Sales and web teams relied on emails and phone calls for product requests, leading to delays, missed items, and frequent miscommunication. The growing request volume overwhelmed this informal system, slowing processing and frustrating both teams.

This slowed product updates on the e-commerce site, resulting in missed sales opportunities. Delays and miscommunication increased the risk of publishing errors and undermined team confidence.

User frustration with request status uncertainty drove us to put tracking front and center. The final UI included refreshable, clear status indicators both teams could access instantly.

My initial concepts were inspired by the web platforms both teams use daily: Magento and NetSuite. While these tools have their quirks, their familiarity made them a natural foundation for the new portal’s design. I focused on streamlining the most-used elements from these platforms to create an experience that felt intuitive, minimized the learning curve, and aligned with existing workflows.

I created wireframes based on expected user flows, collaborating with the developer to validate feasibility. After two rounds of stakeholder feedback and revisions, I delivered mockups that surfaced additional needs like bulk uploads and notifications. We resolved through quick sessions, ensuring the design balanced user needs with technical constraints.

We piloted the portal with a test group from the sales department, conducting brief 10-minute sessions that fit their workflow. Since requests should take less than a minute, these quick tests provided actionable feedback for rapid iteration. After refining the tool, we expanded testing to the full team.

During alpha testing with the sales department, we learned that bulk uploads and real-time notifications emerged as essential, and we quickly integrated them despite not being in the original scope. Additional refinements included simplifying form fields, adjusting status indicators for clarity, and optimizing the layout for faster, one-minute request submissions.

The portal reduced emails and phone calls by 90%, virtually eliminating lost or delayed requests. Teams could now track status in real time with a page refresh, and every request included submission details for full transparency and accountability.

By aligning the portal with familiar internal tools, onboarding new sales reps became faster and easier. This minimized ramp-up time, improved operational efficiency, and enabled faster product updates with fewer bottlenecks.

While we had a clear project plan, the absence of a dedicated project management tool or manager introduced challenges.

We relied on a color-coded Google Doc to track tasks and milestones, which worked to a degree but lacked structure.

In hindsight, a project manager or a formal tool like Trello or Asana would have improved time management, milestone tracking, and alignment, reducing risks tied to time constraints.

Future iterations will include a landing dashboard to give users an at-a-glance view of request progress, further streamlining transparency and efficiency.

Purchasing relied on bulk spreadsheet uploads to manage vendor inventory updates in NetSuite. Without a direct integration, counts updated only once daily in the morning.

This delay led to inaccurate stock levels, operational inefficiencies, and downstream impact on customer orders.

This inefficient workflow delayed product updates on the e-commerce site, resulting in missed sales opportunities, increased risk of errors, and extra hours spent reconciling orders.

Confirmed the need for real-time inventory syncing with vendor systems, eliminating manual uploads and reducing errors. This priority became the foundation for the vendor connector initiative.

I began by referencing the existing item request table layout, making targeted adjustments to better align with the purchasing team’s workflow.

To minimize training time and friction, I retained the familiar table structure and interface conventions. The team prioritized seeing accurate list counts and and immediate access to pull and sync controls, which we surfaced prominently in the updated design.

We began with 10–15 minute phone interviews with two purchasing staff members, followed by in-person sessions for deeper insights. Feedback confirmed the importance of real-time list counts and the convenience of direct sync access, validating our design approach.

Based on testing feedback, so we added individual item syncs, giving staff more granular control without over-syncing.

The tool eliminated the need for manual bulk uploads for the vendor, reducing daily inventory update errors and freeing purchasing staff 2–3 hours weekly to focus on higher-value vendor management.

Customers could now confidently engage with products previously labeled as out of stock, leading to improved checkout rates (12%) and reduced cancellations (-8%).

We realized earlier identification of the vendor’s API availability would have shortened the timeline. The delay in obtaining access slowed testing and integration.

Future iterations will extend this integration to more vendors, with a streamlined dropdown selector for multi-partner syncing.