Daimler SEAWorkflow DesignInformation ArchitectureService DesignDesign Systems
Daimler Sales Transaction System: a clearer dealer workflow, lead to handover
I led design for the Sales Transaction System at Daimler South East Asia: a connected dealer workflow spanning customer leads, vehicle selection, quotation, fulfilment, and handover. The work turned complex operational requirements into a clearer product structure and build-ready interaction detail.
At a glance
Problem
Dealer sales work was spread across stages and systems, making it hard to track a transaction or explain pricing live.
My role
Led workflow design, information architecture, and delivery documentation across the dealer journey.
Key decision
Make the lead-to-handover journey the primary structure and show the drive-away price clearly at quotation.
Result
Delivered a connected, build-ready workflow and annotated interaction detail to product and engineering.
Company
Daimler South East Asia
Role
Product Design Lead
Duration
May 2020 to Apr 2021
Type
B2B, contract
My contribution
Workflow design, information architecture & delivery documentation
Delivery
Build-ready workflow and interaction detail handed to product and engineering
Problem statement
Complex sales work needed one coherent operating flow
Problem statement
A dealer sale moves through many high-stakes steps: customer and lead management, vehicle selection, quotation, contract, fulfilment, payment, and handover. The challenge was to make the Sales Transaction System understandable and reliable across that journey, while making its connections to inventory, customer data, and operational systems explicit.
The platform landscape covered dealer operations, sales transactions, and digital commerce. The Sales Transaction System was the clearest expression of the challenge: it needed to support a dealer from first lead to handover while staying connected to adjacent systems and teams.
User personas
The roles the workflow needed to support
The Dealer Operations Manager
Dealership operations and administration
The Sales Consultant
Customer-facing sales professional
The Regional Sales Manager
Performance and pipeline oversight
Context
Works across connected operational information, including stock, customer details, transaction status, and fulfilment activity.
Guides a customer from lead through vehicle interest, quotation, and the next transaction step.
Needs a network-level view of sales activity and transaction progress to support dealer teams.
Goal
Move work forward with clear status, ownership, and handover information.
Make a confident, accurate next-step recommendation during a customer conversation.
Understand where transactions sit in the sales process and where follow-up is needed.
Frustration
Important information is distributed across workflow stages and connected systems.
Pricing, vehicle, and customer information must be easy to locate and explain in a live interaction.
A fragmented view makes it harder to see the status of a transaction across the dealer network.
Three-platform overview: Dealer Front End, Sales Transactions, Digital Commerce
As-is to to-be
Three changes that shaped the service experience
Current stateTarget state
01
A long transaction journey spanning lead management, vehicle selection, quotation, contract, fulfilment, payment, and handover.
01
One navigable transaction structure that reflects the order in which dealers actually complete work.
02
Customer, vehicle, and transaction information distributed across product modules and supporting systems.
02
Explicit connections between lead, customer, inventory, retail operations, and external systems.
03
Complex pricing and configuration details that must remain understandable at the point of quotation.
03
Clearer quotation and vehicle-summary information for customer-facing decisions.
Service architecture
Sales Transaction System: service architecture
The dealer journey is the primary structure; supporting system integrations sit behind it.
01
Customer & leads
Search or create a customer, review active leads, and begin a sales transaction.
02
Vehicle & quote
Find vehicle stock, configure the offer, and prepare a clear quotation.
03
Contract
Confirm the transaction and progress it through contract creation and signing.
04
Fulfilment
Coordinate vehicle, dealer, and delivery activity before handover.
05
Payment & handover
Track payment, complete invoicing, and close the sale with a documented handover.
The structure focuses on the dealer journey and the connected systems that support it, rather than every screen or technical dependency.
Approach
From operational complexity to build-ready detail
01
Understand the operating model
Mapped automotive retail operations, transaction stages, and system dependencies before defining interface behaviour.
02
Make the structure explicit
Used the sitemap and journey to connect leads, transactions, inventory, fulfilment, and integrations into a usable product structure.
03
Design and handoff
Translated annotated requirements and UI refinements into build-ready interactions, documentation, and reusable patterns for the team to carry forward.
Solution
A connected path from customer lead to handover
The design brought customer details, active leads, vehicle interest, transaction progress, quotation information, and the next action into one operational view. This made the system easier to navigate in a live customer conversation and clearer to manage throughout the transaction lifecycle.
Decision I made
Make the drive-away price legible at the moment of the conversation. Quotation and vehicle-summary views surface discounts and the final total where the consultant confirms the quote, rather than burying them in the calculation, because that is when the customer is deciding.
Requirements, interaction changes, and reusable patterns were documented for handoff, so the product and engineering teams could continue the work independently.
Working context: a consultant can review a customer’s active leads, interested vehicle, quotation, and transaction actions from one place.
01 · quotation
Make the final price legible
Discounts and the final drive-away total are surfaced where a consultant confirms the quote, rather than being buried in the calculation.
02 · vehicle summary
Give vehicle information a clear hierarchy
Vehicle details, specifications, and optional information are organised for quick scanning, with deeper detail available when it is needed.
Supporting delivery artefacts
03 · lead detail
Make notes visible in the customer and lead context
The annotation defines where notes belong in the lead context and how they can be revealed without overloading the initial view.
04 · edit flow
Carry notes into the lead-edit workflow
The matching edit-flow annotation makes the expected behaviour explicit for implementation and follow-up changes.
Design system: shared components and interaction patterns
High-fidelity prototype: Dealer Front End Platform
Delivered outputs
A clearer foundation for delivery and iteration
Connected sales-transaction workflow clarified
Information architecture and interaction detail documented
Build-ready requirements and visual refinements delivered
The work left the team with a clearer transaction structure, an explicit view of system relationships, and detailed interaction artefacts for implementation and future refinement.
What I took from this
In complex operations, a clear structure does more for users than any single screen. The sitemap and journey mattered as much as the interface.
AI opportunities
Future opportunities, not shipped scope
These are present-day product opportunities inferred from the workflow; they were not part of the delivered contract scope.
Opportunity
AI-assisted vehicle matching and configuration recommendations
An AI layer connected to current inventory could match stated customer preferences to available stock and configurations, surfacing relevant matches during a consultation. The design challenge is presenting suggestions in a way that supports the consultant's expertise rather than replacing it.
A model trained on historical deal data (stage duration, vehicle type, dealership, consultant, and seasonality) could flag transactions that are progressing unusually slowly or quickly. The design challenge is making that signal actionable at the right level without undermining manager judgement.
For the customer-facing commerce journey, AI could surface relevant models and configurations from browsing behaviour and prior enquiries. Because vehicle purchases are high-consideration decisions, any personalisation should be transparent, helpful, and easy to control.
Personalised model surfacing // Reduced browse-to-enquiry friction // Respectful of long consideration cycles
