Tekion is a cloud-native automotive retail platform that integrates dealership management with advanced technology. Tekion CRM (Customer Relationship Management) helps automotive businesses manage customer interactions, sales, and service processes seamlessly, enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency.
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My role
Graduation Project: Product Designer - End-to-end design effort
Domain and User Research, Design System, Visual Design, Prototyping
Team
Timeline
6 months
Context
Car salespeople had to take handwritten or manual notes and update the CRM system on desktops at the end of the day. This process was lengthy and prone to misinformation and errors. It also reduced their actual interaction time with customers, leaving a poor impression and hindering effective customer engagement. Addressing these issues was crucial to improving both efficiency and the customer experience.
Impact
The iPad CRM solution received positive feedback from dealerships, improving efficiency and customer engagement. It also established a design framework for future iPad projects.
Context
Selling a car might seem like a breeze at first—customer walks in, says what they need, you show the car, they fall in love, and boom, deal done. But in reality, it's more like assembling a jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces—there are a lot more steps, negotiations, and decisions involved before that "sold" sign is slapped on the windshield!
The salesperson has a key role in this process - interacting with customers to understand their needs, sharing detailed vehicle information, and inputting customer details into the system for record-keeping and further processing.
The current CRM application is designed solely for desktop use. While it offers all the necessary features, it forces the salesperson to return to their desk to update customer data. This limitation makes it far less helpful during real-time interactions with customers, where quick access and updates are crucial. As a result, the system ends up being more of a hindrance than a help during the critical moments of customer engagement.
The Problem
To avoid running back to their desk and leaving customers hanging, salespeople tried some creative solutions.Unfortunately, none of them were foolproof.
The Sticky Note Shuffle
Some salespeople tried scribbling down notes in diaries or on sticky notes. But here’s the thing—loose notes tend to disappear, and that beautiful handwriting? Not so readable later on. Plus, there’s the joy of duplicating work and getting the details wrong. And don’t forget the biggest problem: leaving the customer alone while they scramble to find the right information.
The Mobile Balancing Act
Others turned to their phones, taking notes or updating customer. But let’s be real—there’s nothing quite like the feeling of tapping away on your phone during a conversation. It doesn’t scream “professional,” and customers definitely notice when their salesperson is glued to a screen instead of engaging with them.
The Show-rooming Showdown
Customers started playing their own game of "showrooming"—browsing the cars in person while comparing prices and reviews online. This put even more pressure on salespeople to be not just informative but super quick with accurate details, trying to stay one step ahead of customers’ online searches.
The Guiding Lights of Design
⏱️
Real-Time Access
Enable salespeople to retrieve and update information instantly, right in the moment of customer interaction.
📊
Effortless Information Sharing
Make it easy to showcase vehicle details, specifications, and visual content to customers, fostering informed and confident decisions.
🚶🏾♀️🚶🏼♂️
Elevated Mobility
Prioritize mobility without compromising professionalism, allowing salespeople to stay with customers and maintain a polished, credible presence throughout the showroom experience.
Research Summary
While adding another screen might seem counterintuitive, the decision to introduce iPads as a key sales tool in dealerships was deliberate and backed by both customer perception and practical benefits.
Maximize every customer interaction moment.
“Each moment the customer spends alone is uncontrolled and valuable.”
- Neb Yonas, General Manager, Chapman Honda, Tucson, AZ
Keep customers engaged during the entire process.
“They allow mobility throughout the dealership”
- Zaki, Chief Operating Officer, Mercedes-Benz, SF
Project technological savvy and efficiency.
“Shows we are not behind the times”
- Zaki, Chief Operating Officer, Mercedes-Benz, SF
To design a truly effective iPad experience, it wasn’t just about shrinking the CRM to fit a smaller screen. It was about understanding how salespeople actually work—their tasks, priorities, and the unpredictable nature of their day. Understanding these daily challenges helped shape a solution that keeps salespeople mobile, minimizes administrative friction, and ensures they can stay engaged with customers without breaking their flow.
Task Flow
To ensure the iPad wasn’t just a scaled-down web CRM but a meaningful tool, I mapped three major user flows—tracking salesperson actions, system interactions, and tool usage (Tekion CRM and beyond). This helped pinpoint key moments where the iPad could step in and enhance efficiency.
Idea Exploration
Before finalizing a direction, I explored a wide range of possibilities, generating quick, diverse ideas to rethink how salespersons interact with leads and inventory. Some of the key concepts included:
Enhance sales conversations by using AI to analyze salesperson notes and extract key insights from. This helps track customer preferences, concerns, and intent more efficiently.
Before engaging with a salesperson, customers fill out a short questionnaire—either online before visiting or on-site at the dealership. This questionnaire captures key preferences (budget, fuel type, seating needs, must-have features) and maps them to available vehicles in the inventory.
A virtual ‘deal room’ that acts as a dedicated, temporary workspace for each customer interaction. This ensures that salespeople have all key details in one place, allowing them to work efficiently without switching contexts.
If a salesperson receives a call from a customer, the system automatically adds the lead to a “current active leads” list. This ensures that follow-ups and next steps are easy to track without manual entry.
Process
Learning
CRM & Automotive Industry
Hands-on experience with CRM: principles, functionalities, and industry challenges.
Explored dealership operations and DMS tools used by salespersons.
Understood showroom workflows and salesperson pain points.
From User to Creator
Transitioned from using a design system to building one.
Learned about planning, pattern identification, and usability.
Balanced flexibility & consistency for scalable design.
Stronger Research and Testing
Improved structured documentation of research insights.
Refined user testing methods for detailed observations & feedback.
Efficiency and Teamwork
Managed time effectively in a fast-paced project.
Strengthened collaboration with designers, experts & stakeholders.