Track supply chain emissions
0-1 Product build: Carbon accounting for large supply chains.
MY ROLE
Lead Product Designer
TIMELINE
6 months | 2024
TEAMMATES
1 Product manager
6 Developers
Impact
1st
Market-ready
product
Reduced client setup
time from weeks to hours
2X
Increase in
supply chain clients
The problem
With successful sales and positive customer feedback, Optera needed to transform its proof-of-concept supply chain carbon accounting tool into its first core product offering.
The initial tool enabled clients to view their supply chain emissions—but internally, consultants supporting the product lacked clarity and confidence in how the system worked, they often struggled to explain results to clients. Most consultants reverted to manual spreadsheets.
“We’re selling a product that we don’t fully understand… the product itself is not delivering what we need.”
“It’s just easier to know what’s going on and feel good about the calculations if you’re doing it in Excel.”
“[The supply chain product] is a bit of a black box for the entire team... Is what is being reported accurate? How do I know how to check the accuracy of that?”
To move forward, the team recognized the critical need for a platform rooted in trust and transparency—one that empowers users to confidently manage emissions data, understand how the system works, and communicate insights clearly to their clients.
Design kickoff
When I joined Optera, I joined a team that was new to working with a designer and we immediately started this project. We had a 6 month timeline to design and build the entire product. After talking with the services team (our primary users) to understand the problem, I led a design kickoff workshop to set clear expectations: we defined the problem, agreed on scope, aligned on what success looked like, and established the deliverables design would provide. This alignment gave the entire team clarity and momentum from the start.
Determining project scope
The initial challenge was gaining clarity on what we actually needed to build. I partnered with the product manager and the services team to map both the current and ideal customer experiences. This collaborative exercise helped us break down what managing and calculating supply chain emissions truly entailed and we were able to align on what was in scope.
Key insight
Our research revealed that users didn’t trust the data in the platform and spent excessive time manually QAing uploads. We discovered the root issue wasn’t the data itself, but a lack of confidence in the upload process. This led us to design a more intuitive, guided experience that helped users upload and enrich their data by matching it with Optera’s database. By improving this critical step, we could significantly reduce the QA burden. This insight became the foundation for our first phase of work, which we called uploading and improving data.
We then defined a roadmap that aligned with our timeline, outlining three key stages: uploading and improving data, exploring and editing data, and generating reports.
The solution
Despite working under a tight timeline and navigating complex challenges, our team successfully launched Optera’s first market-ready supply chain product. The release not only generated immediate sales momentum and customer enthusiasm—it also drastically improved the onboarding experience. What previously took 4–6 weeks was reduced to hours, enabling all existing supply chain clients to transition seamlessly onto the new platform within the first month of launch.
Supply chain overview
Get a comprehensive, high-level view of your supply chain emissions, helping you monitor progress and manage data at scale.
Emission calculations
View exactly how emissions are calculated, assess data quality, and document specific use cases with calculation notes for full traceability.
Supplier page
View key metrics to uncover areas of high emissions impact. Access supplier records, edit emissions data, and manage contact information—all in one place.
Match supplier emissions data
Seamlessly match suppliers to emissions and revenue data from Optera’s database for more accurate, specific emissions calculations.
Manage suppliers
Manage your supplier list, quickly identify suppliers with low-quality data, and add more specific supplier data.
Manage categories
Manage emissions categories and assign emissions factors for more accurate emissions calculations.
Reports
Generate emissions calculation reports for record-keeping and audit purposes.
Kelsey Pintens
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