Closing a $300 Million Revenue Gap

The Opportunity:

To understand the opportunity that this giant revenue gap presented, an understanding of how the vehicle lease lifecycle works is needed . I created this presentation to show where things were, and where we wanted to take them.

Winning the Account:

We needed a prototype in a HURRY! Before our company won the official contract for the website, General Motors wanted to see what we could do for them. We had only two weeks to put together an initial vision for the site. There were very few requirements but while others would do straight visual mocks, we thought a prototype would be more impactful. Before the ease of Figma and other prototyping software, I was able to create this limited prototype to help win the contract.

View Prototype

Strategizing a Winning Concept:

Once the contract was won, we were able to pull back a bit and start to come up with a proper strategy. FPOC would need to sell off-lease vehicles to consumers (through dealerships for legal purposes) but this kind of direct sale model would require an educational component to the consumer. Furthermore, the business was now requiring that we identify a consumer's location. I developed this user flow to begin to understand how consumers would use the site.

Proof of Concept Testing:

After many trips back and forth from Seattle to Detroit, the client and our team were getting very close to launching the site and thus a completely new revenue stream for General Motors. This concept was the final concept for the website as we went to launch in 2016. We took the prototype to usability testing which guided the user from a faux google search all the way to a SUV search, selection and purchase. Furthermore, the prototype could be tested on desktop or mobile.

View Prototype

Successes of the Factory Pre-owned Collection:

The Factory Pre-Owned Collection was a huge gamble on both General Motors' and CDK Global's parts. We were diving into uncharted territory. Essentially, we were trying to sell vehicles directly to consumers via the internet. This cut out a lot of the traditional car buying process. In the end, however, it helped to close a $300 million gap in GM's yearly revenue. At the time it became the largest used vehicle website portal in the world. FPOC also became the largest ad buy for our marketing team with a spend of over $1 million a month! It was the only program of its kind that was backed by an original equipment manufacturer. With that kind of trust, consumers on the FPOC Portal knew their purchase was going to be supported by the largest auto manufacturer in the United States.

The business impact:

FPOC generated $65,000 a month for CDK Global as well as a percentage of each vehicle sold. It also became the largest ad buy for CDK's marketing team with a spend of over $1 million a month!