The challenge

Design and launch a vehicle marketplace where users can buy and sell with ease. Then scale it to various countries around the world. Starting from nothing.

The outcome

A product that is continuously helping users buy and sell vehicles. As well as providing assistance into which vehicle is best for them, and how to navigate the complex buying process.

Successful launches in Canada and Australia. Now to scale the product and service into other eBay markets around the world.

4.7 rating in the App Stores (30,000+ ratings).

My role

Working in an agile multidisciplinary team I was responsible for discovering, defining, designing and shipping solutions to solve user and business problems.

My role was diverse, covering:

• User research

• Stakeholder management

• Service Design

• Product Design

• Innovation

• Design Sprints

• Product Strategy

• Workshopping

No team, no product, no office

I joined in June 2018, walking into a half built office, a team still being assembled and little to no product or service. Everything was slowly but surely getting off the ground.

This was a new venture within eBay. We were viewed as a start-up within the organisation, tasked with a difficult objective and a fixed deadline

The team

We started with four product teams. I was placed into one as the sole designer responsible for delivering consistent positive output and outcomes for user and business.

I was thrown into the team with eight others, all strangers, with no prior experience working together. An interesting social experiment as much as a work environment.

A mix of nationalities and backgrounds, which for the entirety of my time with eBay proved to be a crucial part of the work. The way different cultures conduct themselves in the work place is fascinating, as outlined in Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map.

Team focus

The team I joined was given the task of supporting the undecided and inexperienced user. An important and under served user base that we were keen to help.

The focus was on supporting those who:

• Were undecided on which make and model to purchase

• Were unfamiliar with the car buying process

• Were apprehensive about purchasing a new vehicle

As a team we were tasked with adding more to the value proposition of the business. Not only being a marketplace, but a trusted destination users can rely on throughout.

Build

From the summer of 2018 to early 2019 we worked at pace. Discovering, prototyping, testing, and building out the product and service.

It was a relentless time. Working hard to ensure the product and service could compete with the market leader in our first country we were launching in, Canada.

Sprints

We worked in 2 week sprints, in a strict agile environment overseen by an Agile Coach. Within our team we worked in our own hybrid mix of scrum and kanban. Daily stand-ups, a visible kanban board and other agile ceremonies all with the aim of turning us into a high performing team.

Given we were a brand new team, and really just a bunch of strangers, the retrospectives were important. They were team bonding as much as uncovering where we could make improvements. Over time it led to the team becoming more efficient and high performing.

I typically worked 2 - 4 weeks ahead of the development team. This ensured there was always new topics for them to plan, prepare and build.

During this time I experienced new topics and learnt a lot about product strategy and product management. How to scope planned activities to ensure we delivered user value, while weighing that up against competing topics.

User research

At this stage of the project we were building from scratch.

There was little to no user data to review, or the ability to A/B test solutions. We hadn’t yet launched and so user research came in the form of in person qualitative studies. Alongside the occasional quantitative study when looking to validate or explore a topic on a larger scale.

Through prototypes a range of ideas and potential solutions were explored with car buyers in Canada. We would observe and note take from Germany, whilst our user research colleague conducted the research with participants in Canada. I would iterate on the prototypes between sessions using the learnings gathered from previous participants.

The user research sessions proved valuable within the organisation. Developers, Sales and Marketing came to observe users interacting with various solutions.

Alpha and Beta

Before the public launch the product went through an Alpha and Beta phase. Designed to uncover experience flaws, product gaps and technical issues.

Alpha

The Alpha was internal only. Meaning a select, yet large group of eBay employees were given access to the product. Done so in a way that ensured an equal amount of people were testing across all platforms; mobile, desktop, iOS and Android.

Ranging from senior stakeholders, to product specialists, to those simply interested. Try it, test it, give feedback. That is all we asked of our testers from the Alpha.

There was a Google Form readily available to collect the feedback from within the product. To close off the study, we ran closing interviews to get into the detail of what the users had experienced. As well as to hear first hand their struggles and recommendations.

The feedback was synthesised and shared throughout the organisation. The key findings, and what we were going to do about them, were communicated at the company All Hands.

Beta

From the Alpha study we had collected bugs, experience issues and feature requests across various levels of the product.

We prioritised the topics that we, the Product and Experience Team, believed would have the biggest benefits. In the time between the Alpha and Beta we came up with ideas, tested them qualitatively to give us some confidence they would have impact in market.

The Beta study was also a fixed date. The time constraint encouraged us to prioritise and work on only the most important issues.

The Beta ran in a similar fashion to the Alpha, fixed tasks were given to 50 active car buyers in Canada to complete at least every other day. While also being able to free roam around the product, and use it to search and buy a new vehicle.

The Beta ran for 4 weeks, during that time we were still iterating and launching new parts of the product that our Beta testers could get hands on with.

The feedback from the study was collected, themed and prioritised. Feedback in which we could make quick fixes to the product was implemented immediately.

The outcome from the Beta was another huge data source full of user issues, recommendations and areas where the service didn’t quite live up to expectations.

At this point we were 6 weeks out from the public launch. This gave us 3 sprints to work on the most pressing matters that needed to be solved.

Public Launch

The product is a global product and will be launched in different countries around the world. For our first market, Canada, the decision was taken to go to market under the name Kijiji Autos.

Kijiji is a well established brand in Canada, famous for being a C2C marketplace. Kijiji Autos was launching as a specialised, vehicles only marketplace.

Introducing Kijiji Autos

Start and resume with ease

New users

With the homepage we aimed to serve both those who new what car they wanted, and those that didn’t, equally well.

Returning users

A personalised experience for users coming back to Kijiji Autos to pick up where they left off.

Discover cars by need

A carefully curated selection of cars suitable for different life stages, people and situations. A refreshingly new way for users to discover cars that meet their needs.

Discover cars by shape and size

For users that know what shape and size car they want, but not much else, they can browse by body type. Discovering all cars that fit the type of car they need, along with a hand picked list of the top cars within each body type category.

User friendly vehicle information

A one stop shop overview of a car. Users can learn more about a car they’re interested in, discover a new car that meets their requirements, and compare cars they’re considering against one another. The content has been crafted to ensure non-car savvy buyers understand it.

Advice for vehicle buyers, sellers and owners

Comprehensive content that enables users to learn more and understand different aspects of the car buying journey. As well as discovering suitable vehicles that meet their needs.

Navigation

A clear and user oriented navigation across both web and app. Allowing users to jump into different parts of the service, as well as access important user actions from anywhere. The navigation went through various iterations which are detailed below.

The impact

The product has a greater number of buyers contacting sellers about their vehicle compared to the previous Kijiji product.

In all core metrics Kijiji Autos outperforms Kijiji. This in just 18 months, whilst also launching in Australia and preparing for new markets.

4.7 rating in the App Stores (30,000+ ratings).

A selection of user reviews

"Great service to the public."

“One Stop Shop For everything autos. I’ve been using Kijiji for over 10 years and I must salute them for consistency and innovation.”

“Easy to use, free and does what it's suppose to.”

“Probably the best way to find cars - the ability to easily manage what you're looking for and message other people makes this app incredibly useful.”

“A very easy and simple way to find cars while getting great information about the cars!”