Acapulco - Online Hospitality Supplies Platform
2018 - 2019 | Product Designer (Partner), Collaborative Startup Project, Madrid
This case study encapsulates the ambitious journey of Acapulco, highlighting the methodologies, tools, and deliverables that defined this groundbreaking venture in the hospitality supply industry.
While it may not have reached its intended destination, it remains a testament to the complexity and challenges inherent in entrepreneurial pursuits.
Project Overview
Acapulco, a project initiated during my MBA master's program at EOI (School of Industrial Organization), aimed to revolutionize the hospitality industry by providing an innovative online platform for food supplies to bars, restaurants, and other hospitality establishments.
The Challenge
In 2018, we identified a largely untapped market segment - the online sale of hospitality supplies. Acapulco set out to pioneer this niche, focusing on enhancing value-added services such as dynamic delivery and stock forecasting. My role in this endeavor was to architect and design the product.
Complex Functionality
Acapulco resembled an ordinary online supermarket in appearance and functionality, yet it featured additional layers of complexity. These included:
- Delivery Choices: Providing users with multiple delivery options.
- Advance Purchase Discounts: Allowing users to schedule purchases in advance for discounts.
- Legislation Compliance: Ensuring traceability to comply with legal regulations.
- Pre-preparation Options: Enabling pre-preparation of products.
- Discounts for Bulk Buyers: Offering discounts for organized restoration.
- Automated Stock Provision: Implementing automated stock management.
Investor Engagement
The project gained traction early on and was presented to various investors. However, it faced challenges due to the need for an early economy of scale, making funding challenging. This, coupled with the difficulty of achieving a lower iteration, ultimately led to the project's suspension. A similar fate befell tudespensa.com, reflecting the intricate nature of the endeavor.
Methodologies
Our approach incorporated a range of methodologies and techniques:
- Lean Startup: Embracing a lean approach to develop a minimum viable product.
- MVP Conceptualization: Crafting the minimum viable product concept.
- Expert Review: Conducting expert evaluations of the platform.
- Field Studies: Gathering insights through field research.
- Card Sorting: Organizing content for optimal user experience.
- Benchmarking: Analyzing competitors and industry standards.
- Low-Fidelity Wireframes: Creating initial design sketches.
- High-Fidelity Wireframes: Developing detailed design representations.
- Design Systems: Building design systems for consistency.
- D2D (Design to Development) Process and Handoff: Streamlining design-to-development workflows.
Main Tools Used
We leveraged a suite of essential tools to bring Acapulco to life:
- Sketch: For comprehensive design work.
- Figma: Utilized for low-fidelity wireframes.
- Excel: From product documentation to financial analysis.
- Pitch & Presentation Tools: Crafting persuasive presentations.
- Collaboration Tools: Utilizing gSuite, Slack, Trello, and other collaboration platforms.
Deliverables
Our project yielded several key deliverables, showcasing the depth and breadth of our work:
- Low-Fidelity Wireframes: Initial design sketches.
- High-Fidelity Wireframes: Detailed design representations.
- UI Design: User interface design.
- Design System: Ensuring design consistency.
- Reports on Benchmarking, Field Studies, User Contents: In-depth insights and analysis.
- Reports on Navigation: Optimizing user journeys.
- Documentation on UX Information Architecture: Ensuring a seamless user experience.