Background
While acquiring multiple businesses globally, home appliance group Glen Dimplex also inherited each of their websites, apps, systems, and processes along with their associated costs. Historically, every brand within the group was responsible for their own online presence, meaning they often engaged with agencies to build websites and relied on marketing teams to maintain them.
This resulted in duplicative spending, a hugely disparate collection of websites, and teams solving the same problems over and over again.
Company
Glen Dimplex
Duration
2.5 years
Project team
Product Manager, Tech Lead, UX Designer, and Product Designer - with the support of third party developers.
Problem to solve
Glen Dimplex needed a way to consolidate the use and cost of website solutions across all brands within the group while retaining their unique identities and the features required to serve their individual customer bases. We set out to build a singular, scalable, and reusable website platform with a commerce engine to replace and centralise all existing solutions across the Glen Dimplex group.
Project outcome
The project resulted in a singular, scalable website platform for the Glen Dimplex group featuring over 60 unique components and features which are combined in a multitude of ways to create unique brand sites all while sharing a single codebase.
We developed a mature white label design system that enabled the rapid design and development of new features, and a suite of analytics dashboards to track KPIs and site performance which later informed new features and optimisations.
Over 40 brand websites and 8 e-Commerce sites were successfully launched on the platform, generating over £6M in revenue within 2 years of operation.
Challenges
Glen Dimplex did not have an in-house team of developers so we needed to work with third party partners, which called for crystal clear requirements and a robust process for design handover and testing.
In early discovery, it became clear that some brands were more digitally mature than others. We would need to be cognisant of how much help some brands would need with onboarding compared to others.
Flexibility and reusability would be crucial when prioritising the various components I would be designing for the platform, as features that were too niche or brand specific would distract from our goal of mass adoption across the Glen Dimplex group.
Research
Our research process involved multiple approaches to gather comprehensive insights. We conducted user interviews and surveys to understand consumer behaviours and preferences, while also facilitating business listening sessions with key stakeholders to identify their challenges and needs. A competitive analysis was performed across the e-Commerce space to benchmark industry standards, while ongoing monitoring of quantitative and qualitative analytics provided valuable data on user interactions across several key sites within the group.
The results of this research provided deep insights into purchasing behaviours and end-user expectations. We gained a clearer understanding of common business challenges and the recurring themes across different brands. Our analysis also highlighted emerging e-Commerce trends and best-in-class industry practices. Ultimately, we compiled our findings into a list of functional requirements which guided product strategy and decision making.
Stakeholder management and prioritising features
Effective stakeholder management was a crucial part of the development process. By conducting refinement sessions with stakeholders, we could align on priorities and ensure their needs were addressed. Technical sessions with developers helped to refine features and identify potential challenges early on. Acting as a conduit between key business stakeholders and development partners made achieving our product vision possible. Evaluating features based on their impact versus effort revealed opportunities to remove complexity and streamline development.
As a result, we established a clear vision for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the design and development effort required. A well-defined product roadmap was created, outlining upcoming features to continue delivering value. Business stakeholders felt confident that their priorities were being met and our close collaboration with developers promoted buy-in and encouraged valuable input throughout the design process.
Finding solutions through iteration
In the ideation phase, we evaluated user stories to get to the core of user needs. I created user flows where appropriate and began rapidly iterating on concepts with pen and paper sketching.
I built low-fidelity wireframes and got to work testing them with users to either validate or challenge the approach. This rapid and iterative process allowed me to refine my designs based on real user feedback, ensuring that the final product would meet their needs effectively.
Bringing UI in-house and finalising designs
As core concepts were validated, we moved on to finalising high-fidelity designs. As a small team focused largely on UX, this final design phase was originally planned to be outsourced to agencies that brands were already working with. Seeing an opportunity to utilise my previous experience, I pitched to take on all visual and UI design myself. By bringing these responsibilities in-house, we achieved greater control over quality and consistency of the product as it matured.
I created high-fidelity designs and detailed specifications to provide clear guidance for development. By establishing a smooth handover process, we ensured seamless collaboration between design and development teams, minimising miscommunication and rework.
Handing over final designs with annotations and documentation before refinement sessions made discussions with developers more efficient and productive.
A scalable white-label design system with over 60 unique components and features. Strong design leadership was essential to maintaining product vision, alongside a deep understanding of the product architecture and the many supporting technologies.
Over 40 brand websites and 8 e-Commerce sites were successfully launched on the platform, generating over £6M in revenue within 2 years of operation.
We built a suite of analytics dashboards for each brand to track KPIs and site performance, which also helped us to identify opportunities for improvement and ultimately shaping new features and optimisations.
Key learnings
Seizing opportunities: Pitching to take all visual and UI design responsibilities in-house allowed me to showcase the value of my experience beyond UX design. By fully embracing this opportunity, I was able to leverage my diverse skills to build a Product Design offering within the team, delivering maximum impact on the project.
Creating a white-label design system: Overcoming challenges to create features that serve multiple use-cases emphasised the importance of simplicity when building design systems.
Relationship building as a priority: Great design at scale is only made possible by forming strong relationships with your team, stakeholders, developers, and users. Effective collaboration starts with understanding each other and building rapport.
What would I do differently?
Spend more time with developers: Working with a third-party development team brought a unique set of challenges, however, I found visiting the team for in-person refinement sessions to be very effective. Holding more face-to-face sessions would have boosted productivity and further strengthened the working relationship.
Closing thoughts
Overall, this project was a significant undertaking that demonstrated the power of a well-researched, user-centred design approach. By prioritising clearly defining the needs of each brand, maintaining strong communication, and embracing continuous improvement, we were able to deliver a scalable, efficient, and impactful product for Glen Dimplex.
