Blueprint for Transformation
30 days from concept to MVP. The bathroom planner that changed how a €8.2B company serves customers.
MVP
In 2017, OBI Group created OBI Next to prove corporate could move at startup speed. I joined as Senior UX Designer to launch the bathroom planner (BadPlaner)—the digital service that would become the blueprint for OBI's complete transformation.
Today
Rolled out globally across 640+ stores in 10 countries, serving 9+ million heyOBI users. Our methodology became OBI's standard for digital innovation and has been adopted across Europe.
0%
Conversion lift
€0M+
Business Impact in year one
0×
Sales Productivity
War Room: 30 Days to MVP
We set up in an empty loft close to our agency—assembling IKEA furniture while planning strategy. I facilitated design thinking workshops with stakeholders across OBI, synthesising customer pain points, market research, and business goals. The key insight: customers need inspiration first, not complex planning tools.
By week two, concept and design was ready and I was sitting with our developers and product manager, coding frontend implementations at 2am.
I did whatever removed blockers: UX/UI/HTML/CSS/JavaScript, legal content, measurement frameworks. You do what needs doing to ship, then you prove it works with data.
Day 30: We launched. Customers could browse and customise complete bathroom looks, schedule in-store consultations, and receive planning documents. But we didn't just ship and hope: we analysed every click and recorded sessions from day one.
Learning And Adaption Phase
We recruited participants who'd recently renovated bathrooms and ran moderated sessions combining task-based testing, five-second tests, and unscripted exploration. The research showed us exactly where the experience broke down and what customers actually needed.
We adapted immediately. Questions moved earlier in the journey. Inspiration filters simplified to essentials. New planning documents personalised based on selections. Budget ranges recalibrated to match realistic project scopes.
Version 2 launched just weeks later. The numbers validated everything. Conversion rates improved and consultation appointment bookings increased.
Each change was A/B tested so we could see exactly what improved performance. When OBI started directing organic traffic from their main website to our landing pages, the performance held strong. We were ready to scale, onboarded new teams with everything we'd learned:
- 3D-configurator architecture
- Lead magnet strategy
- Remarketing campaigns
- Validation framework
The Kitchen Planner team had a proven blueprint. They didn't need to figure out what worked; they could start from our validated approach and adapt it for their domain.
Blueprint for Digital Innovation
What started as a 6-month pilot became the methodology for OBI's digital future. It proved corporate could move at startup speed—and that proof changed everything.
Within 18 months, OBI Next launched the Kitchen Planner and Garden Planner using our methodology. My bathroom planner expanded from Austria to Germany–then across Europe, backed with big marketing campaigns. All three services now run 14 configurators serving 300+ stores.
Today, OBI Group generates €8.2 billion in revenue across 640+ stores in 10 countries. 50% of German customers visit the website before stores. Project experiences—not just product sales—serve 9+ million users and define the brand.
The transformation is still compounding.
This project showed me where I belong: product-side, building systems that change how companies innovate, not just delivering agency projects that end when the interesting journey starts.
