Little Changes
Behind the scenes on deploying new product functionality
For the last month, I worked on changing a button.
It sounds simple, but in the process, I’ve learned just how much you can affect through the smallest of changes.
When purchasing a car at Rodo, we changed the button text for certain vehicles from “Place Order” to “Check Availability.”
Our goal is to be a bit more transparent and honest with our customers. Prior to the change, customers would sometimes place an order on a car and then be told that the car they wanted was actually unavailable. This was usually due to a simple miscommunication with the dealership selling the car.
Naturally, the next step was to help the customer find a replacement vehicle. But to the customer, this felt way too much like a bait-and-switch. So, we hoped that by making some changes, we could be clearer and more accurate about their order.
Making this button change actually meant reworking how we process orders. With the new functionality, we would be confirming vehicle inventory before anything else. This seemingly small change actually requires a lot of consideration.
It first involves work on our product. This change raised a lot of questions and concerns. How does it affect our ability to funnel customers into the order flow? Is this a pleasurable experience for a customer? Are we clearly communicating to them what’s happening?
It involves work on our design. More is required than just a new button. This change requires redesign and rearrangement wherever present, with thought being put into the customer experience as a whole. Whether viewing on our mobile app or on our web platforms, the experience had to be consistent.
It involves work with our engineering and QA teams. Modifying the order flow impacts how we process orders in the backend, as well as requires changes to our internal tools for processing orders. This results in extensive requirements gathering, development, and testing.
It involves work with our sales and operations teams. The change subtly creates an entirely new order flow. As a result, these teams are required to understand every new detail. Are they prepared to walk customers through the process? Do they fully understand the changes we’ve made to their workflow and tools? Ultimately, these changes required multiple demos and training sessions to bring everyone up to speed, and increase the efficiency in which we processed deals.
And finally, it involves analytics. Performance of the changes needs to be constantly monitored to ensure that they are actually improving order placement and having the desired effect.
The moral in deploying this product change was that even the smallest change can have a broad impact. Small changes can have effects and implications that require serious consideration and reach all aspects of a product and business. Even our little button has produced a noticeable increase in order completion!
When you think of driving improvement in a product, you might think of big, flashy changes. A shiny new aesthetic, a clever pivot, or an innovative new product feature. Sometimes, though, even the little changes can have great impact.
