Navistar
Who is Navistar?
Navistar (now rebranded as Navistar-International) is a manufacturer of trucks, diesel engines, and buses. When a dealership purchases a Navistar vehicle, the package typically includes an extended warranty or service contract. To enhance this process, Navistar partnered with Pega to transform their existing extended service contract workflow into a case management application.
Industry
Manufacturing
Timeframe
2022-2023 I worked on multiple iterations of the application during separate sprint cycles
Role
Senior Experience Designer Consultant
Team
Client Stakeholders Delivery Partner - Tech Mahindra Pega UI Developer
Context
Navistar faced a two-pronged problem that required updating and simplification. Their warranty builder application was running on legacy .NET software with an outdated user interface, frustrating dealers who were trying to create warranty packages.
On the Navistar side, ESC Analysts had to switch between multiple applications and process manual forms sent through email to accommodate dealer requests. These issues created a frustrating experience for both customers and internal teams.
The Problem
The current application is missing a streamlined case workflow.
Current application lacks internal messaging with ESC Analysts. All communication done through email and phone.
Too much manual work via paper forms and separate systems, workflow lacks automation
Legacy .Net UI frustrating dealers with usability issues
Outcomes
I helped redesign the service contract creation process and streamlined the development of custom service quotes, reducing customer support time.
I also advocated for initiating cases from the outset to capture valuable data on drop-off rates and reporting metrics.
Impact
After usability testing was done with dealers and ESC analysts, we determined
STEP ONE
Discovery
During the first 2–3 weeks of the engagement, it was important to establish an agenda that aligned with the needs of the client, users, and delivery partner.
Meetings with users, the definition of business objectives and metrics, and application demos laid the groundwork for subsequent user flow and journey mapping sessions. These activities helped identify opportunities for improvement in the new case management application.
STEP TWO
Understanding our Users
Qualitative research, including user interviews and contextual inquiry of the existing app, offered clear insights into our primary user's motivations, pain points, and needs for the future-state application.
The Dealership Principal
Motivation
Needs a customer-facing portal to easily create an extended warranty contract.
Behavior
Industry-savvy and knows how to get the best deal on warranties from manufacturers of their trucks.
Pain Points
No unified manufacturer platform for extended warranties results in numerous emails, phone calls, and manual paperwork.
Approval and rejection process with Navistar is time-consuming, with a lot of back-and-forth haggling to secure the best warranty.
Needs
A self-service portal for adjusting warranty parts and term options, as well as gaining visibility into pre-bundled warranty packages.
The ESC Analyst
Motivation
Needs a modern web app with a structured workflow and dedicated reporting.
Behavior
Swamped with a backlog of extended warranty requests. Interested in reporting and business intelligence on cases handled by future app.
Pain Points
The current process of crawling through tons of documentation to put together a quote is time-consuming and error-prone.
Duplication of data entry between multiple apps when having to swivel chair. Lots of hand-holding with dealers.
Needs
A workflow solution that streamlines their current quote creation process and cuts down on manual, time consuming tasks.
Business Outcomes
Workshop sessions with business revealed a need to sell pre-bundled warranty packages to dealers, but still allow them to build a custom contract.
The happy path would funnel dealers to the pre-bundled packages first, then give them a secondary option to build a custom contract. But how do we do this without designing a dark UX pattern?
ESC Analysts must handle both pre-bundled warranty packages and custom contract requests while preparing quote offers based on historical package rates.
Automating time-consuming tasks like document generation, dealer correspondence, and price calculations was crucial.
How Might We
facilitate Dealers in identifying and constructing the best service contracts to expedite contract review and finalization by ESC Analysts?
STEP FOUR
Competitive Analysis
The client wanted to pivot to an eCommerce-type experience for the custom contract portion of the user flow. I looked at existing design solutions for inspiration and identified design patterns that could translate.
User Flows
We iterated over multiple user flows to refine the experience and accommodate each workstream. The new application would provide a guided workflow and cut down on manual tasks through assignment routing and automated task completion.
STEP FIVE
Vehicle Information
When buying a service contract, the dealer may have
new vehicles with no VIN
existing vehicles with a VIN
multiple vehicles with/without VINS
This process was split between multiple interfaces in the legacy app, making for a disjointed and time consuming data entry process.
From user interviews, dealers most frequently were buying new vehicles with no VIN. This became the initial option with the ability to enter vehicle configurations. If they had a VIN, the vehicle config was disabled.
The least frequent scenario was multiple vehicles with mixed VINS. I hypothesized that this would be time-consuming if done manually (potentially 100+ trucks), so I pitched the option of an excel doc download/bulk upload option.
STEP SIX
Custom Contract Selection Microjourney
As stated before, the client pushed for bundle selection over the custom contract option. The bundle landing page provides a high level view of the options for each bundle with the ability to compare bundles. The Dealer still has the option to build a custom contract via the banner near the bottom of the landing page.
If the Dealer chooses a bundle here, the custom contract option is disabled and they go right to the review UI before the case is handed off to the ESC analyst. Since the custom contract journey is more involved, these screens detail that process.
The naming convention Navistar uses to breakdown the parts they manufacture is
Groups: Major Part Components (engine, chassis, transmission)/After-treatment/Towing
Nouns: Individual parts/options under these Groups
As the Dealer is building their custom contract, the side panel on the right serves as a way finder and contract level mini navigation
1
Bundle Promo Selection
Dealer can preview/select a promoted warranty bundle or choose to build a custom contract.
2
Terms Adjustment
After deciding on a custom contract, the Dealer selects the predicted time and distance the vehicle will be in use.
3
Group Coverage Selection
The app provides options based on terms for Bumper to Bumper or individual contracts the Dealer can drill down into.
4
Noun Coverage Selection
The Dealer is able to further customize their contract by selecting parts they want covered by making selections in a overlay.
STEP SEVEN
ESC Analyst Portal
Once the Dealer has chosen a bundle policy or built a custom contract and submitted for review, the ESC analyst picks up the contract assignment in the Analyst portal. If the dealer chose the custom contract route, the analyst can look for existing matching policies, or do an advanced search for policies created in the past. The application automatically adjusts pricing based on edits/filtering by the ESC Analyst.
The analyst can then send the revised proposal or final paperwork back to the dealer to sign off on and finalize.
What was once a manual, back and forth process involving phone calls/emails and hand holding is now
A guided workflow for the dealer with automated notifications and a seamless UX
A system driven backend portal for the ESC analyst that drastically cuts down support time with dealers and manual price calculations
1
ESC Analyst Landing Page
Analyst can see the contract proposal assigned to them when they first open the app and can start working the policy
2
ESC Work Basket
Analyst has a higher level view of all open assignments on a work basket landing page. Contracts appear based on urgency
3
Proposal Review
Analyst works the contract by pairing the custom quote request with existing quotes or referencing historical quotes to create a new custom contract
STEP EIGHT
Learnings and Takeaways
One of the frustrations I dealt with early was convincing the client to the kick off case creation at the beginning of the workflow. There was a desire from some stakeholders to wait until after bundle selection/custom quote creation at the final review stage to create the case.
I was able to convince the client they would miss out on valuable drop off rate and customer retention analytics and reporting if they waited until the final review stage.
For future engagements I made sure to
Educate the client on fundamental Pega platform best practices and example use cases
Give example of key metrics to track beyond client/project specific needs