Website strategy within complex digital omnichannel ecosystem
THE CONTEXT
Trakindo Utama is a major Indonesian company that serves as the authorized dealer for Caterpillar (CAT) heavy equipment in Indonesia. Trakindo approached us with a fundamental question: how could their core company website truly thrive within its expansive digital ecosystem? Our strategic inquiry focused on pinpointing the optimal role for this critical touchpoint, enabling us to reimagine and elevate the entire digital experience for their customers.
THE SCOPE
As the Design Lead, I held comprehensive accountability for all design decisions, guiding a talented team of five, including dedicated researchers and UX designers. We pioneered a new Way of Working (WoW), strategically offloading administrative and account management responsibilities to a counterpart. This innovative arrangement empowered me to focus intensely on the craft of design, ensuring uncompromised quality and deeper creative impact across all our initiatives.
THE APPROACH
Immersion and undestanding client landscape
Our process began with a deep commitment to understanding. We immersed ourselves fully in the client's world, conducting intensive, collaborative workshops and incisive stakeholder interviews.
This allowed us to meticulously map their current digital landscape, uncover unspoken challenges, and precisely articulate their evolving expectations, forming the essential foundation for our strategic recommendations.
We were struck by the sheer breadth and complexity of their digital ecosystem. It was a fascinating revelation to uncover the extensive array of digital channels, diverse product services, and wide-ranging offerings they already possessed. This unexpected scale presented both a rich foundation and a compelling challenge to strategically optimize their website presence
In-Depth Interview
Our strategic deep dive began with in-depth interviews with key customers, primarily SME business owners, to forge a nuanced understanding of their core needs, critical pain points, and underlying decision drivers. To ensure comprehensive market insight, we meticulously segmented the industry by Caterpillar product lines—Forestry, Construction, and Mining/Oil & Gas—and ensured geographic representation across West, Central, and East Indonesia. Adapting swiftly to COVID-19's social distancing mandates, we orchestrated remote interviews through close coordination with account/area managers and our recruitment partners, maintaining the integrity and breadth of our research despite unforeseen challenges."
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Funnel Analysis & Heuristic Operations
We also balanced our approach with quantitative insights. Our data team conducted funnel analyses, while our UX specialists performed comprehensive heuristic evaluations. This dual-pronged analytical effort provided robust, data-driven insights and validated our strategic recommendations against established UX best practices, ensuring our solutions were both innovative and empirically sound.
It was interesting how users flow into and out of the website, and across their broader ecosystem, became pivotal for optimizing journeys and identifying critical touchpoints for enhanced engagement.
Trakindo Utama is a major Indonesian company that serves as the authorized dealer for Caterpillar (CAT) heavy equipment in Indonesia. Trakindo approached us with a fundamental question: how could their core company website truly thrive within its expansive digital ecosystem? Our strategic inquiry focused on pinpointing the optimal role for this critical touchpoint, enabling us to reimagine and elevate the entire digital experience for their customers.
THE SCOPE
As the Design Lead, I held comprehensive accountability for all design decisions, guiding a talented team of five, including dedicated researchers and UX designers. We pioneered a new Way of Working (WoW), strategically offloading administrative and account management responsibilities to a counterpart. This innovative arrangement empowered me to focus intensely on the craft of design, ensuring uncompromised quality and deeper creative impact across all our initiatives.
THE APPROACH
Immersion and undestanding client landscape
Our process began with a deep commitment to understanding. We immersed ourselves fully in the client's world, conducting intensive, collaborative workshops and incisive stakeholder interviews.
This allowed us to meticulously map their current digital landscape, uncover unspoken challenges, and precisely articulate their evolving expectations, forming the essential foundation for our strategic recommendations.
We were struck by the sheer breadth and complexity of their digital ecosystem. It was a fascinating revelation to uncover the extensive array of digital channels, diverse product services, and wide-ranging offerings they already possessed. This unexpected scale presented both a rich foundation and a compelling challenge to strategically optimize their website presence
In-Depth Interview
Our strategic deep dive began with in-depth interviews with key customers, primarily SME business owners, to forge a nuanced understanding of their core needs, critical pain points, and underlying decision drivers. To ensure comprehensive market insight, we meticulously segmented the industry by Caterpillar product lines—Forestry, Construction, and Mining/Oil & Gas—and ensured geographic representation across West, Central, and East Indonesia. Adapting swiftly to COVID-19's social distancing mandates, we orchestrated remote interviews through close coordination with account/area managers and our recruitment partners, maintaining the integrity and breadth of our research despite unforeseen challenges."
Funnel Analysis & Heuristic Operations
We also balanced our approach with quantitative insights. Our data team conducted funnel analyses, while our UX specialists performed comprehensive heuristic evaluations. This dual-pronged analytical effort provided robust, data-driven insights and validated our strategic recommendations against established UX best practices, ensuring our solutions were both innovative and empirically sound.
It was interesting how users flow into and out of the website, and across their broader ecosystem, became pivotal for optimizing journeys and identifying critical touchpoints for enhanced engagement.
Solution Exploration
Based on data and insightscollected, we were able to uncover strategic opportunities for website transformation. This critical understanding then fueled a series of collaborative workshops where we partnered directly with the client. Together, we explored and co-created innovative solution ideas, ensuring each concept was precisely engineered to address both their customers' core needs and their overarching business objectives, forging a path to impactful innovation
THE DELIVERABLES
Implementation Strategy Development
We created actionable and scalable implementation strategy
to help the client’s team deliver the solutions
Insight Report & User Persona
Comprehensive explanation of interview insights, funnel analysis as well as heuristic evaluation results of the client current website. In the report also include categorization of customer archetypes. This is a tool to communicate key opportunities and understand which customer archetypes most relevant to be catered to by the client website
Current & Future Customer Journey Map
Visualization of customer’s current experience and the desired state in researching and buying heavy equipments , as well as opportunity areas for the client to tap in. This help all stakeholders easily understand key touchpoints and goals their customers aim to achieve, which gave them a solid guidance the website improvement trajectory
Winning Concepts of Website Features
Detailed concepts with key interactions that meet the expectations and needs of customers, as well as business objectives. This Help all stakeholders in understanding the concept of the solutions and how users interact with them
Implementation Strategy
Implementation strategy based on the winning concept desirability, viability and feasibility, including a list of development and technology requirements. Help stakeholders to communicate final concepts development requirement
THE IMPACT
The strategic insights generated during this initial phase proved highly impactful, directly catalyzing new business opportunities for a comprehensive website redesign and subsequent feature implementation. While my role concluded before the execution of these follow-on projects, it was incredibly rewarding to see our foundational work directly translate into tangible, next-phase initiatives for the client.
2022©CAT Trakindo
CATEGORY
Research & Strategy
SCOPE
Design Lead
DURATION
3 month
LOCATION
Jakarta
TEAM
PM
Agatha Tika
Design Lead
Larasati
UI/UX
Yashinta Novita
Gilang Maulana
Fathur Adli Fauzi
Research & Strategy
SCOPE
Design Lead
DURATION
3 month
LOCATION
Jakarta
TEAM
PM
Agatha Tika
Design Lead
Larasati
UI/UX
Yashinta Novita
Gilang Maulana
Fathur Adli Fauzi
THE LEARNING
What works
The Impact of Co-Located Immersion
We learned that physical co-location during onboarding and client immersion is transformative. Dedicating a three-day, in-person meeting room for structured learning and discussion, rather than remote participation, significantly accelerated team understanding and alignment. This approach was equally vital for design critiques and journey mapping workshops, fostering unparalleled collaborative energy.
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Precision in Field Research
Engaging field-based respondents (e.g., from construction sites) highlighted the need for meticulous interview preparation and clear expectation setting. We learned to explicitly communicate the requirement for a conducive environment for in-depth interviews, ensuring rich insights despite their dynamic contexts. Successful research hinges on designing optimal engagement conditions for every stakeholder.
What works
The Impact of Co-Located Immersion
We learned that physical co-location during onboarding and client immersion is transformative. Dedicating a three-day, in-person meeting room for structured learning and discussion, rather than remote participation, significantly accelerated team understanding and alignment. This approach was equally vital for design critiques and journey mapping workshops, fostering unparalleled collaborative energy.
Precision in Field Research
Engaging field-based respondents (e.g., from construction sites) highlighted the need for meticulous interview preparation and clear expectation setting. We learned to explicitly communicate the requirement for a conducive environment for in-depth interviews, ensuring rich insights despite their dynamic contexts. Successful research hinges on designing optimal engagement conditions for every stakeholder.
Reflections for Future Growth
Leading with Empathy & Strategic Delegation
This ambitious project offered profound lessons in leadership and team resilience. Looking back, one key area for improvement would be to cultivate greater compassion and proactive support for the team, particularly when navigating complex administrative terrains. I observed our new PM lead grappling with overwhelming tasks like PO and GR management, and in hindsight, I recognize the need to have more actively intervened or delegated support her burden, especially as she was also new to the company.
Furthermore, a personal experience during a remote workshop, where I unknowingly led while unwell (later diagnosed with COVID), underscored lesson: the important to know one's own limits and to delegate more effectively. This moment highlighted the importance of safeguarding both personal well-being and team capacity.