ZELLAR
SaaS platform designed to assist small and medium businesses in measuring, managing, and promoting their sustainability journey
LONDON,UK | 2022
BACKGROUND
The UK Government has urged businesses to reduce emissions to contribute to the UK-wide Net Zero by 2050 target. In 2021, 38% of companies reported taking at least one action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, while 24% reported intending to act in the next 12 months. Research showed that UK businesses need a solution to manage their sustainability actions.
MY ROLE
I led product design and strategy. In close collaboration with the development team, I created the entire end-to-end service design for the Zellar platform (Desktop and mobile versions). I was also responsible for post-launch design support, research, and product enhancement.
SOLUTION
The project aimed to design and launch a SaaS platform to provide businesses with one place to measure, manage, and promote their sustainability journey.
RESULTS
The all-in-one product with an annual subscription has been designed and launched. It has been named a winner in the Indigo Design Awards.
Zellar's importance in the industry is underscored by its significant financial backing and its adoption by local UK governments. The platform secured a £600K seed investment from The Co-operative Bank and was appraised at £33M.
UNDERSTANDING THE USERS
The product team defined the target audience as business owners interested in a solution to manage their sustainability actions. The following interviews helped us to formulate customer goals and pain points. After workshops with the product team, we defined a list of critical aspects of the product:
- Business directory and company profiles to share and amplify sustainability journeys.
- Carbon emissions measurement and comparison to the industry benchmark to track the business sustainability parameters.
- Business-sector-specific recommendations to reduce the carbon footprint and historical tracking of the sustainability actions.
- Tailored list of Green Tech products that help reduce energy consumption and save money in the long run.
- Help in the transition to green and renewable energy suppliers.
- Tools to offset the current carbon footprint.
FIRST RELEASE
We prepared the platform for the first release and launched it in September 2021.
DESIGN EVOLUTION
We worked hard to enhance our product and improve the customer experience. To achieve this, we introduced Growth sprints, which helped us to separate product maintenance from tasks related to product evolution. This allowed us to work more effectively in cross-functional product teams. Working on two sprints at the same time enabled me to improve my product and time management skills, as I was the only product designer in the company and had to balance multiple product development streams.
KEY CHALLENGES
NEW PRODUCT DOMAIN FOR CUSTOMERS
In 2021, we launched a groundbreaking product in the market. We worked on various strategies to enhance the user experience, including creating step-by-step wizards for complex scenarios to reduce confusion and improve task completion. We also faced challenges in presenting product information on the website and conducted several A/B tests to optimize the explanation and CTAs. The updated content led to a 34% increase in conversion from the website homepage.
WORKING AS A SOLE DESIGNER WITH A DEV TEAM
We experimented with different sprint lengths and development-design processes to ensure that we were using the development capacity in the best way. We found that the most optimal work mode was overlapping the development and design sprints. This way, we had time to complete tasks before the development sprint began and also had time to make small changes as the development analysis overlapped with the tail end of the design sprint. Additionally, I always kept a list of relatively small tasks in my backlog to fill any possible gaps in case of imprecise sprint planning.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
If you're the only designer in a small company and your product is in its early stages, you don't necessarily need a design system (including design principles, UI kit, tokens, and patterns) for your project. Investing time in design system updates before the product is fully formed may not be the best use of your resources. Instead, focus on preparing an initial UI kit, which can save time for both you and the developers.
It's important to research and keep an eye on potential competitors. Analyzing their platforms can provide valuable insights for improving your product and allow you to test new ideas.
Consider using a landing page builder and conducting A/B tests to boost your conversion rates without spending a lot of money. A landing page builder enables you to create website pages without involving your development team, and A/B tests allow you to test your hypotheses. This approach offers a great opportunity for experimentation.
THANK YOU!