Internal Tool: Streamlining Order Tracking from RFQ to Delivery— Xetgo
Product Designer, 2023-24
About Xetgo
Xetgo handles many packaging product orders each month, spanning from initial quotations to final deliveries. Efficiently managing this lifecycle requires robust tools to prevent delays, reduce errors, and improve cross-functional collaboration.
The order tracking process is critical for ensuring smooth operations. Clear visibility into each stage of order allows Xetgo to meet customer demands promptly and deliver quality service. The internal tool was designed with these priorities in mind, aiming to centralize data, automate repetitive tasks, and offer actionable insights that would enhance productivity and customer satisfaction.
Project Type & Role
Team — 1 Designer, CTO, Stakeholders
Product Designer
🧐 Understanding current pain points
To create an impactful solution, I conducted interviews with key stakeholders and internal users at Xetgo, including sales, operations, and logistics teams, to understand their current challenges and workflows.
You can solve any problems if you understand your users.
So without wasting any time further, let’s jump into our research and see what insights I’ve collected.
🕵🏼 Research Findings
Through these discussions, I gathered insights into the most common pain points faced during the order lifecycle:
Lack of Real-Time Updates: Delays in updating order statuses across departments caused communication breakdowns and inefficiencies.
Fragmented Systems: Disjointed tools and data silos made it difficult to have a unified view of orders, increasing time spent on status checks.
Manual Data Entry: Repetitive and error-prone manual entry of order details slowed down processes and led to inaccuracies.
🚧 Key Problems we decided to solve
Based on these insights, we focused on addressing two core problems:
How can we reduce manual errors and increase process efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and centralizing data?
How can we provide real-time order tracking to improve visibility and enhance cross-departmental collaboration?
🎯 Business Goals
Operational Efficiency: Streamlining processes to reduce delays and improve turnaround times.
Improved Accuracy: Minimize errors through collaboration and reduce reliance on manual data entry.
Enhanced Communication: Providing real-time updates to ensure alignment across all departments involved in order management.
By aligning the design goals with these business outcomes, the internal tool aimed to deliver significant productivity gains and foster better collaboration across teams.
With a clear understanding of the challenges and objectives, let’s dive into the design process and how these insights translated into impactful features.
Now that you understand our goals and the problems we’ll be solving, Let’s dive into the much-awaited design part.
📌 Scope of This Case Study The internal tool is a large-scale platform with extensive user flows and multiple features. Given the complexity of the system, this case study focuses on the core functionalities and key design decisions that had the most significant impact. Additionally, I will cover different screens that illustrate how the tool enhances the user experience and streamlines operations.
🎨 Getting into designs
First, let’s quickly understand the Information Architecture and User-flow.
🚪 Home Screen
We decided on having a clear layout for homescreen, went ahead with Kanban Layout, tried many things, but didn’t workout, cause everybody has there own way of thinking.
Now let’s deep dive in every decision made in this screen.
🎫 Tickets
Tickets are carefully designed for specific use cases for every type of user in our team from Sales to Stakeholders, let’s see those specifications.
📍 Navigation Bar
Tickets are carefully designed for specific use cases for every type of user in our team from Sales to Stakeholders, let’s see those specifications.
🈸 Create Task Form / New Ticket
The Task Form streamlines task creation with the following features:
Name, Priority & Due Date inputs for clear task tracking.
Client Selection from the existing database or add new clients.
Auto-filtered Delivery Addresses based on selected client.
Support for Multiple Products & Addresses in a single task.
Tag Files Before Uploading for better organization.
ℹ️ Task Details
Task details are outlined briefly here. Among the various task scenarios, this one includes the most comprehensive set of details.
🧾 SKU Master
A module for recording all fulfilled SKUs along with their attachments, specific requirements, and lead times.
🏭 Vendor Management
Managing vendors efficiently is crucial for maintaining smooth operations and ensuring the timely fulfillment of orders. The internal tool included a dedicated Vendor Management module that allowed users to:
Maintain a Vendor Directory: A centralized list of all vendors with key details such as contact information, product offerings, and pricing structures.
List of all the factories of vendors.
POCs of the vendors.
It helps in making the flow more flawless, with less friction. With a particular state and category, and user can add vendors for all the platform so that the user can assign vendors cross-stage.
🔔 Notification Center
Keeping track of order updates, approvals, and system alerts is crucial for ensuring smooth operations.
The internal tool featured a Notification Center to help users stay informed and respond quickly to important updates. Key functionalities included:
Real-Time Alerts: Immediate notifications for order approvals, status updates, and urgent tasks.
Customizable Preferences: Users can configure notifications based on priority, ensuring they receive the most relevant updates.
Multi-Channel Support: Notifications can be received via in-app alerts, emails, or mobile push notifications for seamless accessibility.
Activity Log: A historical record of all notifications, allowing users to track past updates and actions taken.
Collaboration Enhancements: Enables team members to tag others and assign follow-ups within notifications to ensure accountability
💬 Comments / Chat System
Effective communication is essential for tracking tasks and ensuring smooth collaboration. The internal tool featured a Comments & Chat System, allowing users to:
Tag Team Members: Users can mention colleagues in comments to highlight specific updates or tasks.
Threaded Conversations: Each task or order has a dedicated chat thread, ensuring discussions remain organized and contextually relevant.
File & Attachment Sharing: Users can share documents, images, and other relevant files within chat threads for seamless collaboration.
Real-Time Updates: Messages and comments are updated instantly, informing all stakeholders without delays.
Task-Specific Chats: Each task or order has an associated chat, reducing the need for external messaging tools and keeping discussions within the platform
📆 Calendar
Tickets are carefully designed for specific use cases for every type of user in our team from Sales to Stakeholders, let’s see those specifications.
There we have it, we’ve covered all the final designs in this brief case study. But hold on, we have a few more things to cover before wrapping up.
🚀 Now let’s talk numbers -
Reduced Manual Errors:
The streamlined order tracking process led to a reduced manual entry errors by 40%, minimized inaccuracies, and improved data reliability.Improved Productivity:
By automating workflows and enhancing usability, overall productivity increased by 25%, allowing teams to handle orders more efficiently.Faster Order Processing:
Enhanced data visibility and automation cut order processing time by 50%, ensuring faster turnaround and improved customer satisfaction.
🔑 Learning and Takeaways
Every project brings valuable lessons that shape future work. Here’s what I learned while designing the Internal Tool to streamline order tracking and reduce workload:
Think like the user - The best designs come from understanding the people who use them. I constantly asked myself, “What would make this effortless and intuitive for someone managing orders?”
Refine, test, and refine again - Iteration is key. Like fine-tuning a design sketch, I kept improving the tool until it truly simplified workflows and eliminated unnecessary steps.
Simplicity is everything - The more complex a process, the harder it is to use. I focused on making interactions as seamless as possible, like telling a story most clearly so it’s easy to follow.
That’s a wrap folk, You made it to the end — great job! I hope this was an engaging and insightful read for you.✌️
Thank you so much.
Internal Tool: Streamlining Order Tracking from RFQ to Delivery— Xetgo
Product Designer, 2023-24
About Xetgo
Xetgo handles many packaging product orders each month, spanning from initial quotations to final deliveries. Efficiently managing this lifecycle requires robust tools to prevent delays, reduce errors, and improve cross-functional collaboration.
The order tracking process is critical for ensuring smooth operations. Clear visibility into each stage of order allows Xetgo to meet customer demands promptly and deliver quality service. The internal tool was designed with these priorities in mind, aiming to centralize data, automate repetitive tasks, and offer actionable insights that would enhance productivity and customer satisfaction.
Project Type & Role
Team — 1 Designer, CTO, Stakeholders
Product Designer
🧐 Understanding current pain points
To create an impactful solution, I conducted interviews with key stakeholders and internal users at Xetgo, including sales, operations, and logistics teams, to understand their current challenges and workflows.
You can solve any problems if you understand your users.
So without wasting any time further, let’s jump into our research and see what insights I’ve collected.
🕵🏼 Research Findings
Through these discussions, I gathered insights into the most common pain points faced during the order lifecycle:
Lack of Real-Time Updates: Delays in updating order statuses across departments caused communication breakdowns and inefficiencies.
Fragmented Systems: Disjointed tools and data silos made it difficult to have a unified view of orders, increasing time spent on status checks.
Manual Data Entry: Repetitive and error-prone manual entry of order details slowed down processes and led to inaccuracies.
🚧 Key Problems we decided to solve
Based on these insights, we focused on addressing two core problems:
How can we reduce manual errors and increase process efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and centralizing data?
How can we provide real-time order tracking to improve visibility and enhance cross-departmental collaboration?
🎯 Business Goals
Operational Efficiency: Streamlining processes to reduce delays and improve turnaround times.
Improved Accuracy: Minimize errors through collaboration and reduce reliance on manual data entry.
Enhanced Communication: Providing real-time updates to ensure alignment across all departments involved in order management.
By aligning the design goals with these business outcomes, the internal tool aimed to deliver significant productivity gains and foster better collaboration across teams.
With a clear understanding of the challenges and objectives, let’s dive into the design process and how these insights translated into impactful features.
Now that you understand our goals and the problems we’ll be solving, Let’s dive into the much-awaited design part.
📌 Scope of This Case Study The internal tool is a large-scale platform with extensive user flows and multiple features. Given the complexity of the system, this case study focuses on the core functionalities and key design decisions that had the most significant impact. Additionally, I will cover different screens that illustrate how the tool enhances the user experience and streamlines operations.
🎨 Getting into designs
First, let’s quickly understand the Information Architecture and User-flow.
🚪 Home Screen
We decided on having a clear layout for homescreen, went ahead with Kanban Layout, tried many things, but didn’t workout, cause everybody has there own way of thinking.
Now let’s deep dive in every decision made in this screen.
🎫 Tickets
Tickets are carefully designed for specific use cases for every type of user in our team from Sales to Stakeholders, let’s see those specifications.
📍 Navigation Bar
Tickets are carefully designed for specific use cases for every type of user in our team from Sales to Stakeholders, let’s see those specifications.
🈸 Create Task Form / New Ticket
The Task Form streamlines task creation with the following features:
Name, Priority & Due Date inputs for clear task tracking.
Client Selection from the existing database or add new clients.
Auto-filtered Delivery Addresses based on selected client.
Support for Multiple Products & Addresses in a single task.
Tag Files Before Uploading for better organization.
ℹ️ Task Details
Task details are outlined briefly here. Among the various task scenarios, this one includes the most comprehensive set of details.
🧾 SKU Master
A module for recording all fulfilled SKUs along with their attachments, specific requirements, and lead times.
🏭 Vendor Management
Managing vendors efficiently is crucial for maintaining smooth operations and ensuring the timely fulfillment of orders. The internal tool included a dedicated Vendor Management module that allowed users to:
Maintain a Vendor Directory: A centralized list of all vendors with key details such as contact information, product offerings, and pricing structures.
List of all the factories of vendors.
POCs of the vendors.
It helps in making the flow more flawless, with less friction. With a particular state and category, and user can add vendors for all the platform so that the user can assign vendors cross-stage.
🔔 Notification Center
Keeping track of order updates, approvals, and system alerts is crucial for ensuring smooth operations.
The internal tool featured a Notification Center to help users stay informed and respond quickly to important updates. Key functionalities included:
Real-Time Alerts: Immediate notifications for order approvals, status updates, and urgent tasks.
Customizable Preferences: Users can configure notifications based on priority, ensuring they receive the most relevant updates.
Multi-Channel Support: Notifications can be received via in-app alerts, emails, or mobile push notifications for seamless accessibility.
Activity Log: A historical record of all notifications, allowing users to track past updates and actions taken.
Collaboration Enhancements: Enables team members to tag others and assign follow-ups within notifications to ensure accountability
💬 Comments / Chat System
Effective communication is essential for tracking tasks and ensuring smooth collaboration. The internal tool featured a Comments & Chat System, allowing users to:
Tag Team Members: Users can mention colleagues in comments to highlight specific updates or tasks.
Threaded Conversations: Each task or order has a dedicated chat thread, ensuring discussions remain organized and contextually relevant.
File & Attachment Sharing: Users can share documents, images, and other relevant files within chat threads for seamless collaboration.
Real-Time Updates: Messages and comments are updated instantly, informing all stakeholders without delays.
Task-Specific Chats: Each task or order has an associated chat, reducing the need for external messaging tools and keeping discussions within the platform
📆 Calendar
Tickets are carefully designed for specific use cases for every type of user in our team from Sales to Stakeholders, let’s see those specifications.
There we have it, we’ve covered all the final designs in this brief case study. But hold on, we have a few more things to cover before wrapping up.
🚀 Now let’s talk numbers -
Reduced Manual Errors:
The streamlined order tracking process led to a reduced manual entry errors by 40%, minimized inaccuracies, and improved data reliability.Improved Productivity:
By automating workflows and enhancing usability, overall productivity increased by 25%, allowing teams to handle orders more efficiently.Faster Order Processing:
Enhanced data visibility and automation cut order processing time by 50%, ensuring faster turnaround and improved customer satisfaction.
🔑 Learning and Takeaways
Every project brings valuable lessons that shape future work. Here’s what I learned while designing the Internal Tool to streamline order tracking and reduce workload:
Think like the user - The best designs come from understanding the people who use them. I constantly asked myself, “What would make this effortless and intuitive for someone managing orders?”
Refine, test, and refine again - Iteration is key. Like fine-tuning a design sketch, I kept improving the tool until it truly simplified workflows and eliminated unnecessary steps.
Simplicity is everything - The more complex a process, the harder it is to use. I focused on making interactions as seamless as possible, like telling a story most clearly so it’s easy to follow.
That’s a wrap folk, You made it to the end — great job! I hope this was an engaging and insightful read for you.✌️
Thank you so much.