Launching an energy marketplace
UX & Service Design | Piclo | B2B SaaS | 5 min read
Project summary
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Company: Piclo (B2B SaaS)
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My Role: UX & Service Design Lead
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Project Goal: Lead the service design for a world-first US energy marketplace to validate a new, faster Seller-Led market-entry approach. This involved interpreting energy policy, commercial, and operational requirements into a scalable digital offering.
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My activities: Desk-based research, user research sessions, service blueprinting, workflow and documentation design, UI prototype design, insight prioritisation, value proposition development
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Timeline: 4 Agile Sprints
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Impact: Validated new business strategy, secured two major launch partners, and established a second strategic growth path
The Problem: Accelerating Strategic Growth
Piclo's existing market entry strategy for its marketplace relied on a successful but slow Buyer-led model: first securing grid operators (Buyers), then publishing their needs to attract energy generators (Sellers). The leadership sought to validate a high-risk, high-reward Seller-led approach (Sellers list supply before Buyers register) to accelerate market entry.
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This required solving critical user and service design challenges:​​
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User Value: Enable Sellers to proactively list energy (stimulate demand) and allow Buyers to purchase it "off-the-shelf" (avoid lengthy procurement tenders).
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Service Complexity: Interpreting complex US energy policy, commercial terms and operational requirements into tangible features, while simultaneously designing the resilient backstage service and support model needed for day-one operational stability.
High level service blueprint for the existing Buyer-led model and the new Seller-led model.
My Research & Design Approach
My methodology focused on connecting the frontstage user experience with the backstage operational reality, ensuring the service was scalable and reliable within the agile delivery context. Given the strategic importance and the strict 4-sprint deadline, I focused on maximising speed of learning and design while continuously feeding validated insights directly into development.
1. End-to-End Service Discovery and Research
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I performed extensive desk research on the US energy industry and regulation to understand the commercial and policy ecosystem underpinning the service.
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I conducted user research with key stakeholders: energy sellers, buyers, and the Piclo Customer Support team to understand needs, define the required service, and test initial design concepts.
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I collaborated closely with the Chief Growth Officer (CGO) and senior leaders to refine the marketplace value proposition and ensure strategic alignment.
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2. Service Blueprinting and Backstage Co-Design
To translate complex requirements into a functional service, I led the blueprinting effort:​
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Service Blueprinting: I mapped the service blueprint, defining all touchpoints, actions, and supporting processes. This blueprint was continually refined as insights were gathered and reviewed with internal stakeholders to maintain awareness and commitment.
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Data Flow Mapping: Mapped precisely how data flowed between the user interface, the backend system, users, and various Piclo colleagues.
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Co-Designing Backstage Workflow: I co-designed the backstage workflow with the Customer Support team, including:
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Designing templates for energy sellers to provide critical product and commercial information in the required format.
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Co-designing the necessary internal workflow steps to help the Customer Support team successfully ingest and manage users’ data into the backend system.
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Service blueprint for the new Seller-led model (higher-fidelity version excluded due to commercial confidentiality).
3. Rapid Prototyping and Agile Delivery
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User Interface Design: Designed the user interfaces (UIs) that Sellers and Buyers would use, ensuring the designs clearly communicated technical, industry, and regulatory information pertinent to the marketplace.
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Rapid Iterative Testing: Due to the 4-sprint timeline, I adopted a highly iterative approach, refining the discussion guide and updating the prototypes after every research session (15 sessions in total).
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Parallel Workflow: I partnered with a Staff UX Designer, handing over validated insights and basic prototypes so they could finalise buildable designs while I focused on the ongoing research and service design documentation.
Wireframe of listings dashboard concept used to gauge interest from Buyers and get early feedback.
Design Solution
The research validated the core concept and defined the specific features required for a scalable launch.
A. The Seller Listing Experience (Frontstage Design)
Seller listings page displaying details uploaded by Customer Support. This UI allows Sellers to review and manage listings, with a map view for confirming energy location.
B. The Buyer Discovery Experience (Frontstage Design)
A listings page allowing Buyers to search available supply by key commercial criteria, such as capacity and service duration, displayed in a clear, comparative table view.​
A map view complementing the listings page and enabling Buyers to easily identify available supply within their network area.
Impact and Strategic Results
I ran pilot tests of the end-to-end service, using a lean, hands-on approach, to ensure the service was operationally resilient and to validate the strategy.
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Successful Strategic Launch: The service was delivered successfully and two major launch partners were secured. This enabled Piclo's successful entry into a new international market, validating its new strategy for accelerated growth.
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Demonstrated Service Leadership: The project demonstrated my ability to translate complex commercial, operational, and regulatory goals into tangible, user-friendly service models.
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Operational Efficiency: The success of the new service and the operational resilience achieved through the co-designed backstage workflows led Piclo to invest in more production work to further enhance the users’ experience and improve operational efficiency (see the image at the top of the page, which shows the enhanced public/logged-out map view of the US marketplace).
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Tactical Influence: My continuous insights guided the product team on feature prioritisation and allowed us to mitigate risk by identifying critical functions that could be manually supported by the Customer Support team initially, reducing upfront development effort.
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This case study demonstrates my ability to lead and execute both UX design and end-to-end service design within a high-stakes, Agile environment. Head back to the homepage to see more projects.
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