Last Mile Parcel Delivery
2022
Goal provide Commercial Vehicle leadership a product point of view (POV) to open and sustain sales with Commercial Customers based on understanding the last mile delivery experience.
Role Design Research Lead for in-house B2B project
Client In-house Automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
Scope 4 months, 6-person team (Product designers, UX researcher, AR / VR prototypers)
Business Challenge
This OEM’s parcel delivery business needed to work more closely and deepen sales interactions with their Customers (parcel delivery companies like DHL, FedEx, UPS) to maintain it’s competitive lead. According to their Customers, this OEM’s commercial delivery business lacks a clear point of view (POV) on near-to-midterm solutions.
Project Goals
Provide OEM’s parcel delivery leadership a POV that will initiate and maintain Customer sales interactions. by:
Understanding Customer’s emerging needs and how the business will anticipate and serve them.
Clearly articulate how the Business will help Customers adapt and thrive in the face of supply chain and regulatory pressure
Communicating how prepared the Business is to customize, tailor-make products for client loyalty
Approach: Multi-method research and iterative prototyping
Research Structure and Rationale
INTERVIEWS WITH SALES ACCOUNT MANAGERS
One-on-one interview and white boarding session with OEM Sales Account Managers to understand why sales calls aren’t going well and why Leadership believes a “POV” would help. Capture Sale Account realities and perceptions on their experiences with OEM leadership and Customers to identify where expectations are realistic or unrealistic, being met / exceeded / missed.
INTERVIEWS WITH LAST MILE WORKFORCE
One-on-one interviews with last mile delivery drivers and loaders to understand the barriers and enablers in being productive (KPI for Customers) and how the delivery vehicle (OEM’s product) improves or disrupts their job.
Diary study as a compromise to in-context observation (confidentiality / IP red tape). Diary study captures a closer worker experience while they’re doing the job (beyond the 60-minute interview) over a week.
Survey to validate hypothesis concepts. Survey fielded to 100 delivery drivers and loaders to validate if insights-informed product ideas resonate with their needs. Survey results informed and focused product improvements prioritization.
INTERVIEW STIMULI DEVELOPED INTO PROTOTYPES TO SUPPORT CUSTOMER SALES CALLS
Insights from OEM sales and Customer workforce identified concepts to iterate into prototypes with experience criteria. We shared these prototypes during with Sales and workforce (as available) in subsequent rounds of feedback. Based on this feedback, we refined concepts and shared prioritization and strategic framework with implementation and product cycle teams at OEM.
Impact and Outcomes: Actionable gap analysis tied to live product cycles
IMPACT
We provided Commercial Leadership, Product Teams, and Sales a unified prioritization of gaps to close from the POV of Customers and their stakeholders (workforce) to inform and improve communication outreach.
As of 2022, a horizontal, global team was planned to further align, de-duplicate, and escalate prioritized items and integrate into current product cycles.
DELIVERABLES
Actionable framework applied to current and near term product cycles
Virtual showcase room (via Miro) to evangelize needs, insights, and recommendations with internal business stakeholders
Digital prototypes (AR/VR) to patent, support, and engage Customers during sales calls / meetings