Boosting Revenue and Driving Customer Value

Background

Cox’s Vehicle Inventory Platform (CVIP) is continually evolving to address the needs of Cox Automotive’s dealer solution products that rely on vehicle inventory. But unexpected market forces reveal a gap in the platform’s capabilities. Pre-VIN support. A feature representing a $1.2 million opportunity in yearly revenue.

HCD Methods
Interviewing > Affinity Mapping > Problem Tree Analysis > Journey Mapping > Storytelling

The Challenge

With limited resources and competing priorities, the question arose: why should we invest in pre-VIN support? Being the lead UX Architect for the platform product team, I lead the discovery research that answered this. Ultimately demonstrating how the lack of pre-VIN support in CVIP impacted dealer customers.

The Team

  • Product Manager - Prioritize pre-VIN support as a business opportunity, ensuring enhancements to CVIP align with the overall business platform strategy.

  • Principal Architect - Advise and assess technical feasibility, design scalable pre-VIN integration into CVIP, and ensure the platform’s stability

  • UX Architect - Conduct, synthesize, and present the discovery findings, empowering senior leadership with actionable insights.

Entering Problem Discovery

I began the discovery phase by conducting interviews with subject matter experts and dealer customers. Followed by secondary research. I set up a collaboration session with the team and using an Affinity Clustering method, we drew insights from the disparate information collected from each source (See Image A).

Image A - Affinity Clustering method performed in conjunction with the product team on the project via a digital whiteboard.

Research Key Findings

SME Interviews

Goal: Learn about pre-VINs, informing additional research.

Key Findings: 

  • CVIP cannot gracefully handle vehicles without a valid VIN.

Source: Product and architect leaders.

Dealer Interviews

Goal: Learn customer impact in the current experience and how it affects their business.

Key Findings:

  • Sales are impacted.

  • Workflow disruption.

  • Impact to CSAT.

Source: Recruited dealership inventory managers.

Secondary Research

Goal: Learn what is driving market demand for pre-VINs.

Key Findings:

  • COVID supply chain issues affected transportation.

  • Chip shortages impact manufacturing.

Source: Car news websites and blogs.

What are pre-VINs? Why do they matter now?

Pre-VINs are digital representations of vehicles yet to be built or in the process of being built, before being assigned a full VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). They have become crucial due to chip shortage and supply-chain disruption, creating a low inventory environment, driving the need to market vehicles earlier in the production process, as pre-VINs.

Defining the Problem

The dealer interviews reveal that the lack of pre-VIN support in our products created a domino effect of problems for dealers. (See Image B). Three root causes ultimately impacted a dealer’s ability to acquire vehicles from OEMs, which reduces sales. This was critical due to OEMs allocating vehicles to the dealerships with the highest sales and CSAT.

Image B - Problem tree analysis demonstrating serious causes and effects.

Visualizing Dealer Impact

From the research findings, I visualized how the lack of pre-VIN support in the vehicle inventory platform negatively impacted key dealership workflows. (See Image C)

Image C - Experience Map shows the vehicle journey from OEM acquisition to customer delivery.

Three Root Causes

  • Automatic Lead Matching

    • The inability to match leads to arriving vehicles reduces sales.

  • Sold Follow-ups

    • The inability to address customer issues after purchase affects CSAT.

  • Marketing Lead Time 

    • The inability to maximize marketing time reduces sales.

Problem Statement

Problem discovery research gave us a solid understanding of how we impact dealer customers when our CVIP lacks the pre-VIN support demanded by the market.

How might we help dealer customers avoid losing OEM vehicle allocations due to reduced sales and CSAT caused by the inability to automate lead matching, sold follow-ups, and maximize marketing time?

Solution Discovery Kickoff

Our problem discovery effort paid off. I answered why should Cox Automotive invest in pre-VIN support on the CVIP? Because dealer customers, facing a low-inventory market, rely on it to boost their limited sales opportunities.

I presented the research findings, cause and effect analysis (Image B), and where root causes manifest for dealers with an experience map (Image C). Then, I brought it to life by telling the story of how market force brought the demand for pre-VIN to our doorstep (See Image D).

Image D - Story arc I used as a prompt in explaining how dealers and shoppers are affected.

Envisioning a New Experience

Once the problem was presented, it was followed a vision. A vision of the new experience, where our vehicle inventory platform (CVIP) powers dealer’s Cox Auto products with pre-VIN support, resulting in value realization! (See Image E).

Outcome & Results

The pre-VIN support work moved to the Solution Discovery phase, where the CVIP scrum teams made the implementation and released the feature. This enabled automated lead matching, sold follow-ups, and maximized marketing time so that dealer customers avoid losing OEM vehicle allocations and CSAT impact.

This solution resulted in unlocking a $1.2 million a year opportunity, calculated by total revenue brought by pre-VIN vehicles.

Project Hurdles

  • The project faced internal disagreements and misalignment on roadmap decisions.

    • Additional effort was spent creating a narrative aroun the problem our dealers faced and highlighting a gap in the platform’s adaptability to market needs.

  • Conducting dealer interviews independently streamlined discovery but created a disconnect with product and engineering. 

    • I provided interview recordings and transcripts for review prior to the Affinity Clustering exercise, to arrive at the same conclusions.

    • Additionally, the Affinity Clustering exercise uncovered additional perspectives such as state laws limiting dealers from marketing vehicles they cannot deliver on.

  • The Problem Tree Analysis initially faced scrutiny because the research was qualitative and lacked quantitative data showing the prevalence of each issue

    • We reframed the discussion around the urgent need for platform stability to adapt to rapidly shifting market demands.

    • Even a single negative experience from a dealer within a major dealership group could trigger widespread repercussions—making scalability and reliability critical.

Key Takeaways

  • Cross-Functional Collaboration is Critical

    • Collaboration during discovery ensured a holistic understanding of the problem, reducing siloed decision-making

  • Visualizing Problems Enhances Stakeholder Alignment

    • Using affinity mapping, problem trees, and experience maps helped stakeholders grasp the issue quickly and align on priorities.

  • Storytelling Drives Impact

    • Presenting findings as a narrative made the problem relatable, ensuring stakeholder buy-in for the solution.