maps to understand key touchpoints. I then led a three-hour design thinking session with my product team to gather insights on the history of geolocation at the company.

Before the session, I analyzed Adobe Analytics data, reviewed user flows, and built a dashboard. I also accessed Natural Language Data from the call center to enrich our insights.

Finally, I scheduled one-on-one meetings with designers, developers, and product owners across teams, asking them to walk me through any relevant work on geolocation.

I created mood boards in InVision to share with stakeholders, socialize with other teams and my own teams to highlight what’s catching our interest.

Results:

Our first test involved adding "See cars at this store" to the geolocation dropdown, resulting in a 4000% engagement increase and a significant drop in incorrect location selections. These small tests opened the door for larger projects, like a full rebuild of our geolocation system.

Discovery

Test & Learn

Using a triangulated research methodology, I crafted a user-centered narrative aligned with users' needs and mental models. To better understand prioritization for page content, I facilitated card-sorting exercises where users organized and ranked elements such as time, maps, and services at specific locations. This helped determine the most critical elements to feature on the page.

To gather deeper insights, I conducted multiple rounds of live studies using Ethn.io on store pages. Participants completed surveys, and those who matched our target criteria were invited to one-on-one conversations where I applied a practical empathy approach to uncover nuanced user behaviors and motivations.

I also integrated Indi Young’s "lightning quick" method, enabling my team to carve out rapid, focused usability tests directly on the live site. After each round, we held debrief sessions to synthesize findings and iterate effectively.

Additionally, these small, on-going agile tests served to validate proof-of-concept work with geolocation functionality, ensuring alignment between user needs and the developers' technical implementation.

Implementation

Over the course of five months, I led the design focus on a new geolocation feature with the goal of fostering cross-team adoption and alignment. To encourage collaboration and shared ownership, I invited teams from across the organization to join my team during qualitative research sessions, resulting in a 40% increase in cross-team participation in user research.

I established bi-weekly touchpoints with the mobile app, buyer, and seller experience teams to share updates on progress, insights, and learnings. These sessions helped identify and address three major cross-functional dependencies, reducing potential implementation delays by 25%.

Recognizing the importance of sustainability beyond my six-month contract, I empowered my junior designer to take ownership of key aspects of the project. Through coaching and collaboration, he led 50% of the project deliverables by the end of my tenure and co-presented at two town halls to showcase progress. This approach ensured a seamless transition, setting him up to take on the design leadership role and maintain momentum for the geolocation initiative.