Marketplace

Why the existing platform had to change.

The starting point was SVN, an outdated platform for immediately available new vehicles. Its design no longer matched customer expectations, and the journey did not support purchasing a vehicle online.

The goal was to replace it with a modern marketplace that could introduce online vehicle purchase and scale across Audi, Volkswagen, Škoda, SEAT and CUPRA without losing each brand’s individual character.

Building the foundation through research and alignment.

We conducted B2C and B2B depth interviews with eight participants across Austria and Germany—four open to buying a car online and four skeptical of the idea. The research focused on needs, pain points, decision-making behavior and platform requirements.

The interviews revealed four recurring needs: meaningful personalization, an easy route to booking a test drive, seamless processes without avoidable blockers, and reassuring guidance for customers with less prior knowledge. We translated the findings into a car-buying customer journey and three personas.

We then brought 14 colleagues from the brands, POBA, POI, PIA, DWA, the agency and Group IT together for a two-day Design Thinking workshop. The group aligned on pain points, platform requirements, implementation ideas and the questions that early prototypes needed to answer.

Turning evidence into a scalable marketplace concept.

With the research foundation in place, I analyzed data from the existing SVN platform to understand behavior, content priorities and gaps in the current journey. These insights informed a new information architecture for the marketplace.

From there, I developed the marketplace concept around one consistent core journey that could support five brand identities. This phase connected customer needs, business requirements and technical realities before the team moved into detailed prototyping.

From wireframes to a validated direction.

Phase 1 — Wireframes: I translated the concept into two approaches and three interactive prototypes. We used them in an in-house testing session to compare the journeys and identify where customers needed more clarity or support.

Phase 2 — Design finalization: I analyzed the results and implemented the feedback in the selected direction. Phase 3 — Stakeholder feedback: the refined experience was reviewed across the participating teams and adjusted for brand, business and delivery requirements.

I owned the usability testing end to end: I planned the study, prepared the scenarios and prototypes, moderated the sessions together with colleagues, and analyzed and synthesized the findings. Overall ownership sat with me, with partial support from the Project Manager.

Taking the marketplace live, then improving it.

Implementation started with the development kick-off and a structured design handoff. I stayed involved throughout development and QA to protect the validated journey as real content, technical constraints and five brand systems came together.

After the first MVP went live, further user research and product feedback informed the next set of improvements. Those learnings became the basis for the second MVP release.