Crowdsourcing Material Data for a Transparent Supply Chain
My Role
UX/UI Designer
Project Manager
Team
Myself &
1 x UX Designers
1 x Product Manager
3 x Developers
Skills
UI/UX Design
Project Management
Cross Team Collaboration
Business Impact
• 3 key customers secured due to design outcome.
• Key feature in supporting GreenTokens overall strategic direction and market fit.
Timeline
Mar 2022 - Jun 2022 (4 mos)
Context
GreenToken by SAP is an early stage startup in SAP’s own incubator, SAP.IO. GreenToken leverages a blockchain ledger to improve supply chain transparency and ensure environmental regulation is adhered to by creating a digital material token which can be tracked.
The Business Problem
Before committing to purchase, three vital customers required a feature enabling users to request and share material data with one another. This feature would also support GreenTokens overall strategic direction of creating a collaborative library of material data.
The Goal
How might we facilitate the sharing of material data between companies?
Our Approach
Stakeholder interviews and an inspiration board to inform a rapid iteration cycles before development handoff.
Stakeholder Interviews
We needed to know more about the specific customer requirements so 1 hour semi-structured interviews were conducted relevant stakeholders.
Key Insights
The research data was synthesized and analyzed into themes which resulted 4 key insights informing the design direction.
Sensitive Data
Certain data is protected under patents or non-disclosure agreements so its visibility needs to be controlled.
Back and Forth
Data requests may require clarification and supporting communication so two way channels should be supported.
Multiple Requests
Users may need to request multiple data points and supply multiple data points. A request management area will be needed to organize all these options.
Supporting Information
Users may need to provide certification for the data requests so the ability to upload documents needs to be supported.
Inspiration Board
With a tight timeline, we researched existing patterns and design solutions to expedite our initial concept ideation.
Concept Ideation
Initial design decisions were presented to Product Managers and Developers for review and feedback.
Design Solution
Feedback from the team review was built into high fidelity mockups and presented to the customer for review and approval.
Impact
3
Key Customers Secured
We were able to research, design, test and implement this complex e2e feature within 4 months resulting in the company securing three vital customers.
#1
Feature Priority
This feature was essential functionality to help the company move towards its larger north star of creating a transparent and collaborative supply chain trace.
Reflections
Ownership Model
This feature did not have a Product Manager. This created a void for defining feature requirements and scope. This resulted in a vague understanding throughout the team and a lot of redundant design iterations based on adding and removing features. Identifying this scenario in the future and then leading alignment exercises would help alleviate the impact of this for future work.
Continuous Dev Collaboration
For this feature we knew who the assigned developer would be so we were able to involve them early in the ideation phases. This proved to be essential for a seamless development handoff as they had extensive knowledge of the features nuances since the start.
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