Restructuring Watson's product catalog and uniting the team
As the sole designer responsible for creating and managing 400+ pages of product specification, across several product lines, my role was to ensure clarity, consistency, and usability throughout Watson's ultimate product reference.
Aimed to create a user-friendly guide to drive sales and improve the customer experience.
Technical Illustration, component diagrams, 3D models, and design logic combined to showcase products with a common brand language
400+ pages of product specification & pricing
Project goals:
Create a Streamlined Catalog Workflow
Restructure the guide for ease of maintenance to ensure the delivery of accurate product information to support the sales team and enhance customer understanding.
Restructure the guide for ease of maintenance to ensure the delivery of accurate product information to support the sales team and enhance customer understanding.
Boost Sales and User Engagement
Make product information accessible and engaging to drive sales.
Make product information accessible and engaging to drive sales.
Streamline Internal Communication
Provide a single reference point to improve cross-departmental collaboration.
Provide a single reference point to improve cross-departmental collaboration.
Thought process & strategy
Research and Analysis
Audited existing guides and interviewed key users, focusing on internal sales teams, engineers, and furniture dealers to identify inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
Audited existing guides and interviewed key users, focusing on internal sales teams, engineers, and furniture dealers to identify inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
Design Logic
Developed a clean, consistent layout to enhance readability and build-ability. Structured documents to be easily modified, corrected, published and disseminated in a central cloud location for all key users.
Developed a clean, consistent layout to enhance readability and build-ability. Structured documents to be easily modified, corrected, published and disseminated in a central cloud location for all key users.
Design Process
Technical Illustrations and 3D Models
Created clear, detailed illustrations and models to consistently communicate product details.
Created clear, detailed illustrations and models to consistently communicate product details.
Rebuilt the guide implementing master page templates, styles, and linked documents in InDesign for easy updates.
Integrated linked Excel sheets to streamline changes in pricing and product optioning updates.
Collaboration and Training
Worked with sales, engineering, and product teams for product accuracy, identifying and correcting problems with part numbers, optioning, and configuration.
Worked with sales, engineering, and product teams for product accuracy, identifying and correcting problems with part numbers, optioning, and configuration.
Developed feedback loops with users for continuous improvement, making sure the guide continued to be an effective, useful reference in their workflows.
Challenges & solutions
Managing the complexity of a large, detailed document felt monumental at the outset. Once I broke the document into its parts and understood its importance to users, the work was clear.
This was more than a document, but a way to connect people across departments and streamline communication internally at Watson, but also what was conveyed to dealers and buyers.
Knowing the importance of this tool, I set out to create a sustainable process for regular updates and developed a systematic product management approach using templates, styles, and linked files to help maintain a high level of quality, while being the sole workflow owner.
My team depended on Kiley to refine our catalog and address customer concerns. She liaised with myself, our Parts Configuration Management, and Engineering teams to align our graphics and optioning with production realities.
Her professional demeanor, responsiveness, attention to detail, and outgoing personality directly and positively affected my team’s ability to react quickly to our customers’ needs.
Joshua Mills
Commercial Sales Operations Manager
Commercial Sales Operations Manager
Outcomes & impact
Restructured a comprehensive product guide that became a critical sales tool.
Created a dynamic and interactive, user-friendly guide with a streamlined maintenance workflow.
Provided an accurate central reference, improving knowledge sharing between key users.
Key product features highlighted using a custom-built interactive PDF roll-over
Kiley is a very talented and joyful person to work with. Strong work ethic, she always made deadlines also built good relationships with others to help accomplish larger projects. She sought to understand vs. just push the task through and this enabled her to perform at higher quality levels than her peers. She’s very comfortable asking questions and finding the right people to answer said questions.
Greg Kooistra
VP of Manufacturing & Engineering
VP of Manufacturing & Engineering
Reflection
Through this work, I gained a deeper understanding of how to present complex product information effectively and strengthened my skills in technical design and cross-functional teamwork.
