Understanding the art of negotiation, users and the TCSN modules
Sparking conversations
Challenge
I had to come up with a digital tool that works in a high fast paced environment that is typical been done with pen, paper and handshakes.
Team
Me (Designer lead), Head of Innovation, GAP consultants and willing users who went on the GAP TCSN course.
Learning the art of negotiation
I went on a 4 day course and was up against other negotiators from around the world learning and practicing the negotiation principles taught by GAP. This was my introduction to experience how users think, take notes and the pressured/competitive environment they are in. I was also handed out a book written by the CEO!
I learnt about the different approaches to negotiations and how to setup a negotiation. This covered from bartering with a street vendor to a multi billion dollar deal lasting 10+ years.
I spoke to senior consultants within the GAP partnership to understand the struggles users face post course and whether they adopted the learnings from the tool suite.
I also engaged with those who went on the course and had 45 minute conversations with 12 people. I wanted to understand their ways of negotiation, learnings from the course and the tools they used.
TCSN Matrix
I sat down and mapped out the tools. I spoke to the creators of the tools to understand the aim of each tool, how it interacts with the next and what works/what wouldn’t work from a UX perspective.
User Interactivity Blueprint
After a few weeks of learning the TCSN tool suite, I noticed no ‘service user flow map’ had been drawn up. I took this opportunity to map one out and understand when the user(s) used each tool, entry and exit points.
I wanted to understand any missing gaps, opportunities and whether each tool was ‘vital’.
The tool suite can be split into 4 groups:
Negotiation Preparation (blue)
Numbers & Variables (green)
Behavioural & Tactics (orange)
Negotiating and Recording (purple)
I also had access to see the % of users using each tool (top 5):
99% - Stormer
97% - Clockface & Trade Surveyor
95% - Move Planner
91% - Record of offers
We spoke to users to see why they did use and didn’t use certain tools. This gave us a starting point for improvements. Each tool was revised and went through a design iteration loop with feedback testing.
The trade surveyor was the first tool that I tackled and had a full re-design, it is the first complex data heavy product in the TCSN line-up.
The Trade Surveyor
It’s ultimate goal is to create trades using variables i.e ‘price‘ for planning out moves.
Variables tend to be tangible which means it has a measurable value such as money or length
The user clicks into each cell and select, high medium, or low. They have to repeat this 3 more times and then select whether it is a give, take or both. This task is very repetitive and for the user to fill out up to 50 variables, time consuming and errors can creep in.
1st Ideation
2nd Ideation
Stress Testing
Based off this feedback we wanted to push this design further. We tweaked it so the user can put the variables into buckets. This meant the width of the screen was utilised and the height of the variable area didn’t vertically go off the screen. The buckets also meant for those with many variables it was manageable.
As we stress tested this idea as part of a wider prototype, I noticed that it did’t flow from the previous tool where users noted down their variables. They go from a un restrained interaction where they can add a variable in an interactive area, to a more vertical pattern. My idea was to continue the free interaction to the Trade Stormer and make it feel seamless. The less changes there are screen to screen the more the user feels in control and in turn this will reflect in their negotiation.
Taking inspiration from a previous project, I created 3 swim lanes for Give, Take and Both. The benefits to this design were:
They could create groups of variables which the previous design couldn’t
They were much more likely to think about their trades
They found the any direction connections better and there was no hesitancy in creating as there was no ‘cross bucket’ connections
85% of users picked up on the ‘x’ axis importance of the variables
(note: the traffic light colours don’t signify good, bad, neutral but were taken from the IP which wasn’t changeable.)
As we tested and spoke to new users around their ways of negotiation we noticed a common theme of users wanting to use time and behaviour as well as importance to create connections. We decided to give the user a second option with this in mind. As this was going on the Gap Partnership acquired another company who had been exploring this exact route. After speaking with their consultants we came up with the following design.
Further Ideation
We knew we had the concept there with time, prioritisation & Give/Take. It was now a matter of putting it all together and nailing the visual language so it made sense to the user. We tested a few ideas along with wording to come up with the winning design.
Shipping and Paywalls
As we started to ship the product we thought about how we could add certain features and add them behind paywalls. We had a week long workshop with devs, consultants and the ops team to come up with a tiered paid solution with multiple tiers.
Below you can see the Trade Surveyor PLUS+. This would be the top tier product, it allowed users to check whether the variable was ‘complete.’ The user didn’t have to fill out everything to proceed but encouraging the user to fill them out gave them the best chance to think ahead and maximise their chances of getting better visibility on how the negotiation may pan out. Each variable had the following attributes:
Connection - was the very connected with another to trade off with.
Moves - has the user mapped out the moves for this variable?
Give/Take - Does the user know if it is a Give or Take
Opening - has an opening value been attached
Breakpoints - what is their minimum to not make a loss and maximum to cover costs
Outcome
3 Versions of the Trade Surveyor were shipped. Standard, Extra and Plus.
Over 800 paying businesses with over 9,200 seats including Easy Jet and CocaCola.
A scalable set of tools that cover the TCSN course on both mobile and desktop.
Other challenges faced
User Feedback
Introducing a time element
Integrating AI
DISCOVERY, DESIGN & USER TESTING