Strategic design and research to reimagine the future of core consumer product

Commencing with discovery research, we engaged Australian car buyers and sellers in in-depth qualitative research to map key touchpoints, pain points, and moments that matter both online and offline, drawing insight to identifying and prioritise opportunities. The research involved interviewing potential customers and gathering information about their experiences and preferences.

We cross referenced this primary research with comprehensive CX best practice and industry landscape review, identifying service exemplars in the market internationally. This involved looking at best practices in customer experience and identifying areas where carsales could improve its service offerings - areas where international markets with higher levels of competition had forged ahead to create new services and bring them to market.

Drawing from this customer insight, we visualised and developed multiple rounds of concepts for testing in 1:1 interviews and two large quantitative surveys. The concepts were designed to address the pain points and opportunities identified in the research, with the goal of creating solutions that would meet customer needs.

Synthesised these two inputs into a series of concepts representing innovation opportunities for carsales into a mid-project playback and prioritisation to evaluate the potential impact and effort of each prior to moving forward into large scale data driven decision making.

With a set of concepts in hand, we took a step back to review the market opportunity, designing, analysing and drawing insights from 700 survey responses using quantitative research techniques to understand at a statistically significant level the need and behaviours of the population buying and selling cars today. The analysis involved looking at trends in the market and identifying areas where carsales could differentiate itself from competitors. This enabled us to reevaluate the concepts from qualitative research, refining each with a new level of insight and generating new concepts from the larger market opportunity.

To be sure of the concept's validity at scale, we developed prototypes and ran a second survey and a further 700 respondents establishing consumers' willingness to use and pay for those services from carsales. The survey involved presenting potential solutions to customers and getting their feedback on whether they would be willing to use and pay for them.

We engaged international subject matter experts in research, development, and decision-making playbacks and workshops. Drawing on their expertise of platform marketplaces and the automotive industry we were able to support executives to take a broader, international perspective appropriate to their innovation ambition. Taking on the advice of external subject matter experts, we worked with key stakeholders to ensure that the solutions being developed also aligned with the company's strategic goals and objectives.

Throughout the project we collaborated with executive stakeholders in research, development, and decision-making workshops, taking on their domain expertise, concerns and ideas in order to positively align a shared vision of the future state.

Ultimately, the project proposed four priority and four secondary action areas for carsales, based on extensive research and analysis. These recommendations were shared with the broader company and stakeholder groups at a showcase with over 50 attendees. An open Q&A during this session highlighted the quality of the concepts and recommendation ability to help distinguish carsales stand out from emerging and incumbent competitors and enhance its service offerings over the next 5 years.