Energy IQ for business
Client
Genesis
Year
2021-Present
Energy IQ for business is a platform that assists large organizations in comprehending their energy usage and managing carbon emissions. By employing the right accounting solution, companies can precisely keep track of their emissions data and obtain the necessary information to begin reducing usage, changing technology, and, in the long term, eliminating a portion of their carbon emissions.
Role
Solo UX/UI designer in this project
Process
Empathise
〰️
Define
〰️
Ideate
〰️
Test
〰️
Design
〰️
Empathise 〰️ Define 〰️ Ideate 〰️ Test 〰️ Design 〰️
PROBLEM:
The customer problem was a lack of user-friendly tools to effectively manage and understand their energy usage. This limitation hindered their ability to make informed decisions about their energy consumption and behaviour. Additionally, the absence of a self-serve approach required significant assistance from the customer-facing team, reducing their capacity to focus on building and maintaining relationships. The opportunity sought to address these challenges by providing an intuitive platform for customers, fostering sustainable energy management, and enabling the customer-facing team to dedicate more time to personalized care.
Empathise
Understand of Customer and their needs
Define
Business Values
Customer Values
Ideate
Problem Statement
Ideation sesions
Design & Test
Low fidelity design
Usability testing
Evaluate & Share back the findings
High fidelity design
Final sign off
Develop and Lauch
and then repeating testing
Personas
〰️
Customer experience
〰️
Workshops
〰️
User journey maps
〰️
Sevice design
〰️
Personas 〰️ Customer experience 〰️ Workshops 〰️ User journey maps 〰️ Sevice design 〰️
Exploring the stories of our Users
Decision Makers
Role exemples
Procurement
Head of…
Business Owner
Board
Drivers/Goals
Seek to get the best balance of value/price/service
May determine the scope or criteria for decisions
Deliver a business strategy or plan/ may be advised by experts
Internal Energy Influencers
Role exemples
Energy expert
Facilities
Operations
Internal Admin
Drivers/Goals
Deliver the energy needs of the business
Manage and ensure efficient use
Daily operations Contacts
Role exemples
Account Payable
Day-to-day Account Contact
Commercial Manager
Daily Operations
Drivers/Goals
Keep BAU running as smoothly as possible
Avoid or prevent unexpected issues
Keep on top of changes in market or developments or the business
External Energy Experts
Role exemples
Consultant
Service provider
Advisor
Competitors for value-add
Drivers/Goals
Influence and advice on decisions around energy
May manage the billing and payments
Delivering value and gaining trust with the organisation for long-term relationship
Here are a few examples of large businesses we have worked with:
Just enough research
Desktop research
〰️
Competitive analysis
〰️
Dairy studies
〰️
Customer interviews
〰️
Contextual Inquiry
〰️
Card Sorting
〰️
Workshops
〰️
Desktop research 〰️ Competitive analysis 〰️ Dairy studies 〰️ Customer interviews 〰️ Contextual Inquiry 〰️ Card Sorting 〰️ Workshops 〰️
To connect business and customer needs for Genesis and gain a deeper understanding of our business customers I organise research sessions at least twice in year. I used methodologies like Card sorting, discovery workshops, dairy studies, contextual inquiries, expert interviews and IDIs.
RESEARCH GOAL IS TO :
Decide if and how we can build and later improve Energy IQ for business
Understand and Discover the market/ customer current state (new pain points )
Identify new features we should implement in future
Get feedback from our customers on our prototyped features
40+
Customers interviewed
7
Rounds of user testing
Challenge 1: Size and Structure
The Genesis Large Business division serves customers of different sizes across manufacturing, retail, and retirement sectors. We cater to varying account types, whether it's a single large account or multiple sites with different account structures, ensuring personalized service for each customer.
Solution: I’ve decided to focus on the customers with usage over 200kWh per year
Challenge 2: Customer Access
Accessing large business customers proved challenging, as traditional research panels were inadequate, and key information often remained confidential.
Solution: The key was leveraging strong connections with the sales team and customers. I’ve established a "Business Experts Panel" eager to assist with research.
Design customer-centric platform
Colaborative ideation
〰️
Low -fidelity wireframes
〰️
Prototyping
〰️
Figma
〰️
Usability testing
〰️
Accessibility audit
〰️
Information architecture
〰️
Colaborative ideation 〰️ Low -fidelity wireframes 〰️ Prototyping 〰️ Figma 〰️ Usability testing 〰️ Accessibility audit 〰️ Information architecture 〰️
I aim to design products that help large businesses lower their carbon footprint and achieve a carbon-neutral future for New Zealand. That's why I believe products for them should be appealing and easy. To make the process effective, I collaborate with different business areas in finding good design solutions and addressing doubts before advancing to the High-fidelity and development stage. the key thing is to set design projects off right, ensuring teams solve the right problem at the end.
Energy IQ for Business is a platform designed to cater to the evolving needs of our customers. To set up my Success metrics I used Google’s HEART framework. To ensure that we are meeting their requirements, I regularly organize usability testing sessions (quantitative and qualitative) to validate new ideas and target platform improvements.
I consistently communicate research findings across the organization to promote good UX practices and explain my design choices. Presently, I am collaborating with Partners in Performance Agency on customer segmentation and serving as a proponent for customer insights.
Tools
*For the case study, all customer data provided is imaginary
