Omni-channel Car Purchase Platform for Automotive Retail Technology Company

Led 9-month strategic initiative to design integrated online and in-dealership car purchasing experiences, aligning fragmented internal business units under unified solution strategy. The comprehensive research across US dealerships and stakeholder alignment work positioned the company competitively against emerging online-only car retailers while reducing customer purchase time and dealership operational costs.

Role: Design Lead | Timeline: 9 months | Year: 2021-2022

Situation: An automotive technology company offered separate solutions for fully online car purchases and traditional dealership transactions, creating fragmented customer experiences. Post-pandemic customer behavior shifted toward online exploration combined with in-person test drives, creating demand for integrated omnichannel journeys. Competitive threats from companies like Carvana (online-only) and EchoPark (online exploration + dealership purchase) pressured traditional dealership models. Internally, multiple business units supporting search, dealership management, and financing operated isolated tools without integration, creating manual data re-entry and lengthy dealership visits.

Task: Lead design strategy for omni-channel car purchase solution bridging online and in-dealership experiences while aligning internal stakeholders around integrated product roadmap and resolving conflicts between customer transparency needs and dealership control preferences.

Action: I planned and executed comprehensive field research visiting dealerships across the continental US, conducting multi-day observations and interviews with sales managers, salespeople, service managers, F&I managers, and customers. I led competitive analysis revealing seamless channel integration and profile-based information persistence in competitor offerings. I analyzed the company's existing portfolio, discovering poor integration between solutions and lack of coordination between internal product teams. Leading a team of 3 external agency designers, I coordinated research artifacts (storyboards, service blueprints, journey maps, personas), assigned work according to skills, and facilitated collaborative critique sessions. I designed to navigate dealership-customer tension around transparency through business case modeling demonstrating efficiency gains and cost reductions, positioning transparency as competitive necessity against emerging online retailers. I facilitated internal stakeholder workshops achieving alignment on unified roadmap and budget allocation under single-threaded leadership.

Result: Executives praised both work output and alignment processes, particularly efforts to resolve internal stakeholder conflicts and coordinate previously siloed business units. The solution design reduced customer dealership visit time by eliminating redundant information capture and providing pre-qualified leads with saved preferences and budget considerations. Dealerships gained efficiency through self-service customer data collection and integrated inventory management tied to test drive scheduling. The project positioned the company competitively against online-only retailers by combining precise payment calculation advantages with seamless omnichannel experience matching competitor integration quality. Though implementation was paused due to COVID-19 automotive industry disruption, the strategic alignment framework and unified product vision created foundation for future integrated solution development.