Market Range Planning
Designed for merchandisers for maintaining range & volume of products for a selling season.
Client
Summit - a German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing & accessories.
Overview
Market Range Planning is a management application which enables users(Market merchandisers) to define product range for their market or countries for a season. It supports business processes for setting different types of product level targets such as prizes, sizes, account, forecast etc.
My Role
Full time UX Designer
Duration
12 Months
Team
3 Product Owners, 3 Tech Consultants, 2 Tech Architects, 2 UX Designers and 1 UX Manager
Product Planning Tool
01
Stakeholder Collaboration
Partnering with product owners, I gained insight into Summit’s diverse markets, seasonal planning cycles, and financial objectives. Regular workshops and discussions revealed how product range planning influences revenue targets and inventory control.
02
Business Need Exploration
My focus was to answer foundational questions:
-
Why is a new system needed now?
-
What limitations and frustrations exist with current tools?
-
How do these challenges impact business operations and performance?
03
Mapping Current State
Through workshops and detailed reviews, I examined:
-
How merchandisers currently plan and manage product ranges
-
Which legacy and locally developed tools are used regionally
-
Typical workflows and process dependencies
Approach
When I first joined the Market Range Planning project, my priority was to gain a clear understanding of Summit’s business context and the rationale for developing a new tool. In this initial phase, I closely collaborated with product owners to explore the goals behind the project and to map out the existing ways merchandisers were working across different markets.
Laying the Groundwork: Exploring Summit’s Planning Workflows and Business Drivers
Discovery Phase and Understanding the Business Context
Essentially, MRP serves as a tool to facilitate the ranging process across all markets and supports various business functionalities such as setting targets for prices, sizes, accounts, forecasts, and more. Moreover, MRP offers the functionality to designate articles as either Account exclusive or Market exclusive. This means that articles marked as exclusive are only available for ranging in specific accounts or markets.
The Market Range Planning (MRP) application plays a pivotal role in this process by incorporating regional insights and launching articles into markets based on demand.
It helps define how products can be distributed to different markets across the world in a systematic manner.
For example, market Middle-East North Africa includes countries such as Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. So, each market can choose the set of articles which they want to market/sell as per their analysis. For example, a jersey designed with the national flag logo of one country may not sell well in another country and hence the products need to be market specific.
Essentially, MRP serves as a tool to facilitate the ranging process across all markets and supports various business functionalities such as setting targets for prices, sizes, accounts, forecasts, and more. Moreover, MRP offers the functionality to designate articles as either Account exclusive or Market exclusive. This means that articles marked as exclusive are only available for ranging in specific accounts or markets.
The Market Range Planning (MRP) application plays a pivotal role in this process by incorporating regional insights and launching articles into markets based on demand.
It helps define how products can be distributed to different markets across the world in a systematic manner.
For example, market Middle-East North Africa includes countries such as Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. So, each market can choose the set of articles which they want to market/sell as per their analysis. For example, a jersey designed with the national flag logo of one country may not sell well in another country and hence the products need to be market specific.
Ranging an article is the process of introducing it into the market for sale.
Market refers to a geographical location grouped according to Summit's(client) marketing structure.
Understanding Market and Ranging Process
By the end of this phase, I had :
-
Clearly articulated the strategic problem and opportunity to the broader team
-
Mapped out the ecosystem of tools and processes that merchandisers depended on
-
Identified sources of inefficiency and fragmentation in the current system
-
Defined the foundational requirements for the new solution
At this stage, I learned that existing tools included a 25-year-old legacy system supplemented by locally-developed solutions and manual Excel files. These systems were slow, fragmented, and created barriers to efficient planning, data accuracy, and brand consistency.
Current Challenges (High Level)
Key Outcomes of the Discovery Phase
Problem Statement
Summit’s legacy range planning system is slow and fragmented, forcing merchandisers(users) to manage multiple disconnected tools and thousands of manual slides. This causes data errors, difficulty comparing ranges, and inconsistent brand presentation.
We need to create a unified platform that streamlines workflows, offers real-time data, and ensures consistent branding—helping merchandisers make faster, smarter decisions globally.
Therefore, users need to view & edit the market range(data) to :
-
familiarize themselves with the market range
-
analyze for range gaps and overlaps
-
define & update their market level range based on insights
-
feedback to other market counterparts about their analysis for further actions
Legacy Application for Market Range Planning
Currently, the existing Market Range Planning(MRP) application, enables users to perform their tasks. However, the application is 25 years old and unable to satisfy the current user needs. Managing simple tasks becomes cumbersome due to the excessive functionalities and extra steps to perform simple tasks, making it overly crowded.
03
Heuristic Audit
Performed an expert review of the legacy tool’s interface and functionality, assessing usability issues, inconsistencies, and areas causing confusion or inefficiency.
Goals & Expectations
-
Choose the optimal articles for their market each season, making sure they fit local needs, budgets, and brand rules.
-
Identify range gaps, overlaps, and opportunities by comparing datasets across markets or sub-levels
-
Work efficiently so there’s more time for strategic analysis and teamwork.
-
Follow exclusivity rules (Account/Market exclusive articles) and maintain transparency across markets.
Felix Müller
Market Merchandiser at Summit
35 M · Germany · Moderately Skilled in Technology
Felix is a market merchandiser with six years of experience in the sporting goods industry. He is responsible for selecting the article range for his assigned markets, using insights from market trends and previous sales data. With an eight-week timeline, Felix frequently revisits and updates his selections as new information and feedback become available. His role requires balancing market demands with financial targets to ensure optimal product offerings.
User Flow
To understand how users navigate across the application suite, we created a user flow diagram capturing their end-to-end journey and cross-product interactions.
User Journey Map
To gain insights into how users achieve a specific task within the current system, we created a user journey map outlining each step they take.
02
Workflow Analysis
Mapped end-to-end range planning journeys to identify critical gaps in efficiency, data alignment, and user experience. This clarified where bottlenecks and frustrations occurred, providing actionable insights for design improvements.
Mapped findings to highlight breakdowns and opportunities for design.
Synthesis & Insight Mapping
Collected real user artifacts and compared official vs. actual workflows.
-
Artifact Collection
Asked open questions to uncover pain points and user perspectives during tasks.
-
Probe & Dialogue
Shadowed merchandisers to capture real workflows and informal practices.
-
In-the-Field Observation
Defined investigation focus and selected diverse merchandisers across key markets.
-
Preparation
Objective
To deeply understand how merchandisers interact with current tools and processes in their natural working environment, identifying real barriers and uncovering hidden needs.
01
Contextual Enquiry
Conducted with 5 key merchandisers across 4 major markets (Europe, LAM, Asia, NAM). We shadowed these users through their typical range planning cycles, closely observing their interactions with the legacy system, locally developed tools, and manual processes. This helped reveal both official workflows and informal workarounds.
Methods Used:
Selecting Research Methods
Given the complexity of the legacy system and the presence of multiple local tools, we selected contextual enquiry as the primary research method. This approach, combining direct observation and in-depth interviews, was ideal for uncovering how power users interacted with the tools in their daily workflows and pinpointing the real pain points they faced. It was especially useful given our experienced stakeholders.
Digging Deeper: Validating the Challenge and Understanding Merchandiser Needs
Research Activities & Insights
How might we enable users to receive accurate feedback on their actions and track progress?
How might we enable users to easily compare range for 2 different market levels?
How might we simplify the user journeys to reduce the cognitive load on the user?
Key Issues to be addressed:
How might we visualise the user’s working area to reduce a lot of effort that goes into finding the right actions?
4
To fulfil the E2E user journey on the platform, the users should have the option to create article placeholders and assign values to them. This would enable them to start creating the data for their range even before real articles are available in the system.
1
For users, it is critical to be able to view two data sets(ranges) at a time to compare and analyse information. Moreover, having the flexibility and choice to focus on either one or two data sets at a time as needed would immensely help users to review data faster.
2
It would immensely help users if they could visually see which articles have already been ranged from the source range to their target range which they have opened on their workspace. Moreover, they must only see actions based on their role and permissions.
3
In the legacy application, it is not possible for users to view the article ranges for markets or countries other than their own. However, for transparency and harmonising the process, users must have the access to view data for other markets and countries.
Key Insights
Exploration 03 - Split View
Display Global and Market datasets side-by-side in parallel, independently scrollable panels.
Advantages
Provides users flexibility and control over data views with clear dataset visibility. Reflects the core concept users are familiar with from the legacy app but offers enhanced flexibility (e.g., hiding either side).
Limitations
Split View introduces complexities in synchronizing search, filtering, and managing editing or copy-pasting across two separate datasets.
Exploration 02 - Grouped Columns
Present attributes as grouped columns allowing direct side-by-side attribute comparison.
Advantages
Useful for some scenarios requiring direct attribute comparison; visually aligns attributes side by side.
Limitations
Impacts readability during input tasks due to extensive horizontal scrolling; with roughly 300 attributes, readability and usability would suffer.
Exploration 01 - Nested Rows
Show attributes and values using expandable nested rows, focusing on single-article comparisons.
Advantages
Easy to compare values for one article at a time.
Limitations
Fails when comparing multiple articles across attributes; complicates sorting, filtering, and search in large, data-heavy tables.
Incorporating user feedback, we prioritized the Split View for implementation, refining it iteratively to ensure robust navigation, clear attribute mapping, and scalable layout across screens.
Final Direction
Concept Exploration
Created wireframes for multiple approaches, sharing them with users in design walkthroughs and virtual testing sessions.
Usability Testing
Merchandisers evaluated prototypes by conducting typical comparison tasks and provided feedback on clarity, usability, and satisfaction.
Rapid Prototyping & Validation [Solving for data comparison use case]
Design Iteration: Exploring Solutions
Applying Research Validation
After joining, I confirmed this requirement through contextual enquiry and direct user engagement. It became clear that supporting comparison not only addressed a top pain point but also aligned with business goals for accuracy and efficiency.
Workshop Findings: Bridging the Comparison Gap
Product development had initially split global and market ranges onto separate screens, limiting users’ ability to compare key attributes and make informed decisions. During a critical workshop, merchandisers strongly rejected this separation, emphasizing that simultaneous side-by-side comparison was essential to their planning workflow.
"Without being able to see both datasets together, it’s impossible to reconcile details or spot inconsistencies in real time."
Recognizing Key User Needs
Design Approach and Iterative Process
Split View
Created a Split View to enable users to view upto two sets of article ranges(datasets). Upon hovering over the view divider, users can view options to resize the views within limits or collapse one of them.
Ranging functionality
Introduced functionality to select articles from a range and then range it to other sub-levels under a market. Bringing this user journey from offline tools to the range planning platform would ensure users have transparency on the status of articles.
Easily switch between market sub-levels
Created option for users to select the market level/sub-level for which they would like to review the data for. Having all the options under the menu with the market structure hierarchy reflected offers clarity of options.
Placeholder creation functionality
Ability to create placeholder articles within an article range. Creation would be enabled through a modal as it is an important action and the user would need to stay focused while doing it. It would also facilitate creation of multiple placeholders at a time.
Notifications and visual feedback
Incorporated visual feedback for actions that impact the data values in some way. It would improve the experience as users can receive a confirmation for the executed actions and be able to track progress and results.
Core Features and Solutions
Key User Acceptance Testing (KUAT)
Representative merchandisers tested the new platform, providing structured feedback (tracked in Excel) on functionality, usability, and unmet needs.
Iterative Improvements
KUAT feedback not only validated successful features—like Split View and filter synchronization—but revealed additional usability snags. Rapid cycles of refinement incorporated this feedback, delivering focused updates before final rollout.
KUAT feedback was collected and prioritized in Excel sheets due to its accessibility and ease of use for users, allowing efficient tracking of issues based on their criticality.
Testing and Iteration
Transformative Outcomes: From Testing to Tangible Gains
After deploying critical features, we conducted thorough Key User Acceptance Testing (KUAT) and captured granular user feedback that directly fueled targeted enhancements. Combined with strategic development choices, these efforts delivered significant improvements in efficiency, satisfaction, and scalability.