Project selling with The Home depot
summary
At Home Depot, I was a key member of the Category Experience (CatX) team, focusing on the Decking category. I designed and researched online tools to streamline the deck-building process, resulting in the creation of a decking calculator and landing page that significantly boosted sales. By embracing “project selling,” I aimed to meet the holistic needs of customers. Through competitive analysis, persona validation, and stakeholder approvals, we launched successful tools that contributed to $2.8M in sales within six months, showcasing the impact of innovative, user-centered design solutions.
Roles and Responsibilities
At Home Depot, I was part of the Category Experience team, or “CatX” team for short. We managed several product categories from Garage Doors, Rugs, Door Locks and particularly, Decking.
I was committed to the ongoing design and research of the online selling tools for the Decking category; vetting it with customers and stakeholders; and doing post-launch analysis and refinements based on the extensive data exhaust off of the product.
We worked in two-week sprints, had the occasional design sprint, and built two specific online experiences that shattered sales goals across the board.
These were:
“Project selling was our name for addressing the holistic demand of a customer for all the myriad parts and pieces that constituted a home improvement project.”
A high-level idea circulating through Home Depot is the concept of “project selling”. Project selling was our name for addressing the holistic demand of a customer for all the myriad parts and pieces that constituted a home improvement project. By stepping back and seeing a purchase as a project, rather than an individual item, we opened a door to thinking differently. In this case, we envisioned an online solution that would automatically add everything necessary for a home improvement project into a total package purchase so the consumer wouldn’t have to be bothered with minutiae.
In the world of deck building, there was definitely room to reduce friction points. I took a holistic approach to the experience and idea of doing a project like this, and started with a few questions:
- As new as this concept was, did we have competitors?
- What sort of users (personas) would benefit from a tools such as what we were planning?
- What is the user journey from idea to purchase, to execution (building the deck) and beyond?
- What would MVP look like? What comes after?
- How would we track and respond to user behavior?
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Competition was certainly a factor, and I took a look at several online design tools along eight different verticals to see what was out there. This helped us understand where we we could provide value and what to avoid. Few had the “cartability” feature; that is to say, the ability to not only design a deck but put all the materials needed for the design into a functional shopping cart. This was to be our strongest selling point. Our vision was beginning to take shape.
The products we conceived were twofold: One was to be a calculator, and, given GCC’s configurable cart technology, another was to be a product info page with configurability options (the Pipfigurator).
PERSONAS and Their Respective Journeys
It seemed there was a need and a market for simplified selling. Hence, one of the more exciting products that came out of this exploration was groundbreaking decking calculator that allowed for the configuration of a standard rectangular deck design. It accounted for roughly 80% of the market.
I was responsible for design and research, Interviewing representative audiences and coming away with a general concept. We then took a look at our internal technology, capabilities, timline and budget to begin creating a backlog for what we wanted to accomplish.
Below is an example of a journey map; an exploration into the behavior patterns of our many personas. In this case we begin with a general vision and move through the steps a buyer would make to realize that vision. Journey maps were one of several research methods and tools I would use to validate the design approach.
creative effort
Extensive conceptual wireframing was done as we planned and discussed the design of the product based on user interviews, our prior research and our own insight into user behavior. I was the sole creative on the project, using Miro (at the time Realtimeboard) to wireframe and Sketch to do the high fidelity work, my responsibilities entailing visual design and interaction/microinteraction design. It was a painstaking and extremely rewarding effort to see come to life with the help of a capable front- and back-end development team.
STAKEHOLDER APPROVALS
With a working prototype, we passed the concept through Home Depot leadership along with our research and a demo video. I used Premiere and After Effects, wrote and got the script approved, and did the voiceover to knock it out. Thereafter, we were authorized a soft launch in a few select locations, with a full-blown nationwide release to follow later. Shown here is an example of our demo video which was later used to train customer service reps on how to guide users through the deck building process.
Using real-time heat mapping and other research tools, we then observed consumer behavior and made modification and refinements based on the data exhaust off the product.
LAUNCH
We had no set revenue goals. But as the calculator started gaining visitors and our PLP (Product Landing Page) became populated with our PIPs (Product Information/Purchase Page) and was launched, we stayed close to Tableau to see how sales were stacking up. It was very exciting to see the revenue numbers in real-time, and to see the big purchases in action in ClickTale. We used these ClickTale movies to have “Popcorn Friday’s” where we would review customer behavior and tweak our designs. By our sixth month of operation, we had topped $2.8M.
I feel like this was a great example of effectively tailoring a capability gained through M&A. The engine powering the configurator was acquired through the purchase of Global Custom Commerce (GCC). GCCs configurable cart has changed the game for The Home Depot in many ways, and continues to be a technological advantage for the company.