Project 04 of 09 Professional work B2B commerce · Product · Integration
From a component list to a purchase
Turning electronics manufacturers’ component-planning needs into clearer purchasing tools, connected enterprise workflows and a community commerce experience.
At a glance
Turning electronics manufacturers’ component-planning needs into clearer purchasing tools, connected enterprise workflows and a community commerce experience.
- Role
- Senior Product & Business Design Manager
- Period
- Aug 2022 – Mar 2023
- Focus
- BOM, ERP integration, community commerce
- Base
- Mumbai, India
The context
A list of parts is the beginning of a workflow.
At Avnet / Farnell, I worked across component planning, enterprise purchasing and the Raspberry Pi experience within element14. My remit connected product and business design with technical requirements.
In this context, purchasing is more than finding a product. A component list needs to become a usable business input. The experience must make sense to the people planning the work and to the systems that support procurement.
BOM management
Make the requirements as clear as the interface.
I translated electronics manufacturers’ component-planning needs into a bill-of-materials tool, aligning product and technical requirements to simplify purchasing.
A useful way to frame the work is as a transition: from a technical list assembled for a project to a purchasing task that a business can act on. Aligning the requirements is part of designing that transition, not a separate administrative step.
- Manufacturers’ component-planning needs
- Bill-of-materials management
- Product and technical requirements
Enterprise integration
Carry the intent into the purchasing system.
I connected purchasing needs with ERP integration, converting component lists into purchase orders and contributing to 50% growth in key-account sales.
The outcome is a contribution to a wider commercial result. The specific design scope was the connection between the purchasing need and the integration that allows it to move into an enterprise workflow.
Community commerce
Bring the launch together across disciplines.
I led the cross-functional launch of the Raspberry Pi experience within element14. The launch increased the community’s share of sales by 25%.
This was a distinct stream of work alongside enterprise purchasing. Its focus connected a specialist community with commerce, requiring coordination across the teams responsible for bringing the experience to customers.
Reflection
Reduce the distance between intent and action.
The common thread was helping people move from technical intent to a business action: a component list to a purchase order, or community interest to a commerce experience.
The work combines product definition, integration thinking and cross-functional leadership. Reported sales outcomes belong to the broader initiatives.
Experience lens
From a parts list to a purchase
A simplified way to read how an engineer or buyer might move from a bill of materials to an order with an electronics distributor such as Farnell. A model for reasoning about the journey, not a description of a specific tool.
Illustrative service blueprint. An original model for exploring the experience across customer, service and operations.
| BOM | Match | Purchase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer What the person does | Arrives with a bill of materials | Checks matches and gaps | Commits to buy |
| Frontstage What they see and touch | Upload and list view | Results, alternates, availability | Cart, quote or checkout |
| Backstage What makes it work | Reading and normalising | Catalogue and inventory data | Order processing and fulfilment |
Stage 01 of 03 · The design question
How easily can a customer bring the list they already have?
- Customer Arrives with a bill of materials
- The customer comes with work already done: a list of parts, often in their own format, built for their own project.
- Frontstage Upload and list view
- Accepting the list as it is, rather than asking for it to be retyped line by line, respects that effort and gets the customer to useful answers sooner.
- Backstage Reading and normalising
- Part numbers, quantities and descriptions need to be read and cleaned into something a catalogue can work with.
Stage 02 of 03 · The design question
How does the customer stay confident when a match is not exact?
- Customer Checks matches and gaps
- For each line, the customer wants to know whether this is the right part, whether it is available, and what the options are if it is not.
- Frontstage Results, alternates, availability
- Showing what matched, what did not and why makes it possible to review a long list quickly without missing the exceptions that matter.
- Backstage Catalogue and inventory data
- Matching relies on product and stock data being accurate and current. The interface can only be as trustworthy as the data beneath it.
Stage 03 of 03 · The design question
Can decisions made line by line become an order in one step?
- Customer Commits to buy
- Once the list is resolved, the customer wants to act on it without rebuilding it in a cart one item at a time.
- Frontstage Cart, quote or checkout
- Carrying the resolved list straight through to purchase keeps the work the customer has already done intact.
- Backstage Order processing and fulfilment
- Behind the order sit allocation, processing and shipping, which together decide whether the promise made on screen is kept.
Selected professional work. Diagrams are original explanatory models.