"Design without business is just decoration." - Steve Johnson, Netflix's VP of Design

Automotive Industry
Portal & ST-Portal
Lead Designer
2023

About

Easee is a Norwegian company specialising in electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions and energy products, a leading player in the EV charging market with over 650k chargers installed in more than 15+ countries. The company has a B2B2C business model.
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Easee provides smart and connected EV charging stations designed to make charging electric vehicles convenient and efficient. Their charging solutions often incorporate advanced features, such as cloud connectivity, mobile app integration, and dynamic load balancing to optimize the charging process and home energy consumption.

Portal (B2B/B2C)

In Easee Portal, you can manage and keep control of one or more charging facilities you may have access to. In addition, the portal is free and it is used to manage the B2B relationship with Easee.

+110k users

ST-Portal (B2B)

The ST-Portal is an advanced support and troubleshooting tool for EV chargers developed internally to support our Customer Excellence team (CEX) to help Easee end-customers.

Daily accessed by Easee CEX and CPO's customer support

Problem space

Easee Portal was created initially to help  End-users  (EV owners) to manage and see an overview of the charger.
Subsequently, the company saw a need to provide a digital tool for Installers  to manage their sites.
Lastly, the features of the Portal were so useful that the tool became a management platform for Charge Point Operators  to manage sites, export consumption data, run batch operations, and more...
The platform evolved organically without a structure but as the company matured an App for the End-user and another for the Installer were created, leaving the Easee Portal with a mix of roles, permissions and features.The challenge was to reposition Easee Portal in the market with a clear user base and value proposition.

Discovery

We clustered the markets that Easee sells according to regulations and similar purchasing behaviours for EV chargers in large sites:• Nordics (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark)
• Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg)
• DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland)
• UK
Our team started with internal interviews with employees from offices across Europe then we moved to Easee Partners, which are Charge Point Operators (CPO) and MDU managers. We documented and communicated findings using Notion and Miro collaboratively. The main takeaways are:
• CPOs that work exclusively/mainly with the Easee brand see value in the Portal and the ST-Portal, however, the portal is locked to Easee products therefore it is not attractive to CPOs managing many brands across Europe.
• Therefore, the easiest way to scale in Europe is through Easee Partners. As for specific use cases where the CPO works mainly with Easee or the site owner wants to take control of the site the ST-Portal and Portal will become selling tools to win tenders.
• Easee pay service was not scalable in other EU-countries due to specifics market regulations, the service in Easee Portal had higher operational costs than profit.
• Around 1000 chargers per month to keep up with cloud and operational costs for Easee Portal & ST-Portal.

Lean Canvas

The Lean Canvas offers simplicity and rapid iteration. It was a living document throughout the discovery process because it condenses essential elements onto a single page, enabling quick adjustments based on feedback and market insights.

It was a way for the team to communicate insights to internal stakeholders and make decisions.

UX Analytics for ST-Portal

• Identify amount of clicks per month on side menu.
• Repetitive/ Redundant information.
• Common user navigation paths followed by user interviews.

Minimum Loveable Product

The ST-Portal, initially built with off-the-shelf graphics, is now becoming customer-facing and needs to align with the Easee brand.

Leveraging the Easee design system, we'll quickly redesign the user interface using existing Storybook components. This front-end approach ensures a seamless, branded experience for customers without compromising functionality or time-to-market. Our focus on a Minimum Loveable Product allows for high impact with minimal development work.

Easee Portal Analysis

Informed by thorough research, the Portal has transitioned its user base towards B2B market, focusing on CPOs and MDU managers.

Strategic actions include migrating end-users to the Easee app and installers to the Installer app, facilitating a smoother user experience.

Operational costs have been reduced through the consolidation of features, while a paid offering for the combination of ST-Portal and Easee Portal for advance troubleshooting and site management.

Bridging the platforms with Portal

The ST-Portal makes the Easee support service faster, but if offered as a B2B product it can decrease the demand for support requests coming from businesses that manage charger sites. It is possible to cross-sell the ST-Portal within the Portal to capitalize the user base of 110k users. Through a dropdown menu, the user can access the ST Portal through a troubleshooting button. The page will lead to the ST-Portal dashboard with the same sites the user has on Easee Portal.

Product Offering & Market Segments

The first offer with free basic features, preventing small MDUS from being locked to a CPO. Whilst the second is paid, a combination of Portal and ST-Portal with advanced management features and a payment system, empowering customers to manage their sites. These solutions cater to diverse needs in the market and enhance customer satisfaction. A handover of the 11 potential market segments for the SaaS offers was handed over to the sales team to approach new markets. 

Output & Learnings

Despite the clear offering, the paid solution didn't come out due to the lack of willingness to pay. However, the facelift of ST-Portal went through and impacted the customer support team. The Easee Portal removed features reduced the amount of roles needed to maintain the Portal operational hence reducing costs.
Low willingness to pay once given services for free
Reduced operational cost of Easee Portal by removing features
Improved ST-Portal usability through facelift
ST-Portal was given to partners to decrease internal support requests