Backbone PLM
When it comes to email marketing, personalization includes addressing a subscriber by name, mentioning previous purchases they've made, wishing them a happy birthday
As a Product Designer at Backbone PLM, I played a key role in developing the Line Sheet Library, a micro-app designed to streamline a critical process for our users in the apparel industry.
The Challenge:
Backbone PLM is a product lifecycle management platform that helps direct-to-consumer apparel companies manage their entire creative development process. As these companies grow, they face increasing complexity in managing their product lines and presenting them to buyers. Creating and maintaining line sheets – documents that showcase product collections – was a time-consuming and error-prone process, requiring frequent updates as product plans evolved.
The Solution:
To address this challenge, we developed the Line Sheet Library, a micro-app within the Backbone PLM system. This tool was designed to streamline the creation and management of line sheets, making the process more efficient and responsive to changes in product plans.
My Role and Implementation:
- Feature Development: As part of the product design team, I was deeply involved in the conception, design, and development of the Line Sheet Library.
- Stakeholder Engagement: I presented the feature to various stakeholders, effectively communicating its value and gaining buy-in for different library features.
- User-Centric Design: Through careful analysis of user behavior and needs, we identified that adding products was one of the most common and time-consuming tasks in creating line sheets.
- Innovation - Live Link: To address this pain point, I spearheaded the development of the "Live Link" feature. This innovation allowed for the dynamic addition and removal of products based on their taxonomy or specified Custom Field Values, essentially automating a previously manual process.
- Seamless Integration: We ensured the Line Sheet Library integrated seamlessly into the larger Backbone PLM system, allowing for smooth operation with other features and data.
Results:
The Line Sheet Library, particularly the Live Link feature, delivered significant benefits to our users:
- Time Savings: The Live Link feature significantly reduced the time required to create and update line sheets by automating product additions and removals.
- Improved Accuracy: By dynamically updating based on current product data, the line sheets remained accurate and up-to-date, minimizing errors and miscommunications.
- Enhanced User Experience: The tool simplified a complex task, improving user satisfaction and potentially contributing to the platform's consistently high 80% month-to-month retention rate.
- Competitive Advantage: The Line Sheet Library, especially with the Live Link feature, provided a unique selling point for Backbone PLM in the apparel PLM market.
Solution:
The Line Sheet Library project demonstrates the power of understanding user needs and translating them into innovative solutions. By automating a critical but time-consuming task, we enhanced Backbone PLM's value proposition, helping apparel companies manage growth and complexity more effectively. While seamlessly adapting to shifting demand and supply chain concerns.
Backbone PLM's Line Sheet Library revolutionizes how apparel companies create and manage product presentations. Intuitive grouping capabilities allow users to effortlessly organize products by collection, season, or custom categories. The innovative Live Link feature dynamically updates line sheets based on product taxonomy or custom field values, ensuring presentations always reflect the most current product lineup. This smart automation significantly reduces the time and effort required to create and maintain line sheets, allowing designers and merchandisers to focus on creativity and strategy rather than manual data entry. Within two weeks of launch, 100% of line sheets created utilized the Live Link feature, demonstrating its immediate value and adoption. Whether preparing for a buyer meeting or planning a new collection, Backbone PLM's line sheet tool streamlines the process, making it easier than ever to showcase products professionally and efficiently.
As a UX designer on this project, I focused on bridging the gap between the digital world of PLM and the tangible nature of fashion. I championed the need for rich product representation, advocating for features that allowed users to showcase multiple colorways, detailed material specifications, and precise measurements within the line sheet tool. This ensured that even in a digital format, the nuances of physical garments were accurately conveyed. I also spearheaded the design of a flexible grouping system that mirrored the physical organization of showrooms, making it intuitive for users to categorize and present their collections. By prioritizing these user-centric features, I helped ensure that the line sheet tool was not just functional but also effective in conveying the tactile qualities of fashion, ultimately facilitating clearer communication and more informed decision-making for both internal teams and buyers.
My contributions to the line sheet tool's success directly influenced the development of a powerful dashboard view within Backbone PLM. By championing user-centered design and real-time data visualization, I advocated for extending the dynamic updating principle to encompass purchase order monitoring. This resulted in a dashboard that provides instant visibility into PO status, quantity changes, and delivery timelines, empowering teams to spot trends, make data-driven decisions, and respond agilely to market demands. This facilitated both top-down planning, with leadership able to set strategic goals based on real-time data, and bottom-up planning, where teams could use insights to inform product development and sales strategies. Essentially, I helped expand the platform's capabilities beyond product presentation to encompass sales tracking and analysis, further enhancing its value for apparel companies by enabling a more agile and responsive approach to planning and decision-making.
