Vehicle Order Tracker
Vehicle order tracking application for Volkswagen Group dealerships
Client
Volkswagen Group
Role
Senior Product Designer
Timeline
8 Month Project
Team
Cross-functional (Product, Design, Engineering, Business Stakeholders)
The Challenge.
Volkswagen dealerships didn’t have a single, reliable system to track vehicle orders once they had been placed at the factory. Salespeople had to switch between outdated tools and manually piece together order statuses – leaving customers in the dark about when their cars would arrive (often waiting 3+ months). This created a poor customer experience and a lot of inefficiency for dealerships.
Where We Started.
We began by interviewing business stakeholders to get a full picture of the current process and pain points.
Since the challenge came from the business side, we wanted to validate the problem from the users’ point of view as well.
Research Goals.
To understand the needs of salespeople, we created a user research plan and spoke to dealership staff across Europe.
Our main research question:
“Will a car status tracker empower salespeople to better support customers and keep them informed throughout the wait?”
01
What are the top problems, needs and opportunities between order and delivery?
02
What do customers currently hear after placing an order?
04
What information do they actually need and trust?
03
How do dealers track build and delivery status?
What Salespeople Said.
“My main focus needs to be selling. I shouldn’t have to be fixing problems that aren’t my problems.”
— Salesperson from Portugal
“It’s a long logistic road until it gets to the customer, with a lot of black holes.”
— Salesperson from Sweden
“If we can track the car every day, that would be a huge improvement. We will always have customers that are really pushy, asking us where their car is.”
— Salesperson from Norway
“Sometimes when I have a lot of work, I forget about one car. Then I see, oh gosh, it's been in the showroom for one week already and I could have given it to the customer.”
— Salesperson from Poland
Key Insights.
01
Order Visibility
Salespeople needed a central place to see all their vehicle orders – helping with planning, follow-ups, and forecasting.
02
Order Tracking Was Messy
Tracking a single car often required using multiple systems. It was slow, manual, and not user-friendly.
03
Low Trust in ETAs
Dealers needed to be able to trust that the data is reliable. They did not trust the system-provided ETA and had to add their own buffer to manage customer expectations.
Affinity Map of User Interview Insights
User Journey Map
Framing the Opportunity.
We turned our insights into actionable “How Might We” statements to guide ideation.
How Might We…
Give our salespeople more transparency about the order status of all their cars?
How Might We…
Provide our salespeople with the necessary information so that they don't have to go searching for it in order to stay informed
How Might We…
Help our salespeople manage customer's expectations and keep them excited during the waiting period?
Product Vision.
For... Car salespeople
Who... Need visibility of car's that have been ordered from the factory
Our product is... A tracking application
That... Provides real-time order status updates
Unlike... Manual order systems that are slow and fragmented
Our product... Maps a car’s full journey from order to delivery
Benchmark Analysis.
To sharpen our direction, we looked at how other companies – both inside and outside the automotive space – handled order tracking. This gave us insight into UX patterns and clear opportunities to improve the experience.
Ideation & Design.
I facilitated a brainstorm workshop with the product team where we mapped out possible solutions. From there:
I created early sketches and concepts
Turned them into low-fidelity wireframes
Evolved into high-fidelity UI designs
Conducted usability testing with dealerships
We iterated based on user feedback and aligned the design to their day-to-day workflows.
Usability Test Results.
The Solution.
A vehicle order tracking application that pulls in data from the factory and shipping systems to provide up-to-date, reliable view of each car’s status.
It’s designed to be intuitive, fast, and tailored to what salespeople actually care about – so they can confidently update customers and manage expectations.
The pilot was rolled out across 39 VW Group markets, replacing legacy systems.
69% product adoption within the first month
Clear improvements in sales team confidence in ETAs and customer communication
Reduced time spent chasing updates through multiple tools
Key Learnings.
01
Managed to balance business goals with user needs.
02
Grounded the product direction in real user research.
03
Co-created closely with both product and engineering for a smooth build process.