Laying the Foundation for Dealer Success
Sales Center Dealer Platform
Overview
The John Deere Sales Center was a billion-dollar initiative aimed at overhauling dealership operations by consolidating 17 outdated systems into a single, scalable platform. Dealers faced fragmented workflows and manual processes that slowed productivity and sales.
As UX lead for core modules—Equipment, Plan, Order, and Incentives—I led scalable design efforts that simplified complex operations, digitized outdated processes, and improved dealer efficiency through collaboration with engineering and product teams.
Improved dealer productivity
Designed scalable workflows and interfaces that reduced task times by over 40%, saving hours of operational overhead across dealerships.
Digitized manual processes:
Streamlined reporting, ordering, and transition tasks, enabling real-time communication with John Deere support and reducing delays.
Enhanced scalability and maintainability
Facilitated the adoption of reusable components and CSS Grid, leading to a 50% reduction in front-end code complexity.
Cross-team collaboration and alignment
Strengthened collaboration between UX, product, and engineering teams through guilds, workshops, and consistent feedback loops.
Challenges
Fragmented Workflows
Dealers had to switch between multiple disconnected systems for inventory, planning, and orders, causing inefficiencies.
Manual Processes
Critical tasks like shortage reporting, order configuration, and incentive management were error-prone, leading to delays.
Regional Inconsistencies
Different regions had varying workflows and codebases, making it difficult to provide a consistent user experience.
Siloed Development Teams
Multiple product teams worked independently, requiring UX to establish reusable components, CSS variables, and design standards to drive alignment.
Process
Plan module's Dashboard research analysis process:
Notes and alignment for a Incentives Project I led:
Design Collaboration:
Embedded UX within product teams using Dual-Track Agile to ensure continuous collaboration with developers and product owners.
Paired usability testing with development cycles, validating features before release to reduce rework and improve design accuracy.
UX Roadmapping with the Incentives PMs while I was a embedded designer:
Scalable Design Systems:
Developed and scaled reusable Figma components and page templates, cutting design iteration times by over 50%.
Partnered with engineering teams to establish CSS variables, reusable components, and responsive design standards to improve scalability.
Co-led Components 101 workshops to build team alignment on component usage and adoption.
I did collaborative heuristic evaluations with Incentive Team engineers:
Equipment Module: Simplifying Inventory Management
Developed scalable search tools that improved inventory discovery across dealership networks.
Designed workflows for tasks such as rental updates and shortage reporting, digitizing manual processes to enable real-time communication with John Deere support.
Early adoption of reusable components in this module established patterns that were scaled across all Sales Center modules.
Equipment actions gave dealers quick access to modify official data.
Example of the claim form used for reporting and approving shipment shortages:
Dealers requested a table view for Equipment Search. We implemented a toggle they loved:
Plan Module: Automating Inventory Planning
Created tools that automated key tasks, including restocking triggers when inventory fell below set thresholds.
Designed dashboards and dynamic tables to provide real-time inventory visibility, reducing errors and improving operational efficiency.
I used low fidelity to quickly ideate through potential solutions to research findings
Plan Execution allowed for Dealers to reorder existing configurations quickly or automate orders:
Order Module: Unifying Global Workflows
Developed a flexible order template that consolidated regional codebases, cutting the size by 50%.
Collaborated with development teams to transition from Angular to React, using reusable components and CSS Grid for scalability and maintainability.
I built a complex template to gain a single source-of-truth for Order pages
Incentives Module: Simplifying Dealer Engagement
Simplified funding requests and reward programs by introducing clear workflows and progress trackers.
Worked with engineers to implement reusable components for these workflows, ensuring consistency across the platform..
Commitment programs allowed dealers to quickly select discount tiers based on sales
Protection Programs allowed the ability to compare incentive offerings at different stages of the sale:
Additional Contributions:
Transitions Solution: Designed an internal SAP Fiori application to replace legacy systems, streamlining asset transfers and record-keeping between dealerships. Collaborated with stakeholders in continuous validation sessions to refine the tool and reduce future development rework.
Factory Systems: Developed updated factory forecasting tools to provide dealers with more accurate production and inventory data, improving planning efficiency.
Factory systems fed critical data into Sales Center operations. I designed an updated forecasting tool:
Our work on the Sales Center transformed dealership operations with a unified, scalable platform that improved productivity and reduced errors. Dealers gained real-time access to workflows, eliminating repetitive manual tasks and delays. Through reusable components and responsive design, we established scalable UX standards adopted across global regions, driving continued innovation and operational efficiency for dealerships worldwide.