The Vendor Offer Portal (VOP) is an external facing enterprise tool that Target's vendors and vendor representatives use to input promotional informational that will show up in stores and online. The vendors are an important customer group because they submit 50% of all promotions. The outcome of this discovery will be used to inform and enhance the Vendor Offer Portal.
The Problem
Our engineering team released an MVP for a select number of pilot users based on a previous designers' prototype. I needed to understand two things as a new designer coming into this space:
Are we building the right product for our vendors?
Are we building it right to serve their needs?
How might we ensure we are building the right product to serve vendors' needs?
Research Focus
Based on the two questions I had in mind, I created a research plan that helped inform me on:
Understanding the effectiveness and usefulness of VOP
Determining where our gaps are
Providing context to support enhancements
Methodology
To support our efforts, we used three different methods for research. User interviews, group vendor interview, and usability testing
User Interview & Usability Testing
Who did we test?
7 vendors
Domestic, US-based vendors
First time users
How did we test?
Combined User Interview & Testing
30 minute User Interviews: Pre-written user interview script
30 minute Usability Testing: Prod environment site, pre-written script and tasks to be completed
What did we test?
What do users expect to see when accessing the Vendor Offer Portal?
Can users successfully share offer details using the Vendor Offer Portal?
What do users expect to happen after submitting their offer information?
We spent the first half of the meeting conducting a user interview and the second half with the usability testing. For the interview, we touched on topics starting with basic questions around their role as the vendor and their background and experience working with Target. From there, we asked about their onboarding journey, and then went into the weeds with questions around their process and timeline when creating a promotional offer, and ended the interview portion with questions around specific offer information, like how they input their item data and the types of promotional offers they request.
We used specifc scenarios for the usability testing and had the users log into our prod-environment to complete specific promotional offer related tasks. We were specifically looking to understand what users expected to see when accessing our portal for the first time, how they would go about sharing their promotional offer details, and their expectations on what would happen after it was submitted.
Original Homepage
The first task of the usability test was asking them prior to accessing the Vendor Offer Portal, what their thoughts were on what they expected to see, and then their thoughts once they did see it.
The feedback we received was:
Users expect to see previously submitted offers with their status
Users would expect to see their department and company, an internal calendar, tool bar for adding and editing promos, search bar with filters on the status of promos
And we also heard users would skip the instructions and list of constraints and go straight to the Request Offer button
Original Promotional Offer Form
The second task was having them create the promotional offer.
Some of the feedback we heard was that:
Overall, the form is very easy to use. What they email matches what they input.
Users mentioned various ways to input item information; DPCIs with or without dashes, MIC#s, export functions for spreadsheets
Users did not feel confident when entering DPCIs manually or their Target contact email address due to a lack of a ‘check’ in the system that validated the information entered
Expected to be able to input discounts below 10%
Would be interested in a way to cross promote items with other vendors (but Target isn’t structured to allow this)
Would be nicer to have closer in lead times to allow for more flexibility
Would prefer a way to ‘copy’ offer information to reduce manual work
Would expect the ”end date” calendar to start with the chose “start date” instead of having to click ahead
Would expect an option for Store Only or Online only channels
Appreciates that there are warnings when things are skipped/left blank; they are good ‘guard rails’
Would expect to be able to edit this form once it’s submitted
Expects a Cancel or Save Draft option
Vendor Bash
Who did we test?
Mix of 30 domestic vendor reps and vendors
How did we test?
Unmoderated pre-work survey to be completed prior to bash
$100 test for prioritizing offer features
Moderated group interview done in 5 breakout rooms
What did we test?
Based off the new VOP form, what new capabilities and features would they prioritize and why?
The next methodology we used for research was the group vendor bash.
We organized a large group of thirty domestic vendors and vendor reps and had them take an unmoderated pre-work survey to complete prior to our big bash. During the bash, we did a demo of the Vendor Portal as context for the $100 test. We then had everyone take the $100 test, which is based off the pre-work survey data, along with our findings from the usability tests and interviews. We then divided the group into five breakout rooms, where we discussed why people prioritized things the way they did.
The result highlighted the fact that being able to view the status of a previously submitted offer was the most important feature to them.
Insights
I gathered the information we learned from research and grouped them in an affinity map.
From there, I identified the following key insights:
Users have a need to more visibility to all offers
They have a need for more visibility to the process and what to expect
They want to feel confident in what they submitted
We have an opportunity in the way we communicate with our vendors
Target goals may not align with their (vendor) goals
There is a need for more dynamic UI components, flexibility, and shortcuts
Users need the ability to make changes to submitted offers
Ideation & Sketching
Collaborating with our product managers and engineers, I conducted an ideation session where we jotted down our ideas based off of the insights and then voted on the most feasible and useful ideas.
After voting on ideas, I led a sketch session where we drew out what our ideas could look like and created a final sketch, combining all of our ideas.
Using Figma, I created a mid-fidelity wireframe of the new VOP homepage, highlighting the brand new table that showcases all of the users' submitted offers. I also collaborated with our engineers to ensure we had working pagination, color-coded status chips, filters, and a CTA button for accessing the new request offer form.
Next Steps
Usability testing to ensure the statuses for the offers aligns with our users' mental model.
Research and testing to ensure we are showcasing the fields that are most important to our users' jobs.
Continued collaboration with product and engineering throughout the design phases.
