The place of design in the Product & Business strategy at ManoMano

This article retraces the presentation by Renaud Dorizon, Head of Design at ManoMano during the meetup organized on January 16, 2024 at the UX-Republic Hub. This concerns his feedback on the place of design in the Product & Business strategy in this company.

A web designer in his early days, Renaud Dorizon had his first experiences in e-commerce at a time when interest in UX Design was gradually increasing. Today Head of Design at ManoMano, he has been participating in the development of the leader in DIY and home gardening in Europe for almost two years. 

In the introduction, he underlines the importance of strategic alignment: the objective being to know how to develop your business by integrating product and design into a common and shared vision. And more precisely, how do we move from a B2C model to a more B2B model with the aim of becoming B2B first in the development of new features?  

ManoMano, a complex company due to its dual model 

As Renaud Dorizon points out, ManoMano has “a flexible common base who must bearr B2B and B2C strategies”. Thus, the products, tools and sellers are the same for both platforms: “Currently, we have a B2B experience which is a B2C like”. Therefore, the question of structural change arises: “Should we continue to have several platforms and/or different teams, knowing that the strategy is to accelerate on B2B?”. He adds that while knowing the limitations of the business, positioning a different UX strategy is essential. Faced with competing proposals, it is important to ask the right questions and work on brand positioning with a more specialized user experience.

However, “the desire was not to do different things”: in fact, Renaud Dorizon explains the choice of a redesign of the Design System much more simplified. According to him, it was more interesting to choose common structures, while preserving differentiation through specific elements (like an identity color for example), because each vertical and each persona are different.

Through this strategy, it underlines the desire to have a UX alignment with brand image thanks to “a design system offering creative assets which are common but which also allow us to offer a differentiated experience”.

 

“Alignment is key!”

At ManoMano, “everyone is aligned on the same objective”: Renaud Dorizon insists on this point, and returns to the particularity of the company which is defined in particular by the Product/Tech/Design organization. This is developing from a very specific problem, explains the Head Of Design: “We realized that we were not moving forward quickly enough on B2B development; we therefore decided to onboard all B2C teams on B2B”. He then evokes the goal of a greater concentration on the B2B model. Indeed, it results in the choice to create alignment between all teams on common objectives and targeted issues. He adds that today, ManoMano is almost at 100% onboarding and that this process makes it possible to create “collective intelligence” around common objectives. 

 

The challenge of ManoMano and its “product design strategy”  

In 2021, ManoMano links design to product. From 2022, the strategy shifts towards its affiliation with marketing and business. Renaud Dorizon demonstrates the importance of “distribute the weight between business, product and design” so as not to create a misalignment.

But how do we distribute the weight between product, business and design? 

Renaud Dorizon underlines: 

  • The establishment of a VGR, which establishes a strategic vision over one or two years at ManoMano, allowing us to take stock of what worked or not the previous year, and to establish strategic subjects and areas for improvement in the coming months or years.
  • The importance of OKR's (Objective and Key Results) guiding the implementation of the strategy and objectives to be achieved at each “cycle”. 
  • La reduction of cycles where we go from one semester to two months; allowing teams to be more iterative. 
  • The development of a planning day, which allows the roadmap to be co-constructed with business, product, tech and design at each cycle.

Conclusion

Renaud Dorizon's feedback helped illustrate the Product Design Process allowing alignment between business, product and design through a common agile delivery strategy in a scale up. ManoMano has stood out through its dual B2B/B2C model and its Product Design Strategy. 

And as the Head of Design stated: “Alignment is key!”.

 

 

 Inès Barbara, Communication and Marketing Assistant at UX-Republic