Launching An Industry Disruptor
Helping launch an industry disrupting startup through all phases of launch. Our expertise was leaned upon to test viability, think through problems, pitfalls, and unforeseen issues, and then to engineer solutions all from Alpha to Beta.
High technology & heritage, hand in hand
Breaking into an antiquated industry requires an exhaustive strategy for the right approach — providing something that speaks to established professionals but provides the tools necessary to bring the industry into the modern age.
After thorough research, we developed three personas to represent the main target audience for the product. These personas help us stay focused on serving our key customers throughout the design and development stages.
Bob Strickland
As a veteran sourcing manager at a high-end cabinet manufacturer, Bob requires a streamlined lumber purchasing process to meet his team's fast-changing design needs and inventory limitations. Key supplier criteria for Bob include quality consistency, order accuracy, responsive customer service, flexible fulfillment, and efficient issue resolution to minimize headaches around fluctuating material requirements in premium cabinet production.
Susan Miller
As a sales manager at a sawmill and drying facility, 44-year-old Susan needs reliable lumber buyers and freight partners to facilitate consistent pull-through of her company's production. Her platform requirements include easy payout setup, inventory management and market pricing tools, shipment preparation/tracking capabilities, and communication systems to broker deals and coordinate seamless lumber delivery and customer acceptance for purchased stock.
Sean Perkins
As a lumber procurement manager for a hardwood flooring manufacturer, Sean handles high-volume orders of green and air-dried, NHLA graded hardwood needed to continually stockpile inventory for steady production. He relies on reliable large-scale fulfillment and freight partnerships to feed his company's onsite kilns and Just-In-Time flooring operations. Sean's purchasing requirements also include transparent hardwood pricing history, post-order tracking, efficient payment, and flexibility around occasional grade disputes to keep procurement flowing smoothly.
Building the brand
We developed a comprehensive brand for Lumber Marketplace, including concepting, sketching, and designing the logo, color scheme, and font stack. Our work extended to creating cohesive branded materials such as collateral, letterhead, business cards, billboards, semi-truck wraps, and apparel, ensuring a unified and impactful brand presence.
Color and Typography
We carefully selected a color scheme that bridges the past and future of the lumber industry. By combining traditional earthy tones with modern, vibrant accents, we created a palette that honors the industry's rich heritage while highlighting its innovative and forward-thinking direction.
Building the platform
We started Lumber Marketplace's design with sketches, outlining the dashboard and interfaces. These drafts set the stage for wireframes, which structured key sections like login pages and buying/selling interfaces, leading us into detailed design.
Simultaneously, we created flow charts to map the user experience from first interaction to final transaction. These collaborative charts captured every decision point, ensuring a seamless journey. Detailed user journey maps guided buyers from browsing to checkout. This mix of sketches, wireframes, and flow charts resulted in a robust, user-friendly platform—reliable and efficient.
Through numerous exhaustive whiteboarding and strategy sessions, we finalized the features for V1. Our team then meticulously crafted the UI and UX in Figma and developed the code that would not only support a successful launch but also had the potential to revolutionize the industry.
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Launching a true MVP
We successfully launched V1 of Lumber Marketplace at the NHLA conference in November of 2023. We engaged with numerous lumber companies, suppliers, and flooring businesses, all of whom were thrilled about the new platform. Our integration efforts paid off, seamlessly connecting multiple APIs to inventory platforms, a banking system for large ACH transactions, and Arcbest for frictionless shipping.
