Cairo
•
IST
2022 · product strategy & vision · pre-sales concept
Valmont After-market Parts E-comm
A B2B purchase portal for Valmont's global irrigation dealer network replacing multi-catalog cross-referencing with compatibility-first discovery across 13K SKUs and automating the location-based order segmentation dealers were doing by manually.
CLIENT
Valmont Inc.
Duration
1 Year 3 Months
TEAM
One of three in the UX design pod (1 design lead and 2 UX designers) within a 28-person delivery team.
Deliverables
E-commerce parts portal · Information architecture · User flows · Customer journey maps · Hi-fi UI · Design system
PART 1
Request for proposal
The project arrived in two chapters,
first we had to win it.
I joined the RFP as UX Consultant, helping shape and present the experience vision for Valmont's digital transformation. Alongside the journey work, I presented a working prototype demo that visualised what the future dealer experience could feel like.
The outcome of the pitch
Our proposal helped the firm win a multi-million-dollar digital transformation contract.
10
person SME pursuit team — UX, Dev, Solution Architecture & B2B business
1 of 1
UX Consultant
Slides I presented to the client
Goal
Make ordering a part more accurate and far easier to discover and move 3 layers of logistic complexity off the dealer, so a faster order means less downtime for the farmer waiting in the field
MY role
UX Consultant on the RFP, then UX Designer on execution
I contributed to the RFP demo that helped win the contract, then transitioned to UX Designer for the full project execution -1 year, 3 months covering audit, IA redesign, UI across all key screens, and a co-authored design system.
SITUATION
A dealer just had to order a part. That simple ask was hard to do.
To place a parts order, dealers had to cross-reference multiple disconnected catalogues to find parts compatible with specific equipment models. Then mentally segment the order by shipping warehouse because each of the 5 global locations fulfills a different subset of SKUs.
Slow discovery had real consequences downstream - farmers waiting on replacement parts & irrigation equipment offline.
PAIN 1
Cross-referencing PDF catalogs
Each machine shipped as its own release-era PDF catalog. One order meant cross-referencing several — effort, friction and cognitive load.
PAIN 2
Compatibility was easy to get wrong
A part could fit across models, yet a minor spec change made it a complete mis-fit. Fit had to be surfaced clearly to prevent wrong orders.
PAIN 3
One order, one shipping location
3 plants and 6 DCs served a global dealer network, but an order could ship from one location only — so the dealer split every list by hand.
Discovery
Two months inside the legacy system.
The project opened with a dedicated two-month discovery. The whole team was walked through the existing system in interactive sessions where we could stop and ask questions at any point, alongside dedicated rounds of user interviews and user-flow discussions. We turned what we learned into task flows, then built and validated low-fidelity prototypes.
13K
SKUs in the after-market catalog
6
distribution-center locations
3
manufacturing units
Global
dealer network served
System walkthrough: capturing the legacy workflow live.
User-flow generation from interviews with dealers and CSRs
task flows → User-flow validation from Valmont
Low-fi prototypes — built and validated before hi-fi.
RESEARCH
Hard constraints
–
One invoice, one location.
An order/invoice could contain parts from a single shipping location only — so a mixed list had to be split.
–
Fragmented product discovery.
Parts were scattered across release-era PDF catalogs with no single searchable source of truth.
Dealer aspirations
+
Set a default ship-to right from the homepage — dealer name, site number & state
+
Stay up to date on promotional events at Valmont
+
Easily track the status of open orders
DESIGN STRATEGY
Mirror the dealer's mental model.
Absorb the system's complexity.
Dealers think in equipment, not catalogs. They picture a broken machine, find the assembly that failed, and want the right part fast. The legacy system forced them to translate that into its own structure. The strategy was to flip the relationship.
01
The equipment hierarchy is the navigation
Not categories. Not catalogs. The dealer drills into a machine and finds parts that fit it. The IA mirrors machine → assembly → component → part: the structure already in their head.
02
Compatibility is a first-class data dimension
The system never surfaced which parts fit which equipment. The dealer carried that in their head or read dense BOM documents and guessed.
03
Warehouse segmentation is invisible by default
The cart groups items by fulfillment center on its own. The dealer never thinks about which of five warehouses a part ships from unless they choose to. Complexity that adds no value gets absorbed.
MY CONTRIBUTION
The portal we shipped to hi-fi
Page through the delivered screens below. Each takes a step the dealer used to do in their head or across three PDF catalogs and gives it a clear home on screen, with the system doing the translation underneath.
01
/
05
Discovery
Find parts by filtering the machine, not the catalog
The product listing turns compatibility into machine-attribute filters machine type, voltage phase, amperage, cell carrier, auto-reverse. The dealer narrows to exactly what fits their pivot instead of cross-referencing release-era PDFs.
The UX we provided
Compatibility expressed as machine-attribute filters
Active filters shown as removable chips
Sort + grid/list views for scanning 100+ results
portal.valmont.parts
02
/
05
Product detail
Order the whole package or drill to any part inside it
A control panel is really a package of components. The detail page leads with a “Package Contains” breakdown, so the dealer adds the bundle in one move or pulls out a single part with full box and pallet quantities for inventory buys.
The UX we provided
“Package Contains” bill-of-materials breakdown
Full box & pallet quantities for inventory buys
Cross-sell + add-to-cart confirmation
portal.valmont.parts
03
/
05
Cart & checkout
One list that segments itself by shipping location
The hardest constraint - an order can ship from one location only. This used to mean splitting every list by hand. The new cart absorbs it: items auto-group under their ship-from location, with order-level discounts computed live.
The UX we provided
Auto-segmented by ship-from location
Live volume / premier / performance discounts
Dealer-net pricing + scale-break discounts
Available quantity shown per line, per location
portal.valmont.parts
04
/
05
Supporting flow
Saved Carts: A reorder list per customer
Orders arrive in person, by phone, by email and on-site often as a recurring list per customer. Dealers save named lists with dealer-net pricing, scale-break discounts and live availability, then replace the cart or export to CSV in seconds.
The UX we provided
Named, per-customer reorder lists
Replace cart or export to CSV
portal.valmont.parts
05
/
05
Supporting flow
Quick Order: Bulk import for big lists
For large or repeat orders, dealers import a product file in one pass, with clear success/failure feedback (“52 of 122 imported, 62 not imported — show”) so nothing fails silently before checkout.
The UX we provided
One-pass product-file import
Explicit imported / not-imported feedback
Resolve failures before checkout
portal.valmont.parts
OUTCOMES
What's verified, what was intended, and what wasn't reached.
VERIFIED
$6M contract won
A working prototype of the experience vision helped the firm win the contract.
Delivered in full
Equipment-led IA, customer journey maps, end-to-end user flows and hi-fi UI for key screen.
A design system
A component library co-designed with the team based in Valmont's design language
THE DESIGN'S INTENT
Reduced farmer downtime
Faster dealer ordering shortens the wait for a replacement part
Faster order generation
Unified catalog discovery and automatic warehouse segmentation cut the steps
Fewer ordering errors
Compatibility-first discovery keeps the wrong part from entering the order
In full transparency
The portal was not deployed to production after a client-side leadership change and a scope-expectation mismatch, not for quality reasons. Because nothing shipped, there are no measured outcome metrics. The impact above honestly reflects the verified multi‑million contract, the full scope delivered, and the design intent (as intent, not result).
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