Empowering Dealers to Thrive in a Changing Market
When automakers like Ford, Honda, or Chevy build a vehicle, the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) assigns a unique VIN, which becomes the key identifier in all digital records. Dealers rely on Cox Automotive’s Vehicle Inventory Platform (CVIP)—the system behind tools like vAuto, AutoTrader, and Dealer.com—to manage, market, and sell their inventory. Every vehicle record contains 500+ data points, all tied to that VIN.
But when supply chain disruptions hit and inventory dries up, dealers suffer. To keep sales flowing, OEMs provide pre-VIN records—digital placeholders for future vehicles that haven’t been built yet.
The Problem? CVIP can’t properly handle pre-VIN records. Since the system depends on VINs (consistent unique identifiers), dealers are forced to use manual workarounds or external tools, creating inefficiencies and lost sales opportunities.
The Solution? Upgrade CVIP to support pre-VIN vehicles. Easy right? However extensive discovery would be needed to determine the solution and with so many competing tech priorities, leadership asks: Why invest in this? How does the lack of pre-VIN support impact dealers business? What is the effort
Core Team:
> Product Directory
> Platform Architect
The Process:
> Researched the problem
> Co-extracted insights
> Visualized the pain points
> Framed the problem
> Form the solution narrative
Project Goal
Create a compelling narrative for pre-VIN support by demonstrating the impact on dealer customers in order to secure investment in enhancing the enterprise vehicle inventory platform.
My Role
Being the UX Architect for the platform product team, I lead the problem discovery research to demonstrate how the lack of pre-VIN support in CVIP impacted our dealer customers.
Results
Secured platform investment for needed preVIN support causing paint for dealer customers.
Understanding the Problem
Co-Extracting Insights: Affinity Mapping
I conducted secondary research and interviews with those closest to the problem and key to the solution. Then, through collaborative sessions with the team and using an Affinity Clustering method, we drew insights from the information collected in the research (See Image A).
Research Insights
Secondary Research
Reviewing car news websites and blogs depicted the problem from a high-level and it was not just the lack of pre-VIN support causing pain for dealers.
Objective:
Streamlined export setup processes and minimal troubleshooting time.
Insights:
- Supply Chain Grid-lock
A perfect storm of disruptions—COVID supply chain chaos, war in Ukraine, and semiconductor shortages—has crippled auto production from parts to assembly to delivery. - Economic Conditions
Skyrocketing interest rates and critically low inventory are driving prices to painful new highs, impacting sales.
Dealer Interviews
Inventory Managers overseeing all aspects of vehicle inventory; acquiring inventory, ensuring optimal stock levels, and maximizing dealership profitability.
Objective:
Capture the pain points caused by the lack of pre-VIN support in CVIP.
Insights:
- Pre-VINs Maintain Cash Flow
Slow issue resolution delays sales and frustrates dealers. - Sales and CSAT Impact
Inconsistent data across platforms confuses customers and hurts trust.
Product & Platform Leaders
The minds behind the curtain who knew exactly why CVIP couldn’t handle pre-VIN records today.
Objective:
Understand the barriers and effort for supporting pre-VIN
Pain Points:
- Failed VIN-Decoding
CVIP relies on VIN decoding to extract NHTSA specs and build complete vehicle records. Without it, dealer tools face unpredictable impacts, requiring deep technical investigation. - Failed pre-VIN to VIN Update
Pre-VIN records need a consistent unique ID to link to final VINs. Without this, CVIP can’t distinguish new records from updates.
Platform (CVIP) Constraints
The technical pre-VIN problem was two fold: without decoding the record is incomplete thus impacting dealer solutions and with no consistent unique identifier, updating a pre-VIN to a valid VIN was impossible.
Without Pre-VIN Support:
- OEM: Sends pre-VIN record.
- CVIP: VIN decoding fails. ❌
- Dealer Solutions: Unknown impact. ⁉️
- OEM: Sends valid VIN
- CVIP: Fails to update the pre-VIN. ❌
VIN Decoding:
Extracts the official specs of the vehicle that the OEM submits to NHTSA. It is a form of independent verification to protect consumers from misinformation.
Digging Deeper: Problem Tree Analysis
The technical pre-VIN problem was two fold: without decoding the record is incomplete thus impacting dealer solutions and with no consistent unique identifier, updating a pre-VIN to a valid VIN was impossible.
Root Pain Points
Lost Marketing Lead Time
- The inability to maximize marketing time reduces sales.
Manual Lead Matching
- The inability to match pre-VIN leads to valid VINs impacting sales.
Missed Sold Follow-ups
- The inability to address customer issues after purchase affects CSAT.
Visualizing Pain Points: Experience Mapping
Placing context around the dealer pain points was instrumental in demonstrating the impact to their business in the typical vehicle acquisition to sales lifecycle. (See Image C)
The Pain Points of Neglecting Pre-VIN Support
Lost Marketing Time
Between ordering and receiving vehicles, dealers lost the opportunity to market and generate leads that secure deposits.
Manual Lead-Matching
When a customer places a lead on a vehicle yet to be built (pre-VIN), the system cannot match it to the valid VIN when it becomes available, requiring the dealer to do it manually.
Missed Sold Follow-Ups
Without a unique identifier connecting pre-VIN to the valid VIN, the dealer’s CRM does not trigger sold-follow ups to ensure the customer is happy with their purchase.
How might we help dealer customers avoid losing OEM vehicle allocations due to reduced sales and CSAT caused by the inability to automate lead matching, sold follow-ups, and maximize marketing time?
The experience needed to be tolerable, not pretty. We were to create an efficient export setup experience for Implementation special.
Solution Discovery Kick-Off
Creating the Narrative: Storytelling
We presented the research findings with supporting artifacts. Then, I brought it to life by telling the story of how market forces brought the demand for pre-VIN to our doorstep, creating pain for dealers. (See Image D).
Platform (CVIP) Constraints
The technical pre-VIN problem was two fold: without decoding the record is incomplete thus impacting dealer solutions and with no consistent unique identifier, updating a pre-VIN to a valid VIN was impossible.
Without Pre-VIN Support:
- OEM: Sends pre-VIN record.
- CVIP: VIN decoding fails. ❌
- Dealer Solutions: Unknown impact. ⁉️
- OEM: Sends valid VIN
- CVIP: Fails to update the pre-VIN. ❌
With Pre-VIN Support:
- OEM: Sends pre-VIN record.
- CVIP: VIN decoding is omitted. ✅
- Dealer Solutions: No Impact. ✅
- OEM: Sends valid VIN
- CVIP: Update the pre-VIN. ✅
Visualizing the Solution: Experience Mapping
The experience map demonstrates how investing in pre-VIN support would turn dealer pain points into benefits. (See Image E).
Benefits of Pre-VIN Support
Maximized Marketing Time
Right away, dealers are able market and merchandise their pre-VIN inventory. This increases the likelihood of a sale by maximizing their lead time.
Automatic Lead-Matching
Leads for pre-VIN vehicles are matched automatically to valid VIN vehicles, thanks to a unique identifier.
Sold Follow-Ups
An automatic customer reach campaign after the customer takes delivery of vehicle, enabling the dealer to address any issues.
What went wrong?
Dealer Interview Participation
I sent 20+ interview requests—zero responses. So, I tapped a senior researcher and a dealer performance manager to help with recruiting.
- We embedded a quick, eye-catching banner message inside the dealer tools they use daily. The pitch was simple: Answer a few questions, hop on a quick call, get a Starbucks gift card (because who says no to free coffee?). Finally, some traction
Siloed Research
Conducting dealer interviews independently streamlined discovery but created a disconnect with product and engineering.
- I provided interview recordings and transcripts for review prior to the Affinity Clustering exercise, to arrive at the same conclusions.
Research Scrutiny
The qualitative findings lacked quantitative data showing the prevalence of each issue.
- We reframed the discussion around the urgent need for platform stability to adapt to rapidly shifting market demands.
- Even a single negative experience from a dealer within a major dealership group could trigger widespread repercussions—making scalability and reliability critical.
Key Takeaways
Collaboration is Critical
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Collaboration during discovery to arrive at the same conclusions ensured a holistic understanding of the problem, reducing siloed decision-making.
Visualizing Pain Points
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Using affinity mapping, problem trees, and experience maps helped stakeholders grasp the issue quickly and align on priorities.
Stories Drive Impact
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Presenting findings as a narrative made the problem relatable, ensuring stakeholder buy-in for the solution.
