Marktplaats is the Netherlands' largest online marketplace for selling and buying new and second-hand items. Known as 2dehands in Belgium, and Kijiji in Canada, it's a fast-growing company with a complex user base, and is continuously looking to improve the buyer and seller user experience on the platform.
As a large organisation with a wide variety of design needs, Marktplaats has been climbing the UX maturity ladder in order to innovate their product and improve design processes through research, design tools, work flows and infrastructure.
Their strong vision and appreciation of good design has made working with them a very positive journey. As Marktplaats's design partner since 2013, Hike One has formed a long-term, strategic partnership with them, and worked with them to develop their product and processes, as well as grow and nurture their design team. As well as conducting research, we've supported them by quickly finding the right talent for a particular project, advising on strategic decisions, and providing training for their designers. Marktplaats can always rely on us, and we will continue to work alongside them to improve what they do.
Digital design is a fundamental part of any e-commerce platform that has a complex user base, such as with Marktplaats, whose goal is to invoke trust in both seller and buyer during all stages of the user journey. Transactions and the listing process must be intuitive and seamless, and the design must reflect the brand ethos. The backend and frontend must ensure that both sellers and buyers flow through a safe, secure, easy-to-use and reliable ecosystem. All this while staying ahead of the competition, such as Facebook Marketplace or Vinted.
A truly important factor in the success of Martkplaats is their long-term vision and appreciation of design. They are open to experimentation, exploring tons of new ideas, and aren't afraid to look at ways of improving either. They understand the need to prioritise where the low-hanging fruit is, and how we can make things better by using design. This creates a happy, experimental and innovative working environment for the ultimate level of quality they seek.
When we first joined Marktplaats, our assignment was to conduct lean experiments to identify and validate underlying assumptions for new or existing solutions to redesign their product. In that time, we conducted bi-weekly tests where we validated a high number of assumptions over a period of a few weeks. We also carried out monthly usability tests.
We also organised a new concept called 'Customer Tuesdays', where the team could present their findings and demonstrate the value of research, and created workflows and easy-to-replicate processes for conducting research. This allowed the research team to focus more on strategy. We work in a fast-paced agile way, with exploration, design, and implementation cycles.
Looking for a long term design partner?
We are the chosen design partners for this large, complex organisation, and provide the talent, resources and tools for them to grow as a design team and develop in terms of DesignOps maturity - ie, the activities and talent that keep the design team functioning at the highest efficiency possible.
Since working with them, Marktplaats as a company are now leaner, more user-centred and more research-focused, conducting more user validation. They have a growing team, which we will continue to educate, train and scale, as required.
