User Needs & Business Objectives
Stage 1 | Design Process Methodology
Meet Nick and Alan
A friend of mine, Nick, is a bit of a car enthusiast. Over just three years, I watched him trade in and purchase three different vehicles—all initiated online. Each time, he ran into the same issues: friction and frustration, all tied to the trade-in aspect of the transaction. His frustration sparked the investigation below.
Using AI for Stage 1 Work
The workflows, artifacts and tools typically used in classical UX practices for this stage are being augmented, replaced and hastened by Artificial Intelligence. Click here to see some of the new tools and techniques I’m experimenting with.
Nick
Archetype – Car Buyer (with Trade-in)
Alan
Archetype – Dealer Agent
Volumes and numbers
So I asked the questions: “What’s up with vehicle trade-ins, anyway? What sort of numbers are we dealing with here on a national scale?”
2016
~16
million
…new and used cars sold through trade-in deals
2024
~15-18
million
…new and used cars sold through trade-in deals
User empathy and early stage research
Primary and secondary research painted an interesting picture of buyer perception regarding trade-in.
When asked…
12%
stated
…trade-in activities were top frustration with purchase process
Around…
$1,500
dollars
…per transaction could be saved by not having physical dealerships
Only…
10%
stated
…they completed trade-in valuation activities online
Only…
:26
seconds
…was saved completing trade-in valuation activities online
Current-state analysis
Next, I spent a few hours analyzing Carvana’s online purchase funnel, including the trade-in flow. Using Jesse James Garrett’s Visual Vocabulary best practices for flow diagramming, I mapped and visualized the complex conditional logic underlying Carvana’s online digital experience.
Between…
6-32
screens
…required to satisfy Carvana’s trade-in funnel experience
Between…
40-56
clicks / taps
…necessary to satisfy Carvana’s trade-in funnel experience
Between…
~3-8
minutes
…devoted to satisfying Carvana’s trade-in funnel experience
Business Objectives & Strategic Themes
Based on the recommendations of the user research team and the available primary and secondary data we have on hand, we have determined one of this year’s strategic themes is to Decouple and Optimize to Convert. This theme will likely address the friction caused by intertwined purchase and trade-in flows, and will likely support a disruptive shift toward simplified, faster, and more personalized funnel experiences. This strategy is likely to reduce cognitive load, speed up decision-making, and improve customer confidence—especially for those unsure whether to buy, sell, or do both.
Risk, Educated Guessing & The Scientific Method
The word ‘likely‘ is used significantly within this section — it’s not by mistake. Click here to watch this brief video on the Scientific Method by Dr. Richard Feynman (Nobel).
How might we statements
➤ How might we exploit emerging technologies to turn smart vehicles into active agents along the buy, sell and trade-in transaction funnels?
➤ How might we personalize buy, sell and trade-in funnel experiences overall that engage human beings in new ways?
➤ How might we do a better job of disconnecting the vehicle trade-in funnel from the vehicle purchase funnel; reducing the friction users find when both funnels are combined?
Solution hypothesis
Achieving a richer, more personalized car buying experience would likely mean leveraging emerging technologies to collect, collate, interrogate, integrate, track and broadcast every detail of a vehicle’s attributes and activities (static and dynamic) from cradle-to-grave.
Guiding principles
The business is prepared to fund and support concrete design solutions that adhere to and represent the following guiding principles:
➤ Meet customers where they are
Customers are constantly moving from device to device and from channel to channel. And they have very different needs along their journeys. With so many moving parts, the only way to deliver highly relevant interactions is to bring together everything you know about them: how they like to communicate, where they like to shop, and what interests they have. Meet them where they are and they’ll have no reason to go anywhere else.
➤ Shorten path to value
The quickest path to business value starts with knowing what your customers want to accomplish, and then helping them get there. After all, if you help customers reach their own goals — like downloading a piece of content, adding an item to their cart, or making a purchase — they’re much more likely to take actions that help you reach your own.
➤ Let AI sweat the small stuff
Artificial intelligence and machine learning won’t take over your job, but they will take on manual tasks so you can focus on your most strategic work. That means making the most of your limited resources to reach every customer on a deeply personal level, no matter how large your audience.
Strategic intent
➤ Untangle the dependency between buying and trade-in to reduce funnel abandonment
➤ Use AI/automation to create parallel, optimized experiences for both flows
➤ Personalize interactions based on intent signals (e.g., is the user buying first or offloading a vehicle?)
Future-state experience outcomes
Nick – Vehicle Owner / Buyer (with Trade-in)
Improving Nick’s life might look something like this in the future…
Alan – Dealer Agent
Improving Alan’s life might look something like this in the future…
