Challenge
Field teams in California warned that publishing online prices would undercut relationship-driven sales, spark bidding wars, and risk wrong prices during peak season. Consultants relied on bundled deals and in-person touchpoints; exposing list prices alone would misrepresent value and disrupt branch workflows.
Solution
We conducted three research trips across four California locations, then brought findings to a sprint demo to build empathy and align on direction. We reframed commerce to prioritize quotes, compliance, and branch workflows over static list prices:
- Quote-first design: prioritize negotiated, bundled deals instead of list prices.
- Compliance gates: early, mandatory RUP verification with branch callouts.
- Branch-friendly ops: multi-recipient notifications, no prices on delivery tickets by default, prevent double orders.
- Inventory visibility: prioritize stock tracking with GPS/time-stamped order flows.
- Payments roadmap: cards/PayPal where viable; financing as a margin lever.
- Governance: codified regional flexibility while presenting findings to digital leadership.
Results
- Leadership aligned on “don’t publish list prices; start with quotes.”
- Clear priorities: inventory management, order tracking, compliance gates.
- Defined pricing governance with branch flexibility and safeguards for margin.
- Adopted design principle: regional variance requires configurable workflows.
Key Learnings
- Quotes & bundles = value: in relationship-driven markets, list prices fail to convey real customer value.
- Compliance + ops matter: regulatory checks and operational alignment must be core product features, not afterthoughts.
- Design for variance: regional flexibility beats rigid uniformity—guardrails empower branches without chaos.