Mango Lakay

Team

Aishwarya, Cara, Imani, Jialun, Aswathy, and I

Role

UX Researcher and Analyst

Tools

Miro, Figma

Duration

4 months (Sep-Dec 22')

Problem

Mango Lakay, a virtual marketplace for Haitian products and services, has been active for 11 months but is failing to see consistent growth and attract new customers and vendors outside of the AHP and Mango Lakay network. The project aimed to help Mango Lakay attract, retain and engage their customers by identifying the experiences of current and potential customers and vendors.

The Solution

Through our research we came up with five overarching recommendations that fall under showcasing the identity of the Mango Lakay better and improving the experience for all users - customers as well as vendors on the website.

View Final Recommendations

Background

The Association of Haitian Professionals (AHP) is a non-profit organization that aims to promote and advance the needs of people of Haitian descent. One of its initiatives, Mango Lakay, a virtual marketplace for Haitian products and services, was launched in November 2020. However, despite being active for 11 months, Mango Lakay failed to see consistent growth and attract new customers and vendors. After an initial kick off meeting with our client AHP, two key issues were identified: Onboarding new customers (outside of the AHP and Mango Lakay network) and vendors(as paying customers). Our team decided to focus on one of these issues for this project and that is: Onboarding new customers outside of the AHP and Mango Lakay network.

This project thus aimed to help Mango Lakay attract, retain and engage their customers by identifying experiences of current and potential customers. With these findings, we created conceptual models and design prototypes to improve the experience and make the vision of Mango Lakay more visible to its users.

Research and Analysis

We decided to focus more on the user’s perception of the identity of Mango Lakay, so our grand tour question was:

“What is the customer’s perspective on the identity of Mango Lakay?”.

The interviewer had a set of questions to help her guide the interview. These were questions that the team collectively felt needed the most focus on. However, the interviews were still kept loosely structured and each team member was free to use their expertise to learn more about the user’s world and follow the natural flow of the interview. Within 48 hours of each interview, we conducted our interpretation sessions during which the interviewer with the help of note-taker/s retold the interview to the team. Alternatively, another team member would act as a scribe and write down the key points of the interview as interpretation notes. The interpretation sessions ended with the creation of first-level (yellow) affinity notes. We categorized the yellow affinity notes thematically to create 3 different affinity diagrams. These diagrams helped us form a cohesive view of the entities involved and helped us understand the beliefs of each of the entities involved.

The three affinity diagrams we created were:

Mango Lakay Team Affinity Diagram
Vendor Affinity Diagram
Customer Affinity Diagram

We noticed an overlap between the three stakeholders and thus compiled them into an “overlap” affinity diagram. This gave us a clearer idea about shared beliefs and points of convergence in the Mango Lakay problem space.

We then created two models - a customer journey map and a stakeholder map. These helped us identify problems and opportunities, and gain a better understanding of our users, and with these insights we proposed a much more refined identity for Mango Lakay. We suggest Mango Lakay builds upon these tenets:

Research Findings

Setting the Stage

Before making any concrete recommendations, it was important to first take inventory of some unchangeable factors that would influence any of our design suggestions. These included having access to limited resources, working within an interdependent network, and understanding the restrictions on social events during the pandemic.

Core Issues

From our research, it is very evident that vendors, customers, and Mango Lakay all share a common desire to support the Haitian community. One of the biggest issues, however, is a disconnect between Mango Lakay’s intended message and how the site is received by both customers and vendors.

Lack of Connection to Vendors

The current product-first approach de-personalizes the website and does not foster connection and familiarity between customers and vendors.

Lack of Bonding

Without in person events, however, there are fewer ways for customers and vendors to interact and connect with each other. This is detrimental to Mango Lakay’s visions as an interconnected ecosystem and networking hub.

Missing Space for Larger Vendors

Currently, Mango Lakay is not accounting for the different needs of large and small businesses. As such, Mango Lakay is not adequately meeting the needs of either, which is harming vendor retention and growth.

Closed Network

AHP is responsible for both vendor and customer influx, making it a closed network. Mango Lakay needs to expand their vendor and customer base beyond just AHP contacts to grow their business.

Missing Haitian Identity

Haitian identity is central to the vision of Mango Lakay, but the website currently is not representing and celebrating that identity to the fullest capacity.

Recommendations & Product Concepts

The findings from our research and visualizations directly led to the development of five overarching recommendations. These recommendations fall under rebranding the identity of the Mango Lakay website and improving the experience for all users of the site.

Relationship Directory

Mango Lakay has a vision for creating a thriving economic community for Haitian-American businesses. One recommendation for carrying through this vision on the website is to treat Mango Lakay as a “relationship directory.”

Stakeholder Bonding

Related to promoting a “relationship directory” Mango Lakay should also encourage stakeholder bonding, and grow both personal and business relationships. This means giving vendors and customers an opportunity to communicate more easily through the website. For example, if customers have a question about a vendor’s services, they can submit it directly through the website or be able to read other customer reviews. This helps simulate the word-of-mouth business practices that build up businesses’ reputations outside of virtual marketplaces.

Promote Large and Small Businesses

Another key finding from the research is about the types of vendors that Mango Lakay carries. A large part of the founding vision is to uplift startups and small businesses, to help them grow their potential. We propose amending this aspect of the vision by having Mango Lakay promote both well-known and rising businesses.

Redefining Mango Lakay’s Relationship with AHP

The first step in this process would be to create ways for non-AHP affiliated users to find and use the site. For customers, this could mean an easy vendor recommendation form. The current vendor recommendation is housed on the site’s “About” page. Instead, this feature could be a pop-up as users browse the site. Another layout option would be to have a separate “Recommend Us” webpage in the main menu.

‍Ambassador for Haitian Culture

An updated landing page that shows sample products from vendors on the website, a better description of the website, and a way for new users to become familiar with the site before jumping directly into the hub.

This final recommendation was directly developed from the original vision for Mango Lakay, to highlight the local Haitian community in a positive and inspiring light. Seeing more of this new identity incorporated throughout Mango Lakay will help users have a more enjoyable and impactful experience.