Lessen llc
•
2025
Reframing Vendor Excellence Through Service Strategy
Responsibilities
Research Planning · Interview Facilitation · Synthesis · Service Strategy · Prioritization Frameworks · Stakeholder Alignment · Roadmap Influence
Project Scope
5,000+ Vendor Network · B2B · Service Operations · Product Strategy · Cross-Functional Research
Team
2 Product Designers
Timeline
2 months
The Brief
Our design team partnered with product leadership to identify the highest-impact opportunities for improving vendor experience and operational performance across a 5,000+ vendor network as part of the company’s 2026 Vendor Excellence initiative.
Intent
The company had historically approached vendor improvement through operational assumptions, leadership feedback, and isolated product requests. We wanted to establish a clearer understanding of vendor needs, service friction, and operational gaps before defining the 2026 roadmap. The goal was to identify where product, operations, communication, and partnership strategy could create the greatest long-term impact across the vendor ecosystem.
IMPACT
Through internal and external research, we identified 8 strategic opportunities organized into 5 service themes spanning relationship management, communication, operational workflows, financial transparency, and vendor enablement. The research reframed several internal assumptions around vendor behavior and helped shift the organization toward a more partnership-oriented model of vendor excellence. 6 of the 8 opportunities were adopted into the 2026 roadmap, with multiple initiatives already launched or in progress.
Roadmap Adoption
6 / 8 Prioritized
Strategic Integration
2 Weekly Forums
Initiatives Launched
3 Initiatives
Strategic Themes
5 Themes
APPROACH
SOLUTION
The outcome of the project was a strategic research foundation that helped reshape how the organization approached vendor excellence across product and service operations. Rather than treating vendor performance primarily as a management problem, the research repositioned vendor success as a shared operational partnership requiring better transparency, communication, enablement, and system support.
02
Operational & Product Alignment
Created a prioritization framework that clarified which initiatives required product investment, operational ownership, or further discovery.
03
Research-Driven Roadmap Influence
Helped establish design as a strategic contributor to annual planning, resulting in recurring involvement in roadmap and initiative discussions.
RETROSPECTIVE
HOW MY PROCESS HAS CHANGED
This project changed how I think about presenting research as a strategic planning tool rather than only a collection of insights. While I had previously used research to inform strategy and key decisions, this was the first time I structured recommendations through a now, next, later framework tied to organizational readiness, dependencies, and ownership. It helped transform research into a clearer decision-making tool for leadership by connecting insights directly to prioritization, sequencing, and implementation strategy.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED
As additional initiatives continue rolling out, I would want to establish more longitudinal measurement around vendor trust, operational accountability, and service satisfaction to better understand the long-term impact of these changes. There is also an opportunity to further map vendor journeys end-to-end and create stronger feedback loops between vendors, operations, and product planning.