PROJECT:
Industrial Vendor Discovery Platform
CONTEXT:
UX Research & Product Design for an Industrial Networking Startup
TOOLS & METHODS:
Stakeholder Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Persona Creation, User Journey Mapping, Hypothesis Development
CLIENT:
B2B Industrial Startup
YEAR:
2022
Industrial Vendor Discovery Platform
about.
In 2022, I worked as a freelance UX researcher and product designer with a Switzerland-based industrial startup founded by two engineering graduates. One of the startup partners had completed an MBA at London Business School, which helped us connect with professionals and executives working across engineering, manufacturing, energy, and industrial technology sectors worldwide.
Through this international network, we conducted stakeholder interviews with C-level executives, founders, sales engineers, and R&D professionals based in Switzerland, the UAE, Colombia, Turkey, and other regions. These conversations revealed complex challenges related to supplier discovery, logistics, procurement, trust-building, and access to rare industrial materials such as alloy components used in high-performance engineering industries such as airplanes.
Initially, the startup aimed to build a platform focused primarily on the oil and gas industry. However, the research uncovered a broader and more important problem: professionals across multiple industrial sectors struggled to find reliable suppliers, trusted engineering partners, and specialized materials through existing platforms.
Based on these insights, I helped redefine the product direction into a networking and industrial vendor discovery platform designed to support professional trust-building, supplier discovery, and global engineering collaboration.
My role involved conducting qualitative research, synthesizing stakeholder insights, defining user needs, creating personas and user journeys, and designing low- and high-fidelity product concepts.
challenge.
Industrial professionals across engineering, manufacturing, energy, and procurement sectors often relied on personal networks, referrals, and informal communication channels to find trusted suppliers, engineering consultants, and rare industrial materials. Existing platforms did not effectively support trust-building, specialized vendor discovery, or cross-border industrial collaboration.
Through stakeholder interviews with executives, founders, sales engineers, and R&D professionals from multiple countries, several recurring challenges emerged:
Difficulty finding trusted suppliers for specialized materials and components
Lack of transparency regarding vendor reliability and delivery quality
Heavy dependence on personal connections and referrals
Challenges sourcing rare engineering materials such as alloy components
Logistics and transportation delays across countries
Limited visibility into trustworthy engineering professionals and industrial partners
Communication and localization barriers across global markets
Participants from multiple industries described similar frustrations related to supplier discovery, procurement, and professional networking.
The challenge therefore evolved from designing an industry-specific platform into creating a broader networking and industrial vendor discovery experience capable of supporting trust, collaboration, and supplier visibility across specialized engineering sectors.
from interviews to insights
After conducting interviews with 5 participants, including executives, engineers, founders, and R&D professionals across multiple countries, we synthesized recurring operational challenges using affinity mapping and thematic analysis.
persona
The research revealed recurring pain points related to supplier discovery, procurement, logistics, trust-building, pricing instability, and access to specialized engineering expertise. Based on these findings, we created representative personas to capture the behaviours, motivations, frustrations, and operational realities of industrial professionals working in complex procurement environments.
information architecture & user Flow
Based on the research findings and personas, I designed the platform’s user flow to support industrial supplier discovery, professional networking, and company exploration across complex procurement environments.
The flow below illustrates how buyers and sellers interact with the platform, from onboarding and company discovery to supplier evaluation and professional connection-building.
testimonial.
Aizhan conducted strong user and competitor research, including interviews with C-level executives. Through personas, storyboards, and hypothesis development, she helped us identify key pain points and translate insights into low- and high-fidelity design solutions. She was organized, reliable, and consistently well prepared throughout the project.
Dimitri Rettig
Startup Founder & CEO
