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226            <h1 class="Page-header__header h h-1">
227                              Forming a strategic design partnership for a SaaS product
228                          </h1>
229
230                      </header>
231        
232                  <div class="flow--m">
233            
234                          <div class="body wysiwyg--with-lead flow text-grey">
235                <p>This is the story of how we worked with Inventory Planner by Sage over a series of engagements as their strategic design partner, making significant improvements to their product, their workflow, and their capabilities.</p>
236
237              </div>
238                      </div>
239        
240              </div>
241
242          </div>
243  </div>
244</section>
245
246  </header>
247  <main class="Site-main">
248      <div class="constrain grid grid--of-two-four pad-before-m">
249    <dl class="dl">
250              <dt class="dt">
251          Client
252        </dt>
253        <dd class="dd">Inventory Planner by Sage</dd>
254            <dt class="dt">
255        Sector
256      </dt>
257              <dd class="dd">
257Technology and software</dd>
258                    <dt class="dt">
259          Duration
260        </dt>
261        <dd class="dd">3+ years</dd>
262          </dl>
263
264    <dl class="dl">
265      <dt class="dt">
266        What we did
267      </dt>
268              <dd class="dd">
269          <a href="https://clearleft.com/expertise/interface-design">Interface design</a>
270        </dd>
271              <dd class="dd">
272          <a href="https://clearleft.com/expertise/digital-strategy">Digital strategy</a>
273        </dd>
274              <dd class="dd">
275          <a href="https://clearleft.com/expertise/user-research">User research</a>
276        </dd>
277              <dd class="dd">
278          <a href="https://clearleft.com/expertise/product-design">Product design</a>
279        </dd>
280          </dl>
281  </div>
282
283      <section class="Slat constrain">
284                  <div class="flow--xl">
285               <img class="srcset" src="https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash300/108796/DSC4552-NW-2-1.webp" sizes="(min-width: 1220px) 1100px, calc(93.78vw - 25px)" srcset="        https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash300/108796/DSC4552-NW-2-1.webp 300w,
286            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash600/108796/DSC4552-NW-2-1.webp 600w,
287            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash1000/108796/DSC4552-NW-2-1.webp 1000w,
288            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash2000/108796/DSC4552-NW-2-1.webp 2000w,
289    " alt="A photo of the Clearleft team and the Inventory Planner team sat around a table working on a project. They are prioritising product features using Post-its." loading="lazy">
290      
291      <div class="grid grid--8/4">
292        <div class="body wysiwyg flow">
293          <p>Inventory Planner helps small to medium sized businesses manage their stock and cashflow using powerful prediction algorithms. It’s classic software as a service, built as a classic start-up. Then the start-up was acquired by Sage, who we’ve worked with before.</p>
294<p>The Inventory Planner team were ambitious about strategically uplifting their product experience in multiple areas but Sage’s in-house designers were already at capacity. That’s where Clearleft came in.</p>
295<p>We ended up working with Inventory Planner multiple times and each time we were building on the previous work we’d done with them. And we don’t just mean the work on the product itself.</p>
296
297        </div>
298      </div>
299    </div>
300  
301          </section>
302
303
304                                      
305              
306      <section class="Slat constrain">
307                    <div class="Testimonials">
308      <figure class="Quote">
309  <blockquote class="Quote__quote body">
310    Partnering with Clearleft across multiple projects has helped us take a strategic approach to product design. This collaboration has transformed customer experiences at Inventory Planner, building trust, improving retention, and reducing customer drop-off with a user-first focus.
311  </blockquote>
312
313      <footer class="Quote__footer">
314              <img class="Quote__image" src="https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_author/Matthew-De-Beer-Inventory-Planner.jpeg" alt="A black and white photograph of Matthew De Beer a white male." />
315            <div class="Quote__cite small">
316        <cite class="Quote__author">Matthew De Beer</cite>
317                  <cite class="Quote__company">Senior Product Manager, Inventory Planner</cite>
318              </div>
319    </footer>
320  </figure>
321  </div>
322    
323          </section>
324
325  
326                                                  <section class="Slat Slat--theme theme--light Slat--brush">
327          <div class="constrain">
328                    <div class="flow--l">
329      <header class="flow--3xs">
330              <h3 class="eyebrow eyebrow--accent eyebrow--black">
331          The Results
332        </h3>
333                </header>
334    <div class="flow--m">
335            
336<article class="Nutshell flow--s">
337          <div class="flow--3xs">
338      <header class="flow--2xs">
339            <h2 class="h h-4">
340        Inflated design capacity
341      </h2>
342      </header>
343          <div class="body text-grey">
344        Together we turned ideas from the backlog into reality.
345      </div>
346                </div>
347
348  </article>
349            
350<article class="Nutshell flow--s">
351          <div class="flow--3xs">
352      <header class="flow--2xs">
353            <h2 class="h h-4">
354        Increased customer acquisition and retention
355      </h2>
356      </header>
357          <div class="body text-grey">
358        Inventory Planner got more new customers while keeping existing customers happy.
359      </div>
360                </div>
361
362  </article>
363            
364<article class="Nutshell flow--s">
365          <div class="flow--3xs">
366      <header class="flow--2xs">
367            <h2 class="h h-4">
368        Improved ways of working
369      </h2>
370      </header>
371          <div class="body text-grey">
372        Clearleft introduced a research-led project workflow that is being adopted across the business.
373      </div>
374                </div>
375
376  </article>
377      </div>
378</div>
379    
380              </div>
381      </section>
382
383  
384            <section class="Slat constrain">
385                    <div class="flow">
386        <h2 class="eyebrow eyebrow--black eyebrow--accent">
387          The Full Story
388        </h2>
389
390        <div class="grid grid--8/4">
391          <div class="flow body wysiwyg">
392            <h2 class="h h-2">
393        How do you turn a single engagement into a long-term partnership?
394      </h2>
395                  <p>Hiring an outside agency can be risky for a business. Sure, they say they’re good, but can you trust them? The first time you work together with an outside agency, it feels a bit like going on a date. You’re sussing one another out, hoping for the best but wary of getting your heart broken.</p><p>The first time we worked with Inventory Planner, it went well. But what if that was just a fluke? So they hired us again. Again, it went well. And again, they asked us back.</p><p>We ended up working together on a range of significant product improvements:</p><ul><li>onboarding new users</li><li>helping customers to take the next best action, so they realise the value of the product quicker</li><li>introducing people to new features, or features they haven’t used</li><li>
395making a streamlined version of the software for smaller companies who need fewer features</li></ul><p>Our work together started with interface features. Any changes we made weren’t just applied to the product; we also fed those changes back into the overall design language. With each project, this design language was becoming more considered and consistent.</p><p>Over time the work evolved. We focused more on outcomes than outputs. Clearleft became a strategic design partner for Inventory Planner. Together we worked on improving customer acquisition and retention by focusing on user needs, with every strategy decision backed up by user research and insights.</p>
396                              <figure class="flow--2xs">
397           <img class="srcset" src="https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash300/108805/Collection-of-work.webp" sizes="(min-width: 1220px) 1100px, calc(93.78vw - 25px)" srcset="        https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash300/108805/Collection-of-work.webp 300w,
398            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash600/108805/Collection-of-work.webp 600w,
399            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash1000/108805/Collection-of-work.webp 1000w,
400            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash1500/108805/Collection-of-work.webp 1500w,
401            https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft-v5/uploads/_splash2000/108805/Collection-of-work.webp 2000w,
402    " alt="A collection of screenshots showing a variety of design stages for prototypes. These include sketches, wireframes and high resolution designs." loading="lazy">
403
404          <figcaption class="caption">
405            We have worked on a variety of strategic projects with Inventory Planner, improving customer experience across their product journeys
406          </figcaption>
407        </figure>
408                      <h2 class="h h-2">
409        How do you build momentum?
410      </h2>
411                  <p>The advantage of having an in-house design team is in their institutional knowledge. They know how things work around here. But sometimes it can be hard to see beyond those boundaries.</p><p>Bringing in an outside agency means you get a fresh perspective. You get introduced to new ideas and new ways of working. But it can take a while for that outside agency to get up to speed on your specific culture.</p><p>By working with Clearleft on multiple projects over time, Inventory Planner got the best of both worlds. We’ve still got that fresh outside perspective and the focus you get when there’s a time limit on a project. But each piece of work we did built on everything we’d learned from the previous project.</p><p>Every time Clearleft worked with Inventory Planner, we were building up trust. That didn’t happen by accident. After each engagement, we made sure that everyone at Clearleft had a better understanding of Inventory Planner’s goals and priorities. No matter who ended up working on a project, they were able to hit the ground running. Sharing project learning via all-staff lunch and learns, practitioner retrospectives and a carefully managed client knowledge base are just a few of the ways that everyone at Clearleft stays up to date on client work. </p><p>For us, the learning curve was less steep each time. We had more prior knowledge of their acronym-heavy world. Initial meetings were more about <i>re</i>-establishing relationships rather than starting from scratch.</p>
412                <h2 class="h h-2">
413        How do you get the most value from Clearleft?
414      </h2>
415                  <p>Agency work can be intense. You’ve got a limited amount of time so you’ve got to work fast. Usually that means putting all your energy into a project and then wiping the slate clean so that you can take on the next project. Often you don’t even get to see the fruit of your labour until weeks or months later, by which time you’re working on a completely different project.</p><p>With Inventory Planner, it was different. Instead of wiping the slate clean, we were updating the slate each time.</p><p>We design something with Inventory Planner. They build and launch it. Then the next time we work together, we get to find out what they learned. That’s great for us!</p><p>And for them, their team has grown and matured just as the product has grown and matured. If they were starting with a new outside agency each time, it would be hard to see all the improvements accumulating.</p><p>Throughout our partnership:</p><ul><li>the product changed and improved over time,</li><li>the ways of working changed and improved over time,</li><li>the design language evolved over time making the product more consistent.</li></ul><p>At Clearleft, we don't look to trap clients into extended retainers. Clients can hire us for the short or long term. But you get real value out of Clearleft when you hire us for repeat work. We’re small enough that there’s continuity on your projects—the same team with the same relationships building on existing knowledge.</p><p>Your strategic design partner.</p>
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424    <div class="eyebrow eyebrow--strong eyebrow--accent">More work</div>
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436      <span class="flow flow--3xs">
437        <h3 class="h h-6">A design partnership for continuous improvement</h3>
438        <span class="small">Anglia Ruskin University</span>
439      </span>
440    </span>
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456        <span class="small">Imperial Business School</span>
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