Out of the Box Was Boxing Us In
summary
Expectations That Don't Match the Experience
Imagine you’re a homeowner bringing in Pella Corporation for a quote, expecting a premium experience to match the quality of their products—something akin to the polished service at a top-tier steakhouse. But instead, your consultation feels clunky and outdated.
Your in-home sales consultant is juggling pen and paper, scribbling notes as you walk them through your needs. There's no streamlined way to record your preferences, and the consultant even suggests you find something else to do—maybe the laundry or dishes—while they build your quote.
As they put together a quote for five windows with a white interior and exterior, you realize you’d actually like to see the cost for a black exterior instead. This simple change means restarting much of the process, doubling the work and the time you spend waiting.
The result? Not quite the high-quality experience you envisioned.
project overview
It's More Than a Quoting Tool
Prior to my joining the team, they initially implemented an out-of-the-box quoting solution to minimize development and maintenance costs. However, in the user interviews I conducted, the feedback was clear: users described the tool as “messy,” “outdated,” and even “dinosaur-y.”
This project aims not only to design a more effective quoting tool but also to elevate the entire sales experience—building a solution that empowers our sales team with confidence and pride in working with and for Pella Corporation.
Summary
A Tool Designed for Focus is Efficient
In this video, I'm sharing the learnings I uncovered during discovery research and why it's so important to design a tool for focus.
Video summary
how might we…
Provide a solution that could allow the team manager to organize these groups, AND reorganize them at any given time?
solution
Simplify and Reorganize the Content
The business asked 1 thing of us, can you make it faster?
The following video shows a prototype I've designed to be just that, faster. Faster for the sales rep to complete the quote means faster in home consultations altogether.
Video summary
results
Building Alignment with Key Screens Across Teams
Once the research reached a critical point, with patterns and frustrations clearly emerging, I began sharing the prototype and key screens with different business units to gather feedback.
Through multiple presentations across the organization, I communicated the strong insights we had uncovered, instilling confidence in the potential of a custom solution. This approach led to full buy-in, enabling us to move forward with the research and refine the design based on collaborative input—a crucial step in the process I'm now advancing.
What's Next?
Refining the Configuration Steps Through Ethnographic Research
The next major focus is conducting ethnographic studies with various sales teams who act as a concierge service for our customers, delivering a white-glove experience.
Observing their quote-building process firsthand will provide insights into which parts of the configuration can be optimized—whether through speeding up, simplifying, or reorganizing specific steps. This research will be instrumental in identifying key areas to streamline and elevate the quoting experience.