Product Design, feature update

OrderMyGear

I redesigned the inventory feature to better communicate product availability by distributor, helping store-builders avoid out-of-stock sales. This reduced returns, rebuilt trust, and drove a 20% increase in product sales.

Year
2023
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Product Manager, Engineering Manager
Constraints
6 Weeks
Technical restraints — possible server overload
Woman sitting at a desktop computer setting inventory thresholds by supplier

What OMG does

Order My Gear is a multi-product platform that enables store-builders to design online pop-up stores selling branded products to their specific customer base.

Store-builders can source products from partner brands (e.g., Adidas, Gildan) and customize them with their own logos before adding them to their stores.

The inventory feature retrieves real-time stock data from partner brand servers, helping store-builders decide whether to purchase and customize a product for resale.

The challenge

It’s 2021, and you're hanging out with your Zoom community, waiting for the custom sweatshirt you ordered over a month ago.

During the pandemic, shipping and distribution delays left customers frustrated, leading to unfulfilled orders.

This caused financial losses for our clients and eroded trust in their online stores.

Affinity map of user interview observations

Research

I conducted user interviews with 3 of our clients to uncover their needs, pain points and goals around inventory.

Affinity map of user interview observations
Key findings

2 out of 3 participants don't want customers ordering low-stock or out-of-stock products, as it erodes trust in their service and creates profit loss from returns.

Define

Using the research findings, I reframed the data as How Might We Questions, to facilitate brainstorming and feature prioritization with stakeholders and developers.

How Might We

How might we keep our data up to date to build trust around OMG’s inventory information without overloading our partners' servers?

How might we accurately communicate to our clients when inventory is low?

Priority Matrix
Priorty matrix used to organize the results of our brainstorming session based on priority and effort
MVP features
Technical parameters

Our partner brands were concerned that constant inventory updates would overload their servers.

To balance system performance with store-builders’ need for up-to-date information, we designed the inventory tab to display a timestamp showing the last update.

Store-builders could manually refresh the data by reloading the page, giving them control without straining partner systems.

User flow
  • The inventory page displayed product availability and allowed store-builders to set thresholds that triggered low-stock alerts.
  • Alerts would be sent to them via email.
User flow
User interface

Check out the initial prototype employed in user testing.

By using the OMG Design System that I had spearheaded as a foundation, I built the UI with reusable components that not only accelerated my design process but also ensured visual consistency and made developer handoff more efficient and error-free.

I had previously spearheaded the OMG Design System, so I used it as a foundation to design the application’s UI and tested its efficacy.

By leveraging its reusable components as building blocks, I streamlined my workflow, ensured visual consistency, and facilitated smooth collaboration and handoff with developers.

After implementing the design system, collaboration efficiency improved: meeting time decreased by 25%, and the number of revision cycles was reduced by 18ire%, streamlining design-development alignment and accelerating delivery.

Next, I digitized the wireframes in Figma, refining the display of inventory information and threshold settings for a more intuitive user experience.

Test

In order to test my solution, I partnered with customer service to find 5 store-builders who had previously reported issues with our current inventory experience.

Scenarios
  • You’re adding a product to your store and want to confirm it’s in stock with the supplier before your store closes. Check your supplier’s inventory to be sure.
  • One of your suppliers is more reliable than the others. For the less reliable supplier you want to change your supplier threshold level.
  • You want to see what stores have been impacted by low inventory levels. Check which stores have been impacted.
Key findings

Iterate

Conclusion

Our store-builders can confidently build stores knowing that if a product reaches a low inventory threshold, it will immediately be pulled off of the storefront.

Our store-builders will also be provided with up-to-date inventory information on product variants so they can make educated decisions around product selection and setting thresholds.

Next steps

Analyze post-launch data to assess success and inform future iterations of the inventory feature.

Finalize and enhance the onboarding process to guide users through the Inventory Manager Experience, reducing the need for customer service calls.

Let’s work together, say hi.