Switching the Business Focus to Suppliers
Assent has an existing solution that requires suppliers to go to various portals hosted by their customers. This project is about improving that experience and creating a single product for suppliers. My role was a Senior UX Designer to partner with the business to explore new opportunities for the supplier.
Year
February 2019 - October 2022
Topics
Business, Discovery, UX Design, 0-1 Concept
Company
Assent
/ Discovery & Outcomes
Below are the pain points suppliers have with our existing solution. We interviewed suppliers, customers, and employees in our professional services department. We also looked at data points from Matamo.
Suppliers Are Customers Too: Historically, Assent has built separate applications for suppliers and customers. Where in fact, they complete the same activities.
Duplicate Requests: Suppliers receive the same request over and over from different customers. Yet, they have to go through a lengthy process each time.
Data Ownership: Suppliers do not feel they own the data they put into the system. Often this is highly confidential information.
Data Roll-up & Analysis: Assent sells over 20 “regulations” to customers. However, this is no way for customers or suppliers to data summarized in a meaningful way.
I created a journey map to bring clarity to the team for the key scenarios. To keep the team focused, I recommended we use H.E.A.R.T but only look at happiness, adoption, and task success.
/ A New Mental Model
We wanted to go beyond improving the existing user interface and redefine how a user views our product. I aimed to alleviate the stress and instead create a sense of control. By having the user focus on all the activities they need to do for a program, I could remove the concept of a request altogether.
/ Design Approach
Group by Regulation: Matching our business model creates new opportunities for new workflows.
Status & Analysis: Becoming a data analytics company is how Assent wants to position the company in the future. Leveraging cards allows data insights to become the focus.
Proactive Declarations: Suppliers can now submit their declarations before a a sends a request.
Outreach & Collection: Separate applications use to handle outreach and collection activities. Now users can manage both types of activities in one place.
/ Lessons Learned
UX Can Spark New Company Initiatives: Thinking beyond improving the user interface, it introduced new solutions for what we can offer suppliers. An output of this initiative was to look at combining each of Assent’s products into one platform. (See the following portfolio example!)
Research Incentives: I ran into a roadblock within my organization concerning providing incentives to users. Working with internal stakeholders and customers can be fruitful in the short term but is not scalable. Finding ways to communicate the importance of providing incentives to participants is an ongoing challenge I still face today.
Understanding the Business Model: Inspiration for me in this project was understanding how Assent positions itself in the marketplace and what solutions we want to provide. I wanted to raise the value of what our professional services provide while leveraging Assent's competitive advantage.
/ Impact
Helped set company direction by bringing clarity through design
Aligned with key suppliers to help launch new revenue stream for business
Created a product direction that could be utilized for 3 to 5 years. As a result, it would hit the objectives around reducing supplier response time and enabling our professional services department to do more consulting instead of manual work
Switching the Business Focus to Suppliers
Assent has an existing solution that requires suppliers to go to various portals hosted by their customers. This project is about improving that experience and creating a single product for suppliers. My role was a Senior UX Designer to partner with the business to explore new opportunities for the supplier.
Year
February 2019 - October 2022
Topics
Business, Discovery, UX Design, 0-1 Concept
Company
Assent
/ Discovery & Outcomes
Below are the pain points suppliers have with our existing solution. We interviewed suppliers, customers, and employees in our professional services department. We also looked at data points from Matamo.
Suppliers Are Customers Too: Historically, Assent has built separate applications for suppliers and customers. Where in fact, they complete the same activities.
Duplicate Requests: Suppliers receive the same request over and over from different customers. Yet, they have to go through a lengthy process each time.
Data Ownership: Suppliers do not feel they own the data they put into the system. Often this is highly confidential information.
Data Roll-up & Analysis: Assent sells over 20 “regulations” to customers. However, this is no way for customers or suppliers to data summarized in a meaningful way.
I created a journey map to bring clarity to the team for the key scenarios. To keep the team focused, I recommended we use H.E.A.R.T but only look at happiness, adoption, and task success.
/ A New Mental Model
We wanted to go beyond improving the existing user interface and redefine how a user views our product. I aimed to alleviate the stress and instead create a sense of control. By having the user focus on all the activities they need to do for a program, I could remove the concept of a request altogether.
/ Design Approach
Group by Regulation: Matching our business model creates new opportunities for new workflows.
Status & Analysis: Becoming a data analytics company is how Assent wants to position the company in the future. Leveraging cards allows data insights to become the focus.
Proactive Declarations: Suppliers can now submit their declarations before a a sends a request.
Outreach & Collection: Separate applications use to handle outreach and collection activities. Now users can manage both types of activities in one place.
/ Lessons Learned
UX Can Spark New Company Initiatives: Thinking beyond improving the user interface, it introduced new solutions for what we can offer suppliers. An output of this initiative was to look at combining each of Assent’s products into one platform. (See the following portfolio example!)
Research Incentives: I ran into a roadblock within my organization concerning providing incentives to users. Working with internal stakeholders and customers can be fruitful in the short term but is not scalable. Finding ways to communicate the importance of providing incentives to participants is an ongoing challenge I still face today.
Understanding the Business Model: Inspiration for me in this project was understanding how Assent positions itself in the marketplace and what solutions we want to provide. I wanted to raise the value of what our professional services provide while leveraging Assent's competitive advantage.
/ Impact
Helped set company direction by bringing clarity through design
Aligned with key suppliers to help launch new revenue stream for business
Created a product direction that could be utilized for 3 to 5 years. As a result, it would hit the objectives around reducing supplier response time and enabling our professional services department to do more consulting instead of manual work
Switching the Business Focus to Suppliers
Assent has an existing solution that requires suppliers to go to various portals hosted by their customers. This project is about improving that experience and creating a single product for suppliers. My role was a Senior UX Designer to partner with the business to explore new opportunities for the supplier.
Year
February 2019 - October 2022
Topics
Business, Discovery, UX Design, 0-1 Concept
Company
Assent
/ Discovery & Outcomes
Below are the pain points suppliers have with our existing solution. We interviewed suppliers, customers, and employees in our professional services department. We also looked at data points from Matamo.
Suppliers Are Customers Too: Historically, Assent has built separate applications for suppliers and customers. Where in fact, they complete the same activities.
Duplicate Requests: Suppliers receive the same request over and over from different customers. Yet, they have to go through a lengthy process each time.
Data Ownership: Suppliers do not feel they own the data they put into the system. Often this is highly confidential information.
Data Roll-up & Analysis: Assent sells over 20 “regulations” to customers. However, this is no way for customers or suppliers to data summarized in a meaningful way.
I created a journey map to bring clarity to the team for the key scenarios. To keep the team focused, I recommended we use H.E.A.R.T but only look at happiness, adoption, and task success.
/ A New Mental Model
We wanted to go beyond improving the existing user interface and redefine how a user views our product. I aimed to alleviate the stress and instead create a sense of control. By having the user focus on all the activities they need to do for a program, I could remove the concept of a request altogether.
/ Design Approach
Group by Regulation: Matching our business model creates new opportunities for new workflows.
Status & Analysis: Becoming a data analytics company is how Assent wants to position the company in the future. Leveraging cards allows data insights to become the focus.
Proactive Declarations: Suppliers can now submit their declarations before a a sends a request.
Outreach & Collection: Separate applications use to handle outreach and collection activities. Now users can manage both types of activities in one place.
/ Lessons Learned
UX Can Spark New Company Initiatives: Thinking beyond improving the user interface, it introduced new solutions for what we can offer suppliers. An output of this initiative was to look at combining each of Assent’s products into one platform. (See the following portfolio example!)
Research Incentives: I ran into a roadblock within my organization concerning providing incentives to users. Working with internal stakeholders and customers can be fruitful in the short term but is not scalable. Finding ways to communicate the importance of providing incentives to participants is an ongoing challenge I still face today.
Understanding the Business Model: Inspiration for me in this project was understanding how Assent positions itself in the marketplace and what solutions we want to provide. I wanted to raise the value of what our professional services provide while leveraging Assent's competitive advantage.
/ Impact
Helped set company direction by bringing clarity through design
Aligned with key suppliers to help launch new revenue stream for business
Created a product direction that could be utilized for 3 to 5 years. As a result, it would hit the objectives around reducing supplier response time and enabling our professional services department to do more consulting instead of manual work