Cockpit is Grameenphone's answer to a modern and digital distribution system connecting Distribution Houses to Retailers and Points of Sales
UX Design | Information Architecture | Wireframe & Prototype | UI Design
tl;dr
Project goal
Simplify the distribution process & maximize efficiency of salesforce and retailers to drive business growth
Challenges
Sales Executives spend most of the time outdoors, and only have 5-6 minutes per interaction per retailer, with which they try to meet their KPIs
Deliver complex KPI details through app for convenience instead of physical dashboards, messaging apps, etc.
Outcomes
95% of Sales Executives are Daily Active Users
90% Balance transfers performed through Cockpit
10+ Million BDT incremental revenue increase
90% Balance transfers performed through Cockpit
10+ Million BDT incremental revenue increase
THE CASE STUDY
The company already had digitized the business needs of the sales executives however it was in dire straits due to failing systems and critical bugs. As part of the digitization initiative, this along with Cockpit Retail were the flagship product of the Sales and Distribution wing of Grameenphone. We used a similar approach by beginning the project through ground-up exploration of the users' context
Insights
Retailers are frustrated by inaccurate commission information received from the USSD asystem, so they have to tediously keep track of their businesses
Retailers are habituated to using to low-cost button phones to make transactions request information from GP's system, which often didn't matched their own personal bookkeeping efforts.
The objective was to remove these manual burdens from them so that they can focus on their sales and not on tediously tracking information
IDEAte & PROTOTYPE
The SE part of the Cockpit app yield a much simpler information architecture. While the user journeys themselves were simple, the actual design was more complicated than that of the Retail counterpart
Similar to Cockpit Retail, we wanted to make sure we understood what the design called for before we go to the drawing board. A lot of these categories did not initially make its way into the app, but as it gradually rolls out to Sales Executives out in the wild, we parallelly developed less-prioritized features.
Sketches followed the information architecture, and designs are filtered and discarded until we find the ones that work best as solutions for our system keeping in mind that the Sales Executives have 5 minutes or less to complete the sales process
We realized the complexity of the sale process for Sales Executives in this step, not nearly as straight forward as it was for the retailers. We needed to be able to provide the smoothest sale journey for these incredibly hard working SEs who spent countless hours wandering the streets doing their part for the company
High Fidelity Prototype
The Sales executive's home
Learning about the Sales Executives and their daily routine, we understood that some things could easily be automated and conveyed to them on their phone instead of relying on a supervisor to pass information on
Every morning retailers receive a morning briefing from their leaders - what they need to do, what campaigns and products they need to drive, and what their targets are. They get printouts, or messages on Telegram, or verbal communication.
We have tried to make all that information available and accessible:
1. The SEs basic tools - topping up Retailer's account, stock management, KPI, and many more details
2. His morning briefing summed up as the day's lifting forecast, his target, and any special instructions he may receive (below the fold)
2. His morning briefing summed up as the day's lifting forecast, his target, and any special instructions he may receive (below the fold)
sale & insights
The sales executive chooses the products he wants to lift to the retailer and goes through a wizard to log the sale and complete the transaction.
This not only makes the process smoother and faster but also more secure as all transactions are logged into the system.
He is also able to see different insights about the retailers he is working with - how they are doing, look into summaries and details for the sales he makes.
Summary and Details
SEs can check out the summary of the sales transactions they have made as well as detailed information about individual transaction.
The data includes not only the quantities but also unique data about the sale.
PROJECT Reflections
Cockpit has spanned two years, hundreds of iterations, tests, and intense discussions with stakeholders, and we learning new things every day.
Legacy systems and databases
For SEs who have only minutes per retail interaction, certain vital screens had significant and unacceptable load times
To fix this, some data points were deprioritized to allow for faster loading
The Basic Button Phone - Also a Sales Executive's best friend
An SE can check their assigned POS’ digital wallet balance from their phone without even looking at the screen, while navigating the complexities of their duty
How can we best translate their physical tools into the digital world?
Memorized Data, Tablets, User Preferences
SEs are able to recall their assigned 40+ POS’ phone numbers from memory
SEs preferred mobiles over tablets as they’re always in hectic situations and need flexibility
How can we capitalize on their strengths to improve their app experience?
Can we consider providing mobile phones instead of tablets?