Overview
General Motors — the eighteenth largest company in the world — had a $300 million-sized problem: they were losing enormous amounts of money on vehicles returning to dealerships after their lease term. CDK Global was brought in to help, and together we navigated legal concerns, dealership buy-in, and consumer education to launch a brand new portal that became the largest used-vehicle vendor in the world.
The Opportunity
To understand the size of the gap, you need to understand the lease lifecycle. Off-lease vehicles were returning to dealerships and getting stuck in a resale process that wasn't moving them fast enough — or at the right price. The opportunity was to sell directly to consumers, online, at the scale of GM's national footprint.
Winning the account
We needed a prototype in a HURRY. Before our company won the official contract, GM wanted to see what we could do for them — and we had only two weeks. While other vendors planned to deliver static visual mocks, we believed an interactive prototype would land harder. Before Figma made this easy, I built a limited working prototype that helped win the contract.
Strategizing a winning concept
Once the contract was won, we pulled back and built a real strategy. FPOC needed to sell off-lease vehicles to consumers — through dealerships for legal reasons — which meant a heavy educational layer. The business also required identifying a consumer's location to surface the right inventory. I developed the user flow that became the spine of the experience.
Proof-of-concept testing
After many trips between Seattle and Detroit, the team and the client were close to launch. The final concept guided users from a faux Google search through SUV browsing, selection, and purchase — testable on desktop and mobile. We took it through usability testing right up to the 2016 launch.
The outcome
FPOC was a huge gamble for both GM and CDK Global — uncharted territory selling vehicles direct-to-consumer over the internet, cutting out much of the traditional car-buying process. It closed a $300 million gap in GM's yearly revenue, became the largest used-vehicle portal in the world at the time, and was the only program of its kind backed by an OEM. With that level of trust, consumers knew their purchase was supported by the largest auto manufacturer in the United States.
FPOC generated $65,000 in monthly revenue for CDK Global plus a percentage of every vehicle sold — and became the largest ad buy on the marketing team at over $1 million per month.
