Return order management

Creating tools to centralize data inputs and simplify processes across teams

Firstbase is a B2B service with a focus is on remote equipment management and logistics. This project came after worker offboarding to enhance internal operations to improve return order processes.

My role: Lead Product Designer, Strategist, & Researcher

Key contributions: Contextual research, workshop facilitation, process mapping, product design, usability testing

I worked with a Product Manager and Lead Software Engineer to define a meaningful MVP and break it down into milestones and phases.

Project Summary

Problem: Returning equipment is a very tedious process, creating data issues that affect communications and billing. Internal teams are needing to rely on tribal knowledge and updating multiple sources of truth because of those data issues. Additionally, miscommunication occurs on those data issues because of unclear statuses to internal teams and customers.

Goal: Bring spreadsheet data and actions onto platforms to feed into the API and create a single source of truth.

Outcomes: (1) Self-service inventory reporting for missing equipment for customers; (2) Simplified workflows and tooling for internal teams; and (3) Clearer communication across customers and internal teams

Advocating for the invisible

After finishing the offboarding project for customer-facing features, I knew that there were a lot of issues that stemmed from internal processes, not visible from the rest of the fancy software we were building. In order to map our next pieces of work to deliver well on our return services, I supported my product partners by attempting mapping out the flows as best as I can with what teammates shared with me, but I was still missing a lot of context.

A bunch of techies walk into a warehouse ...

The operations team welcomed us to our US-based warehouse to get firsthand experience of their day-to-day. We shadowed many of different functions, and split into focus groups to workshop the top issues — my team dove deep into processing return orders.

Converging on root problems to define solutions

The work done with the team at the warehouse was only the beginning. Problem after problem continued to arise from people across the teams; however, it all boiled down to the following issues:

Unclear communication

Customers and internal Firstbasers weren't clear on the existing statuses because there were nuances not previously captured

Data Issues

Because of unclear and missing statuses along with incomplete inventory data and manual process, issues arose

No central source of truth

When data was being ingested, it was manually entered across several tools - some of which were spreadsheets

Simplify tools for everyone

In order to create requirements, we first aligned on what software to build to support which teams. At a high level solution, it was clear that we needed to utilize the Firstbase API and empower people to only update their relevant tool based on their needs.

Operations on Retool: Firstbase was already utilizing Retool to process orders and returns, rebuilding this would have been a huge undertaking

CX on MGMT: MGMT was custom created by Firstbase engineers for customer settings, we decide to build on top of this for CX so that we could control permissions and simplify UX

Self-reporting on Firstbase: Creating self-service inventory reporting cut down on manual requests via email from customers to our team, which created even more manual process to update the database internally

Testing the happier path

The ultimate happy path required a ton of process and software changes, so many tradeoffs were made. Because of this, I outlined what we called the "happier path," which tackled the key issues that the team faced without overhauling the system completely.

Rallying the troops

Despite the tradeoffs, the solution was still quite large as it involved so many different people and teams. In order to find alignment, win trust, and mitigate risk, I conducted usability testing and feedback sessions with associates from the affected teams. We utilized the insights from these to inform the experience and back up our presentations when reviewing with business stakeholders and leaders from the different functions.

Driving kickoff with empathy

With the designs and product requirements ready for implementation, it was time to kick off the work with engineering. The engineering team went through a reorganization to work in pods, so the rest of the pod was unfamiliar with the project thus far, save for the Lead Software Engineer I partnered with. With such a large undertaking, it was important for the engineers to understand the impact of their work as well as the work required itself.

Feel the pain

Showing all the videos and notes from the warehouse would have been a lot to take in for the team, so I storyboarded the process map to show what was happening across customers, operations, and the customer experience team when returns occurred.

Breaking down the behemoth

After going providing the team with context, we walked them through the design work, which was broken down into major milestones. I structured my Figma file to match the requirements in Jira and the product documentation, so that they had an easier time seeing the solutions visually.

Ingesting Data

The first objective laid the foundation to fix our data issues by creating simple ways to better ingest data to conduct returns

Simplifying Statuses

Rearchitecting the way inventory and return order statuses were prioritized in order to better capture asset tracking

Creating Clarity

Following on from the simplified statuses, we were able to use it to add reasons and images to better communicate on platform

Measuring success

Because the tools were still new, qualitative processes are very important. We established a slack channel for internal teammates to provide feedback for us to prioritize. On the quantitative side of things, we established key metrics such as average Jira tickets and turnaround times that decreased as a result of the new tooling provided.

Next Steps

I was unfortunately laid off before the entire project was completed by engineering, but work was under way for the first few milestones as I have designed and is slated to release in Q1 of 2023.

Kind words from my teammates

Along the way, my teammates were kind enough to give me kudos for my work:

"There is no challenge seemingly too trivial or too sizeable which Martha cannot break down, understand and design thoughtfully with all her focus. Whether that be Off-boarding and the huge impact this has had on the overall customer experience, to the Mgmt app, and the significant design considerations Martha has made to ensure speed and functionality for our internal teams." — Jordan Lawrence, Lead Software Engineer

"Martha is very thoughtful about seeking feedback/sharing mockups ahead of releases to ensure the work the team is doing meets the expectations of stakeholders. She is thorough in explaining processes/workflows to understand different scenarios and the decisions behind why they are the way they are." — Colleen Ruggiero, Director of Customer Experience

"Martha dives deep with end users to understand their workflows - this leads to uncovering additional needs/requirements that the stakeholders haven't been able to communicate. She excels at iterating on designs - being able to understand and articulate the end state, and then scale back for MVP build." — Rob Van Brunt, Director of Product Management, Internal Experiences

Lessons Learned

Bring everyone together

Because the problems affected so many people, it was important to bring them all together and shop the design work around to as many people affected as possible. Not only did it help me advocate for those not in the room that may have been missed at the start, I was able to design a complete solution that solved core issues key to the business.

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