Lincoln
Improving sales performance through structured workflows
Direct Team
1 x Product Manager
1 x Design Lead (Me)
1 x Product Designer
2 x Developers
Tasks
Research
User Interview
Product Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Handover Documentation
Duration
2018 - 2019
8 Months
The Background
Across Lincoln 4S stores in China, daily operations depended on fragmented administrative and management systems. Car dealers were required to manually enter and retrieve data across multiple disconnected systems and often duplicating the same information several times. This repetitive workflow not only increased the risk of human error, but also weakened data accuracy and slowed down the entire sales process.
The Challenge
Car dealers were spending too much time on administrative tasks instead of building client relationships or closing deals. Limited system integration reduced real-time visibility into inventory and financing status, creating friction at critical moments during ongoing deals.
Lincoln needed to simplify manual processes, improve system communication and bring clarity to the car dealer workflow.
Problem Statement
How might Lincoln empower the sales teams with the right tools to increase customer conversions?
The Research
To understand what was actually happening inside Lincoln 4S stores, I interviewed 3 of the 12 participants across four Lincoln branches.
Rather than focusing on the tools they used, I asked car dealers to walk me through a deal process. This helped me identify where the biggest frustrations and breakdowns occur in their daily workflow.
After speaking with the participants and reviewing all the interviews, I began to see clear patterns. I narrowed them down to three core pain points that consistently showed up during the most stressful and frustrating moments on the showroom floor.
Pain Point 1
Unreliable Customer Data
Updating customer profile took time, car dealers prioritized customer interaction over data entry, leading to incomplete data and missed details.
This resulted in:
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Incomplete or outdated customer profiles
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Missed follow ups, upsell or cross-sell opportunities
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Inaccurate sales forecasting
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Weak performance tracking
Pain Point 2
Fragmented System Visibility
Car dealers constantly switched between systems to collect information during ongoing deals. Fragmented systems made it harder to spot risks early and stay aligned with monthly targets.
This resulted in:
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Customer disengagement during wait times
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Inconsistent pricing information
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Manual errors by re-entering the same customer data across multiple platforms
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Difficulty tracking overall performance
Pain Point 3
Unpredictable Financing Approvals
Credit checks can take hours or days. With no status notifications, car dealers are often left waiting and repeatedly chasing updates.
This resulted in:
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Missing documents without any automatic notifications
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Deals falling through even after an agreement
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Ongoing pressure on the car dealers
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Unpredictable close rates and revenue instability
These insights became the foundation for defining product scope and prioritizing features.
The Approach
To address the distinct needs of car dealers, features were designed around their daily sales workflow, ensuring the experience directly supports how they actually work.
The implementation was planned across three iterative phases, allowing the solution to evolve based on real car dealer feedback while staying aligned with performance targets and business priorities.
Phase 1: Strengthening Foundation
Focuses on improving data quality and workflow structure to create a reliable system with better organization and more consistent customer engagement.
Phase 2: Empowering Confident Selling
Focuses on equipping car dealers with better tools to support customer conversations and structure deals with greater confidence.
Phase 03: Increasing Closure Certainty
Focuses on improving transparency and predictability to reduce uncertainty and help car dealers close deals with greater stability and control.
My focus was on Phase 1 with the goal to establish workflows and data consistency needed for the app to function effectively. This meant prioritizing features that support daily operations while ensuring processes were aligned and scalable. At the same time, I built a design system to create consistency across the platform and lay the groundwork for faster iterations and future expansion.
Turning complexity into conversion.
The app opens with a clear overview of the day's agenda. Appointments and follow ups are displayed with color coded indicators to highlight priority at first glance.
New appointments and follow ups are scheduled efficiently using predefined fields, structured tags and smart quick-select options. By minimizing manual input and repetitive data entry, the process becomes faster and reduces errors.
Each client is clearly categorized by priority level and sales stage, giving car dealers immediate clarity on who needs attention, what to recommend next and when to follow up. All client interactions are viewed and logged in one place, nothing gets lost between visits or handovers.
The inventory provides real-time visibility and allows car dealers to instantly confirm stock status, specifications and valid combinations without switching systems or stepping away from the customer.
Online test drive scheduling makes availability transparent to prevent double bookings and sets accurate expectations for clients.
Car dealers are driven by performance, every lead and closed deal directly impacts their targets and income. The KPI dashboard tracks sales progress, helping them stay focused.
Together with the product designer, we built a design system, using consistent components and interaction patterns across the platform. This ensures consistency, making iterations and future phases much faster to implement and easier to maintain.
The Results
1 Pilot Rollout
Launched at flagship store
6/6 Dealers
Agreed the app is an improvement
1 Training
Conducted with direct feedback
The mobile application was first rolled out at Lincoln’s flagship store in Shanghai. I did a training workshop with car dealers to guide them through the tool and gather immediate feedback.
All 6 out of 6 participants agreed that the mobile app is an improvement compared to the previous process, validating the overall direction of the product.
4 participants shared that presenting vehicle information on a phone felt awkward for shared viewing. This directly shifted the product strategy of client-facing features like vehicle comparison and configuration to a tablet experience better suited for collaborative sales conversations.
Based on these early insights, the product demonstrated strong potential for continuous improvement. Lincoln planned to further monitor user performance before gradually expanding the rollout to additional branches.