SteelBox
Collaborating with Steelcase to create transparency and project efficiency for Salespeople and teams.
Client
Steelcase
Duration
Aug 2022 - Dec 2022
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Dennis Siegert
Yiwen Teng
Shenghui Gao
Design Tools
Figma (Main Tool)
Adobe Suite
Miro
Project Overview
Context
Steelcase specializes in custom furniture through RFP (Request for Proposal) and engages in detailed communication with clients to create tailored products
Steelcase's customization process requires extensive collaboration. Clients, dealers, salespeople, and design experts communicate to create the desired furniture. This multi-party interaction ensures that the final product meets the customer's needs.
Problem
Salespeople handling RFPs often face communication challenges between customers and experts, with email leading to misunderstandings.
Client interviews reveal three recurring pain points that impact the customization process. These issues often result in misunderstandings and frustrations throughout the project lifecycle.
"So the good part is that it (email) gives you documentation. The bad part is you can have questions and answers going back and forth."
Salesperson at Steelcase
User Need
Salespeople need a transparent project workflow and clear team communication channels to manage the customization process from start to finish effectively.
Advanced Visual Support
Utilizing tools to help enhance project clarity and reduce confusion amongst teams.
Efficient and Seamless Collaboration
Connecting salespeople, design teams, and customers effectively.
Clear and Cohesive Communication
Minimizing misunderstandings and ambiguities for smoother project progression.
Unified Vision and Data Precision
Ensuring stakeholder alignment and providing real-time, accurate data for informed decisions.
How Might We
Improve transparency over the project process to keep salespeople on the same page across teams?
This involves designing a project board to help salespeople manage projects more confidently and efficiently, track progress easily, and communicate effectively with both internal and external teams.
Design Strategy
Steelbox offers tracking and visual tools to enhance team transparency and improve RFP processing efficiency.
This is done through three parts:
Design Solution
Design Solution 1
Leveraging different metrics to help salespeople prioritize projects and to improve efficiency.
Salespeople can generate project updates through RFQ inputs
When a client informs the dealer of their requests, the dealer sends a Request for Quote (RFQ) to the salesperson, who inputs it into the system. The system then scans the keywords and updates the project accordingly.
Projects are prioritized through color and deadlines
Salespeople and teams can coordinate projects and enhance work efficiency by aligning them with specific deadlines. These deadlines can be color-coded to correspond with their timelines.
Solution 1 Insights
Through this solution, Salespeople can:
01. Quickly upload RFP to projects through scanning technology
02. Have overviews of projects to quickly see project details
03. Prioritize projects through color indicating deadlines
Design Solution 2
Increasing team engagement through project visualizations and tracking history.
Salespeople have access to comprehensive project details and product information.
Salespeople and team members can view detailed visuals of project spaces and product information, which encompasses details such as quality, client, and size.
Salespeople and teams can view product timelines and contact those involved in development.
Steelbox provides a history of changes, detailing the nature of modifications made along with corresponding price points. Salespeople can also contact team members involved in a project directly to engage in conversations.
Solution 2 Insights
Through this solution, Salespeople and Teams can:
01. See project space and project details
02. Update and have history of progress tracking
03. See a list of all team members on the project
Design Solution 3
Promoting Team Cohesion through External Collaboration and Internal Empowerment
Salespeople can export a report of completed work to clients to ensure transparency.
Salespeople can choose completed items to share with clients in a PDF format, allowing them to view the interior layout and products to track progress.
Furthermore, Salespeople can contact teams directly on mobile for instant team discussion
During interviews, several salespeople noted difficulties in reaching out to teams and scheduling meetings. Consequently, they can promptly schedule team meetings and receive notifications on their phones.
Solution 3 Insights
Through this solution, Salespeople and Teams can:
01. Quickly schedule and be notified of meetings
02. Share reports to external and internal teams
03. Improve communication externally and internally
Design Process
Context
Methods
Conducting research to investigate current problems, analyzing these insights, and synthesizing them to How Might We Statements
Quantitative Research
Reviewing articles and market
Qualitative Research
7 Inerviews with Steelcase Team
Analysis and Synthesis
Finding Insights from the research
Qualitative Interviews
2 Salespeople
Talks to Dealers, gets client information
3 Team managers
Works with design team to align requirements
2 Steelcase Design Team
Develops RFQ's Sent by Salespeople
Journey Map and Personas
Developing user personas and journey maps by combining insights from in-depth primary interviews with Salespeople and extensive secondary research. This approach ensured a well-rounded understanding of our target audience.
Main Insights
01. There is a lack of communication tools
- Besides Microsoft Teams and email, there is no other form of communication resulting in limiting work efficiency (Interviews)
02. There is intense teamwork competition due to invisible walls
- Due to high pressure from salespeople and dealers, there is a high amount of competition among teams (Interviews)
- Because of a lack of communication, it is difficult to reach out to teammates which results in the frustration of others (interviews)
03. There is a high demand for visual support
- Many people at Steelcase wanted visual aids to help them understand their projects better. Given the high volume of RFQs, the Steelcase teams are seeking to use visuals to clarify their tasks and improve their workflow. (Interviews)
Prototype Development
Early Ideation and Story Boarding
Creating ideations and storyboards based on insights gained from research. These concepts provided a clear direction for what we aim to develop for the client.
Wireframes
After ideation, we moved to low-fidelity wireframes to facilitate user testing with the Steelcase sales team.
Wireframe Details
01. Visual support of the project
- Steelcase teams can view the interior layout of the project to identify the locations of products within the space.
02. Showcase of products in the space
- Steelbox displays images of the products and highlights their locations on the interior layout.
03. Chat and comment history of the products
- Steelcase teams can review the comment history associated with each product.
04. Comments of parts of the product are displayed
- Steelcase teams can add comments to specific areas of the product that require revision.
User Interactions
User Interactions
Impact
Outcomes
From Misunderstandings to Successful Communication
By adopting Steelbox, Salespeople stand to gain:
01. RFp Completion Time Cut by 30%
02. Miscommunication reduced by 43%
03. Enhanced usability and learnability by 90%
"What stood out to me is the things we lack desperately, especially when it comes to making things visual and helping with information management."
Project Manager of Stelcase
Takeaways
Initially, our team struggled a lot with understanding client wants and needs. This project helped us understand the significance of interviewing with clients and we ultimately succeeded in a project that the client was satisfied with. With frequent team discussions and planning, we were able to achieve success. This project also helped us further understand the importance of team planning and brainstorming which further aided us in having better teamwork.
User Interactions
Future Steps would incorporate exploring the project further in sharing project details with external teammates. This can be explored in the exportation of the project to emails. Another pinpoint is that most RFQs are mainly given through emails, being able to connect the RFQ page to teammates' emails. This would minimize the need of having to further download the RFQ but directly scan it from emails into the board.
Other Projects
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@2024 Made By Dennis Siegert