Pricing the Vehicle
This is what CDK Connected Store does today. It's a narrow form widget that lives on a dealer's website. It's neither sustainable, nor scalable.
Project Overview
CDK Connected Store is a legacy product originally built as an online auto price calculation tool. As the business and shopper needs grow, features like trade-in, credit score check and loan applications were shoehorned into a bare bone product without a holistic strategy built on the solid understanding of user needs and pain points. I was tasked to evaluate the existing product, research, ideate new solutions and present a new UX strategy to the stakeholders to get their buy-in. This case study highlights my process.
My Responsibilities
- Research & Discovery
- Testing & Reporting
- Facilitate & Moderate Design Workshop
- Ideate & Prototype
- Strategy & Planning
Tools
- Jira/Confluence
- Axure RP
- Sketch
- Miro
Problem Statement
Car shoppers need an online shopping product to price a vehicle, trade-in their old vehicles, credit check, apply for a loan and schedule a test ride, without visiting a car dealership. How can I provide a comprehensive online automotive shopping experience to the shopper that's intuitive, supportive, trust worthy and hassle free?
Goals
To craft a UX strategy for the new Connected Store vehicle purchase tool through research, discovery, testing, workshop, ideation, design and prototyping.
Design Process
Research
- Experience Mapping
- Testing Existing Product
Strategy
- Insights
- Strategizing
Ideate
- Collaboration
- Design Workshop
Design
- Wire framing
- Design Mockup
Test
- Feedbacks
- Prototype Testing
Shopper Experience Map
To build empathy with the shopper, and to understand how our existing products and services fit in this journey and to identify key user experiences, I mapped out the shopper's journey with potential pain points, context, emotions, product touch points and interactions with various tools and stakeholders.
Key Experiences
I identified 3 key experiences in the auto buying process. These 3 codependent experiences reflect the key stages in the shopper's journey. The current Connected Store product provides only the first key experience: Pricing the Vehicle. The other two key experiences are not supported, but absolutely crucial to a shopper's purchase journey.
Signing Documents
The current eSign solution is a siloed and fragmented experience which requires a PIN number and the shopper to switch between different devices
Test Drive & Delivery
This is an area we have not fully explored. Features like scheduling a test drive is an opportunity to actively engage with the shopper.
Usability Testing
To better understand how the current Connected Store product performs, I facilitated and moderated 8 usability testing sessions. The goal was to evaluate the baselines usability of CS’s core functions - payment calculation and credit application. Identify areas of improvement and use learnings to craft a new UX strategy.
6 insights I learned from tests
1. Leadgate
Leadgate came as an unpleasant, disruptive surprise that deterred (rather than encouraged) lead(shopper info) submission.
2. Dealer Settings
Dealer customization undermined the quality of UX and the product's performance and ultimately dealer ROI.
3. Transparency
Shoppers were unable to tell how calculations were made or which numbers changed, to what extent in response to deal changes.
4. Assistance
Shoppers expressed concern about the online purchase process without live support.
5. Make an Offer
Shoppers expressed excitement around 'offer making' and negotiation, but current functionality is limited and fails to set consumer expectations.
6. Security
Shoppers were divided in their comfort level with sharing personal information such as: SS#, DL#, home address, etc. via the tool.
Design Workshop
I facilitated and moderated a cross functional design work shop to explore and ideate on the insights I’ve discovered above. The participants included: One UX designer(myself), two UX researchers, one product manager, one developer and a sales manager. One innovative idea emerged in the workshop was the concept of “Shopper Garage”. It’s all-in-one auto purchase platform where various shopping tools are available as widgets. The shopper can use respective widgets to make informed buying decisions. “Shopper Garage” can also help the shopper to track and schedule a vehicle service after a purchase has been made.
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The concept of “Shopper Garage”
Shopping widgets such as credit application, trade-in, credit score, test drive are all available on one platform: the Shopper Garage. When used separately, shopping widgets operate as individual lead generators for the dealer, an organic way to capture leads and meet the business needs. When used together, widgets can be organized into a purchasing work flow for the shopper.
Sketches/Low-fidelity Wireframes
Creating a Shopper Garage platform where various tools can be launched from.
Ideating a guided and conversational purchasing experience.
Finance, Lease and Cash payment methods are presented in tabs for improved usability.
Design Solution: The “Shopper Garage”
I developed high fidelity designs based on the “Shopper Garage” concept from the design workshop. I presented 6 key experiences in a fully functional clickable prototype. The purposes of building such a realistic experience was to: 1. Present my vision and strategy in a more tangible form to the stakeholders. 2. Use this prototype to further research and test this working prototype.
Shopper Garage
Payment Selector
Saved Vehicle Quotes
Quote Details
Trade In
Assisted Purchase
Impact, Results & Next Steps
CDK Global, an automotive technology company, needed a new online retail solution that could replace their existing, poorly performing solution. I presented a new "Connected Store" UX Strategy to product and UX leaders.
My "Shopper Garage" concept was well-received, but implementation would take 2.5 years—too long given the emerging COVID-19 pandemic would impact auto dealerships and make online retail more critical. We needed a faster, integrated online shopping solution.
My strategy became the North Star for this, leading to the strategic acquisition of Roadster, an omni-channel purchasing platform that aligned with our vision. This $360 million deal in spring 2021 immediately boosted CDK's revenue and aligned with our long-term vision for end-to-end vehicle purchasing and servicing.
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