Travel Connect

The opportunity

The eCommerce Platform (eCP) is where the magic happened after a traveler purchases a trip on Expedia brand websites. Payment processing, fraudulent activity checking, order management, and customer service are among the many activities that happen behind the scenes. Expedia wanted to monetize these services to current and new partners, while automating the backend site onboarding processes. In addition, eCP wanted to build a marketplace for outside companies to provide services for other travel companies — imagine the Travel Industry equivalent of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The product was named Travel Connect.

The challenge

Executive stakeholders wanted the design and development of the first version, or minimal viable product (MVP), in a single calendar quarter. The MVP was to be used internally prior to externalization. eCP’s Strategy Team did not have any design or engineering resources to build the MVP. Volunteers from other eCP divisions were recruited to participate, that in addition to working on their “day job”.

I seized the opportunity to provide design leadership, product strategy, and creative direction for this very important project. A UX Designer and Content Strategist from my team also jumped in.

The outcome

Over a 3-month process the team created a presentation that showed the early vision, a promotional video, and ultimately the actual MVP. Throughout the quarter the team conducted usability studies to ensure the MVP would work well for the target end users.

The Travel Connect MVP was used internally as a tool for teams to onboard expedia.com websites in new locales and regions. Before the MVP, the processes to onboard new websites were extremely tedious requiring a lot of manual steps that involved multiple divisions within Expedia. Travel Connect provided a one-stop shop that simplified the coordination of the behind the scenes processes solving one of the biggest site onboarding pain points.

eCP Travel Award Bonuses are given to teams or individuals who go above and beyond their goals based on categories of OKRs that the organization set out to do. One quarterly winner from the pool of winners is selected for a single annual Travel Award Bonus. The Travel Connect team was awarded both.

The following is a glimpse into the original Travel Connect portal vision pitch that includes an inspirational marketing video.