B2B Automotive SaaS/E-commerce Platform
Summary
Joining Wagonex as the Product Design Lead, I was responsible for helping this early stage start up address a critical (make-it or break-it) challenge: the B2B platform was failing the business and limiting this tech focused player from unlocking the huge revenue potential in the automotive space.
'Dashboard' - was name of the (insert pun) dashboard product being marketed by the company as it's answer to give partners in the space a digital marketplace and fleet management platform designed to unlock revenue and promote scalability.
Although the platform was, in many ways giving partners a digital marketplace and fleet management platform, in so many more ways the platform was failing the audiences it intended to serve.
I identified a multitude of UX issues which had been holding the platform back and strangling business growth. These included:
- Dated UX & sluggish performance meant every task felt painful or long.
- Functional gaps (no bulk uploads, no multi-vehicle workflows, limited payments) slowed partners down. (The automotive industry is old-school so they needed something compelling)
- Lack of trust – Partners viewed the platform as unreliable and frustrating.
My Approach
Let's begin with Discovery
Coming in as the product design lead, it was clear to me that wagonex was tight on resource across its own functions and budgets strained. This led me to ensure that I fully leveraged the tools and practices at my disposal. First up, stakeholder workshops. This was a case of getting everyone with a vested interest in the product internally around a table (albeit, on a google meet) to determine and align on the business priorities. Revenue growth, building partner trust and mainly, driving adoption of dashboard at scale became the core objectives.
With this alignment in the bag, I was able to being conducting partner interviews to gain real-world user feedback and involvement uncovering pain points around vehicle uploads, request flows and a lack of flexible payment terms that mirrored real-world deal structures.
In tandem, I sought about carrying out process mapping to gain a comprehensive understanding of how partners were currently carrying out offline tasks and where a digital solution could be meaningful. Multiple processes which could be reimagined by a digital solution were identified such as identification checks, arranging test drives and handling vehicle inventory.
Wagonex are not the only player in this space. In fact both LeasePlan and Tomorrow’s Journey offer a platform very similar which gave me a great benchmark for bets practices, differentiators and opportunities left on the table for Wagonex to pounce on.
Determining UX Strategy
Discovery done right is always fruitful. It really should be treated as the catalyst for everything which follows. For me, next up was defining and locking down the UX strategy. Two key themes sat at the very heart of this - Usability and commercial impact. A win for the user and a win for Wagonex. I begun by prioritising the reliability of the platform. I needed to tap in to that old-school mentality held by the industry and change it. Modernise it. Digitise it. By simplifying and streamling core workflows, the platform would be able to re-establish its reliance amongst users. Combing this with feature expansion and giving light to missing tools and functionality identified when talking to partners would ensure the platform was going to end up on the right road.
Road, see what I did there. Ha!
To get partners using the platform (and in a lot of cases even getting partners to the stage of wanting a demo) I adopted an e-commerce mindset that would channel directly in to the platform. I adapted proven flows from consumer experiences - such as the ability for customers to add multiple vehicles to a basket and flexible payment options on the consumer facing side of the product. On the partner side, I went SaaS. Super SaaS. Analytics, insights and reporting would be directly baked in to the platform and new integrations with leading verification and vehicle management tools would reshape dashboard. From a design perspective, I introduced a new design system for Wagonex to ensure consistency across every module and component as well as accelerating product delivery and setting a foundation for future product growth.
Product Core Features
Based on extensive research and analysis, I was able to identify key features that would need to be introduced in to the platform to ensure those core objectives shone through. This wasn't just about layering features in to the platform. Oftentimes this results in a messy, frustrating user experience. Instead, this was about providing an experience which felt easy, like second-nature and would ultimately get the industry to shift to a digital mindset.
I redesigned critical partner workflows and introduced a range of new product features such as bulk vehicle upload (cutting upload time of multiple vehicles from ~15 minutes per 2 to under 2 minutes for 50+ vehicles using a simple .csv upload), multi-vehicle basket and flexible upfront/one-off payment flows. I addressed the checkout flow, reducing required steps from 7 to 4 which resulted in completion rates lifting from 58% to 83% on the white-label customer journey.
To empower partners, I designed an analytics and insights dashboard (now used weekly by 80% of partners), launched channel and affiliate management tools and integrated CreditSafe and Credas checks.
Combined, these improvements made the platform faster, more reliable and commercially impactful.
Product Add-ons
Alongside the platform redesign, I also led design for two major new products:
Test Drive
Customers book test drives and partners manage availability and logistics.
Companion
Mobile app for vehicle handover at point of delivery/collection (damage checks, signatures, job assignement).
Results
Reflection
This project was not just about redesigning a platform which needed it but it was about shaping a clear product vision and building features that matched the realities of the automotive leasing business.
By blending B2B UX discipline with B2C e-commerce best practices, I helped transform Wagonex into a platform partners and customers actively chose to use, while unlocking new revenue streams through innovative add-ons.
For me as a designer, this was a showcase of hands-on design leadership at a Series A stage – balancing immediate commercial needs with the needs of partners and customers for future growth.
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