Edmunds.com
Sr User Experience Designer
Car Buying Platform User-Generated Content Growth
The Edmunds.com accelerator program is set up quarterly for small agile project teams to focus on areas of platform growth opportunity. The teams use rapid experimentation to quickly gain validation for product strategy. The quarterly program is kicked off by a three-day workshop led to prepare each team and gain a holistic view of the other project goals.
Assigned as design lead for user generated content (UGC) focus along with a customer experience lead, an engineer, and a content editor. Executed lean research to validate assumptions through in-person paper prototype of concept mockups, live A/B tests to millions of users, as well as targeted email tests. Team held daily planning and brainstorming meetings to discuss strategy and prepare research.
The timeline was over the course of 2 months at the end of which each team shared a presentation to company executives, accelerator board members and stakeholders (a group of approximately 30 people). Each presentation was critiqued by the board then executives made a decision on which projects to continue forward with and incorporate into company product development workflow.
Update:
The UGC project strategy was selected as one to continue forward with and features were later incorporated into the platform growth.
Top Skills: Design Strategy, Product Development, Product Design, IA/UX/UI, Creative Direction, System Thinking, Visual Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Agile Practices, Product Management
Targeting High-Value Customers
The company's research team identified a group of high-value costumers which each accelerator team was building for.
User Behavior
High-value customers want 'mastery' of the car buying process because by having a sense of accomplishment and expertise, they believe they get the right car at the best price.
They thoroughly forage for information across reviews, data and pricing on Edmunds.com and reference other car buying resources.
Plus, they are often the go-to person among friends and family with the power to be an influencer in their networks.
These behaviors led to concept and feature ideation.
Project Planning Brainstorms
The team spent time each day strategizing direction and critiquing brainstorm ideas on whiteboard.
Assumptions to Validate
UGC is a stop on the journey of a high value customer.
There are content producers on Edmunds.com.
More content producers will contribute to content if we reach them at the right time and place in their journey.
More will contribute if we identify a larger audience.
Through previous company studies and metric analysis a Q&A concept had been developed to test the above assumptions.
'Q&A' Static Concept Test
We started by testing concepts as paper prototype in-person and static over video with key stakeholders and account managers.
'Ask A Question' onSite Tests
We conducted live onsite tests with new UI patterns to assist with the Q&A concept.
'Ask a Question' Fixed Module
In addition to the inline question content, we also added a fixed footer module which was tested on the live site.
'Answer a question' Email Test
We identified a targeted email group of recent 1000 Honda CR-V buyers and directed them to a test page for answering questions.
'Write a Review' Onsite Module
Designed a module for user content review for on-site test across multiple high traffic pages.
Metric Analysis
To assist with identifying a larger audience base analysis of customer and competitive metrics was done.
Recognized 'producer' opportunity with current customer base:
Set baseline KPIs based upon data:
Lifetime of a Customer
The high-value customer journey was addressed by reviewing online actions along with car buying/ownership phases.
Service Design
To identify the 'right time and place' for high-value customers, this holistic diagram referenced research evidence. It also crosses efforts of other accelerator and product teams.
NOTE: The Edmunds product teams had not previously proposed the journey in such a way.
Identifying UGC opportunity in journey outside current efforts:
Presentation Feedback
The accelerator board critiqued presentations and provided minimal feedback for further exploration.
