Role: Manager of Product Design
Year: 2023
Overview
This project focused on improving internal workflow efficiency for Customer Support and Data Support teams by addressing friction in how inventory import and export data was accessed. I worked cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, UX, and Support stakeholders to define the problem, align on scope, and deliver a solution that reduced internal ticket volume and support effort.
A small update to the product led to a 9.4% reduction in exports-related Data Support team tickets.
Business Problem
Customer Support representatives frequently needed access to inventory export data to resolve customer issues.
This meant:
- Customer Support frequently opened tickets with the Data Support team
- Data Support was pulled into routine, repeat requests
- Resolution times increased due to unnecessary handoffs
This inefficiency needed to be address to meet the broader organizational goal of improving internal workflow efficiency for support teams.
My Role
I contributed to this project as the manager of the Product Design team, partnering closely with:
- Product Management (Inventory)
- Engineering
- Customer Support
- Data Support
My responsibilities focused on problem definition, stakeholder coordination, and solution validation, including:
- Supporting solution definition and validation prior to development
- Partnering with Product Management to clarify the problem and success criteria
- Overseeing research efforts with internal support teams
- Ensuring findings became clear, actionable requirements
The Project
The initial project assumption was that exports-related support issues would require a larger effort to combine the Inventory Imports and Exports screens into a single experience.
However, through interviews with Customer Support and Data Support teams and analysis of support ticket patterns, we learned that the core issue was not screen separation but lack of access. Customer Support teams simply needed the ability to download exports data, not a fully unified workflow.
Based on these findings, we recommended narrowing project scope to focus on enabling export downloads for Customer Support teams. This allowed the Product teams to address the root problem with significantly less engineering effort, reduced delivery risk, and faster time to impact.
Outcomes & Impact
By validating assumptions early and using research to guide decision-making, the Product team was able to:
- Avoid a larger, higher-risk rebuild
- Deliver value faster with a targeted change
- Reduce engineering effort while still meeting business goals and user needs
- Align stakeholders around a more efficient path forward
In the 3 months after the new feature launched, an average of 136 exports-related Data Support tickets per month were entered by Customer Support. This was a 9.4% reduction in average number of tickets over the 2 months prior to launch.