Venturing into unexplored terrain, we pioneered a user-controlled pricing configurator in the Beauty & Wellness industry, diverging from the norm of automated systems. Despite initial uncertainties and a lack of reference points, our innovation filled an industry gap and garnered praise from Fresha's CEO.

The opportunities to be seized

Fresha recognized an untapped potential within its B2B partners' feedback: the need to maximize schedule efficiency and revenue. The gaps in their booking schedules represented missed opportunities. In response, we aimed to innovate, not just by filling these slots but by introducing an industry-first feature—dynamic pricing controlled by the partners themselves. Opportunities were clear:

1. ⛰️ First-mover advantage: No other Beauty & Wellness B2B platform had this configuration, providing Fresha a unique market edge.
   
   

2. 👨🏻‍💻 Partner-centric design: Create a familiar, yet powerful, interface for partners to easily set their pricing according to demand.
   
   

3. 📈 Revenue growth: By optimizing booking slots, both partners and Fresha benefit from increased revenue.
   
   

4. 💡 Informed decision making: An intuitive dashboard displaying Smart vs. Regular pricing impact aids partners in pricing strategies.

Navigating challenges

Implementing a pioneering feature like dynamic pricing wasn't without its hurdles. We faced a distinctive set of challenges, particularly concerning usability, partner autonomy, and market uniqueness.

1. 🧩 Usability concerns: Ensuring the feature was intuitive for diverse users, from tech-savvy managers to those less confident in digital environments.
   
   

2. ⚖️ Maintaining autonomy: Balancing the sophistication of dynamic pricing with the need for partners to have independent control over their service rates.
   
   

3. 🚀 Market novelty: Creating a system adaptable to the beauty and wellness industry, without established models to draw from, while predicting user behavior and reception.

Understanding b2b partners

In our journey to revolutionize the booking experience, understanding the intricate needs of our B2B partners was paramount. We delved deep into their world, unraveling the complexities they faced in optimizing booking slots and pricing.

1. 🎯 Targeted insights: I've engaged directly with partners, uncovering the real pain points behind their booking and pricing challenges.
   
   

2. 📊 Data-driven decisions: Through careful analysis, we identified a critical need for a tool that dynamically adjusted service prices, balancing peak and off-peak bookings.
   
   

3. 🌐 Multi-location nuances: We recognized the necessity for a clear, comprehensive view across different locations, ensuring partners maintain full control.
   
   

4. 💡 Idea validation: Learning from partners, we validated the demand for maximizing bookings through dynamic pricing, setting the stage for our solution design.

The design journey

1. 🔍 Discovery and research
Delving into our B2B partners' feedback was the first crucial step, providing us with invaluable insights directly from the source. This phase was instrumental in understanding the precise requirements and expectations for the dynamic pricing tool, and initiated competitive research to better grasp the mechanics of such a feature.

2. 🔬 Envisioning the feature’s ecosystem
With a solid understanding established, we named the feature Smart Pricing and I started to craft user flows for the configuration wizard and devised an Information Architecture diagram for the overview dashboard. These efforts helped the team visualize the feature's integration into the Fresha platform, ensuring a seamless user experience.

3. 🪄 Ideation & prototyping for the configuration wizard
Created the familiar wizard interface where partners could choose locations, team members and services but also introduced a way to set price modifications, focused on weekly schedules with up to five intervals for each day. Initial prototypes included novel configurations, but the final design favored a table format familiar to our users.

4. 📊 Ideation & prototyping for the dashboard
Designed a dashboard that not only provides a holistic view of the Smart Pricing performance but also showcases configurations per location. This design was a departure from the traditional Fresha display with a fresh (pun intended) take that’s been highly praised.

5. 🛠️ Design refinement and mobile versions
After settling on a design direction, it was time to refine, iterate and design the mobile version, ensuring every possible use case was considered and addressed. This meticulous process meant we were crafting a tool with real-world applicability and ease of use.

6. ✅ Getting the Green Light
The project’s crescendo was an intensive review session with the CEO. The feature, now polished and professional, received high praise and crucial final feedback. With a nod of approval, we shifted gears, ready to bring our well-crafted solution into the development phase.

The process of designing the Smart Pricing feature was a journey of deconstruction and reconstruction. We broke down the intricate ways businesses might want configurability over their schedules and reassembled these pieces into an interface that was both intuitive and powerful.