Edmunds.com Overview

Edmunds Inc. was founded in 1966 for the purpose of publishing new and used automotive pricing guides to assist automobile buyers. In 1994, before the World Wide Web became mainstream, our new car pricing data was first posted on the Internet through a "gopher site" that was known as "The Electronic Newsstand." This was the first time consumer automotive information had been provided through the Internet. In early 1995, Edmunds.com launched as the first automotive information Web site. Inside Line launched in 2005 and is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. AutoObserver.com launched in 2007 and provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. GreenCarAdvisor.com launched in 2007 and addresses environmental automotive issues.

Over the past six months Edmunds has implemented the exciting concept of Design Thinking and it’s becoming core to the way we do business.  Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation, focused on addressing people’s unspoken and unmet needs. 

We interviewed consumers from around the country to learn as much as we can about the people that use Edmunds.com and how they use it.  We identified 6 primary “personas” that represent our core users.  We then created 13 Challenge Teams comprised of diverse individuals throughout the company.  Each team was assigned a particular focus on improving the Edmunds experience for a persona.  

After some intensive training, each Team had a month to create a product to address their challenge.  The culmination of these creative efforts was a company-wide Design Thinking Trade Show.  Each Challenge Team set up a booth and presented its product.  Employees walked from booth to booth learning about the ideas and then voted for their top choices.  The week following the Trade Show, the teams got a chance to throw their ideas against the wall of real consumers to gauge their reactions.  Using the feedback from the Trade Show and real customers, the teams further refined their products then suited up for another presentation at a second Trade Show. 

Some key principles of Design Thinking that we’ve embraced: 

• when designing a product, don’t try to be everything to everyone out of the gate
• test everything, and with real users
• fail early and often;  correcting a major flaw at an early stage is much cheaper than having to rebuild your software or architecture down the line

Awards were ultimately given for “Most Improved”, “Most Creative”, and “Most Likely to Succeed”.  It was an amazing event and definitely a notable moment in the history of the company.   Work continues on the products and we can’t wait to see some of the ideas become a reality.  Check out several photos from the events below.