teatree design
SARA EIDELSHTEIN
The evolution of a brand & company
How an enterprise solution birthed a brand new product for SMBs
Overview
Discovering product-market fit
What began as a secure data collaboration platform targeting enterprise customers evolved into a full end-to-end product allowing brands, marketplaces, and SMBs to promote, co-market, and cross-sell. Through the process of POCs and user feedback, we transformed a small technical feature into a much larger and valuable product for one of our target markets.
QEDIT Platform dashboard from the business growth POC
Experimentation
Proof of concept
At QEDIT I was the sole designer working on the secure data collaboration platform. This platform allows organizations across various verticals to securely collaborate on data in order to gain valuable business insights all while preserving the privacy of customer data and sensitive business information.
The secure data collaboration platform works for many use cases including financial services, insurance, and ecommerce. We ran a pilot for two organizations in the ecommerce area on the QEDIT platform over the period of two months.
The QEDIT secure data collaboration platform showing the results of overlapping & non-overlapping customers of two organizations
Research
Observations
Two organizations uploaded datasets, discovering a high-accuracy overlap among customers. This enabled precise segmentation and targeting of non-overlapping customers, a novel capability. However, this feature alone lacked value and efficiency. To enhance co-marketing, we aimed to provide a complete product that empowers organizations not only to identify and segment their audiences in unprecedented ways but also to create, launch, and manage campaigns within the platform, going beyond mere result lists.
Competitive analysis
I researched marketing campaign platforms, exploring technical and user requirements. We identified a partial competitor, delving into their strategy to differentiate ourselves and clarify our unique value proposition. This process led us to merge our secure data collaboration platform with a marketing campaign platform, creating a comprehensive end-to-end product.
Whiteboarding from brainstorm sessions & first attempt at implementing this in the QEDIT platform
ROI
The business value of UX
Our research highlighted the paramount importance of user experience as the key business value. Collaborating with the head of product, we brainstormed various campaign platform concepts to integrate campaign capabilities into QEDIT. Early in this process, it became evident that this feature was a full-fledged product. The prototypes I created became central to company discussions.
Before embarking on the development of a new product, we prioritized market research to assess scalability. Extensive discussions with shops, brands, and marketplaces confirmed its high utility. To maintain the versatility of secure data collaboration across multiple verticals without adding custom features, we opted to create a new end-to-end product.
Design discovery
Onboarding friction
The initial concept assumed organizations had to agree to partnerships, handle partner selection, onboarding, contract negotiations, and product placement themselves, creating a burden for small companies and prolonging the sales cycle. To improve scalability, we aimed to reduce onboarding friction for shops and provide multiple growth channels, simplifying the process.
Solution:
A marketplace vision
Any shop, regardless of category or brand type, could join CartStream and browse and discover shops that they want to co-market and cross-sell with. For example, a scooter company has decided that they don’t want to just try to promote their product in a bicycle shop, they would like to market in a yoga store or any other shop that might fit their target audience.
"Store: Hoodie Society"
The problem: Partnered stores must be found and contractualized outside the platform
Testing designs
Prototyping
Prototyping enabled us to craft custom demos for internal stakeholders and potential customers, showcasing how CartStream could elevate their marketing efforts. Testing these prototypes revealed variations in partner store browsing methods among brands, prompting us to tailor this aspect of the product extensively. We iterated and developed a detailed approach to meet diverse customer needs.
Screen from a prototype built for a potential customer to demonstrate how their and their partner products would be integrated in CartStream
POC
Beta launch & iterations
CartStream is poised for a significant milestone with a group of eager customers primed to embark on their journey with the beta version of our innovative product. While the prototype offered a glimpse into the overarching vision of our comprehensive end-to-end solution, the beta represents an advanced iteration of our MVP. This strategic step allows us to solicit valuable feedback that will shape our product roadmap for continued refinement and enhancement.
CartStream Design Screens
Click images to enlarge
