Duration
2 months June 2024 - July 2024
My Role
Conducting Research, Moderating Stakeholder Interviews, Collaborating with Business and PMs
Team
Sakshi S (me), Sarina (Manager)
The CIO praised our decision to pause the project due to unforeseen circumstances, highlighting the importance of timely decision-making.
During my internship presentation, the CTO praised our decision to pause the project due to unexpected challenges, highlighting the importance of timely decision-making. This reinforced the need for adaptability and allowed us to reassess our approach, ensuring future initiatives aligned with the organization's goals and user needs.
It is a centralised hub for pet parents to manage their pet's important information effectively
Hill's Pet Profile Hub is a digital platform provided by Hill's Pet Nutrition that allows pet owners to create detailed profiles for their pets, storing important information like medical history, allergies, dietary needs, and other relevant details in one place.
Hill's currently lacks an e-commerce platform. Sales are driven by veterinary recommendations, with products sold through third-party retailers.
Platform Feature Scope
Despite all these features, were the users returning to the platform?
Despite providing features like personalized pet profiles, tailored diet recommendations, and seamless ordering, Hill's Pet Profile Hub struggled with user engagement, with fewer than 10% of users across five geographies actively interacting with the platform.
Users were looking for loyalty programs, rewards, coupons and discounts as per previous research
Previous research conducted by consultants, along with insights gathered from Sprig surveys (in-product microsurveys) conveyed that:
“Loyalty Program” was the #3 most valued feature to users.
55% of users across Brazil and Canada (EN) said they would be most interested in collecting loyalty points and rewards.
Upon analysis, found users to be price conscious, who were keen on finding coupons for buying pet products
In analyzing the initial user interviews, we found that most users were concerned about the cost of Hill's medicated, prescription-only pet food, which is priced higher than competitors. This highlighted the need for coupons and discounts to address affordability and improve accessibility.
User Goal
To be able to collect loyalty points and rewards in addition to getting coupons & discounts.
Business Goal
Increasing the numbers of users and retention rate on Pet Profile Hub.
We conducted 6 stakeholder interviews from different geographies
We explored the logistics and budgeting for each region, along with the current handling of coupons and discounts on the backend. To gain insights, we coordinated 30-45 minute discussions with stakeholders from each geography to better understand their processes and challenges. The regions included:
UK
EMEA
Brazil
Canada
France
US
Here's what all we found through the interviews!
Stakeholders were open to Pet Profile Hub coupons and gamification
Stakeholders were receptive to the idea of incorporating coupons, discounts, and gamification strategies, expressing that they see significant value in having a centralized system to store and manage these efforts. They highlighted that such a feature would streamline their processes and enhance the user experience across regions.
Can't wait! Been looking for something like this for a while!
~ Stakeholder 3
Any opportunity to get them to purchase is good!
~ Stakeholder 4
Affinity mapping for Finding 1
Current offerings vary greatly by geography hence solution must be adaptable for all
The current range of offerings includes a variety of incentives aimed at driving customer engagement and boosting sales:
Online Rebates
Occasional rebates in mail
"Signup & Save" coupons
Quaterly Giveaways
Do not do the global coupon approach! Will need flexibility in how we implement it.
~ Stakeholder 4
Build it in a way so it does not look weird between how US has more options versus France.
~ Stakeholder 2
Affinity mapping for Finding 2
Budget and logistics was found to be a challenge in centralising coupons across geographies
Having budget for coupons was raised as a main concern. In addition, stakeholders questioned how the logistics of centralising coupons would work with the disparity between geographies. Compensating third parties for coupons also creates some logistical issues. In some geographies, this process is currently very manual.
What are the logistics of a team uploading coupons to HPH? Would they self-manage?
~ Stakeholder 2
We don’t have an e-shop on HPH. How will the consumer use a coupon?
~ Stakeholder 5
Affinity mapping for Finding 3
We must address numerous complexities while ensuring the solution is future-proof.
While talking to business team, we identified that this feature is not feasible to design for, due to multiple reasons
After discussions with the business team, we determined that designing this feature is not feasible due to several challenges, including managing diverse coupon structures across geographies, logistical issues, and concerns over user engagement based on past attempts like Brazil's coupon portal. These factors hinder the scalability and success of the feature.
❗️
Retailer Involvement Challenges
Involving retailers in any solution is difficult, so we should wait for e-commerce to begin.
💵
Geography Logistics & Budgeting
👎🏼
Brazil's Local Coupon Portal's Poor Feedback
The team decided to halt the project until Hill's comes out with their e-commerce!
How this project helped me grow as a designer?
01
Significance of Business Research
02
Project Roadblocks
I learned that despite significant effort, projects can stall due to unforeseen challenges, reinforcing the need for adaptability and patience.
