2025
Metals Hub
CRM Solution
TEAM
Marina Neta
Sayalee Lubbersen
Gaurav Pathak
Vita Kozlovska
Oleksandr Blakytnyi
CONTEXT
Metalshub develops software for metals and mining companies, facilitating transactions between buyers and sellers of raw materials through digital trading tools. This presentation showcases the design process to enhance its Customer Relationship Management feature.
ROLE
Led the comprehensive design process. User research, scope management, AI prototyping, alignment with stakeholders and developer handoff.
challenge
Counterparty discovery, compliance and onboarding evaluations are with the core procurement or distribution flow. The current solution isn't good enough to help most of the main users achieve their goals, and therefore the adoption isn't as good as expected.
Below is the current solution's structure.
approach
How can we turn the current CRM solution into a strategic and mission-critical tool for our customers ?
We conducted user research to identify what pain points and opportunities are there. Other than adding companies and products, a CRM system needs to help eliminating silos in their companies, reduce cycle times, and ensure consistent risk management across all relationships.
AI-prototyping
To test the solution and align with stakeholders, I created a high-fidelity prototype using Figma Make (AI tool). It helped validate the solution faster, identify business gaps before deep diving, and share with developers what interactions were expected.
shaping the new relationships system
We observed that most of our users have large screen resolutions, and the current solution presented issues since the responsiveness wasn't working properly. We introduced a split view that allows users to easily navigate through different counterparties, quickly view the information needed, making better use of the available space.
In the current solution, one of the biggest pain points for users is checking if the certificates and documents for their counterparties are up to date, since they need to check them manually. To solve this, I introduced cards to easily manage the current status and provide an indication of what requires attention.
They also need to have quick access to the contact person in order to clarify details about certain deliveries, so I brought it to the main page.
final solution
Users can check the status of a partnership at a glance — if there is any risk, any certificates to update, and how the business is evolving. This is useful information to make decisions and inform stakeholders in important meetings.
Users can also manage partnerships according to products. This helps category managers check how many suppliers or buyers they have for specific categories.
We introduced a full list of buyers and suppliers available on the platform to encourage users to find new partnerships. The recommended companies are the most relevant since they've either partnered previously or conducted business together.
current status
The solution is currently in development and it's expected to be ready by the end of the year.
