Dinesh Verma

THE PROBLEM ✋

During the second wave of COVID-19 in India, citizens faced severe challenges in navigating the crisis. Critical information about hospitals, emergency services, mobility restrictions and essential supplies was scattered across multiple platforms including news portals, government websites, social media and community networks.

In high-stress situations, citizens had to spend precious time searching for reliable information and coordinating services on their own.This fragmentation created several systemic problems:

Difficulty accessing verified information quickly

Delays in locating hospitals and emergency services

Confusion around lockdown guidelines and mobility permissions

Limited access to essential services during restrictions

Rising anxiety due to misinformation and uncertainty

The crisis revealed a clear gap: citizens lacked a centralized and reliable way to navigate emergency situations.

THE RESEARCH 📝

To understand how people were coping with the pandemic, I conducted qualitative research with 36 participants across Delhi-NCR. A research guide was prepared to explore the following :

How citizens accessed COVID updates

How families prepared for emergencies

How people located hospitals and healthcare services

How citizens managed essential supplies during lockdowns

The emotional and psychological challenges experienced during the crisis

Through semi-structured interviews and contextual discussions, participants shared their real-life experiences navigating the pandemic.

THE INSIGHTS ☝

I analyzed the inputs using a insight framework to understand the emerging themes and patterns. The research revealed several systemic insights and themes. People were not only struggling with the virus itself, but also with navigating a fragmented ecosystem of information and services. Key insights included:

* Information Overload 😒 Citizens relied on multiple sources such as news apps, WhatsApp groups, and social media to stay informed, often encountering conflicting information.

* Emergency Response Delays 😞 Families spent hours contacting hospitals and emergency services during urgent situations due to scattered contact information.

* Hyperlocal Dependence 😣 Neighborhood stores and local networks became critical for accessing groceries and medicines when larger delivery platforms were overloaded.

* Mobility Uncertainty 😩 Citizens were often unsure about travel restrictions and struggled with complex e-pass processes.

* Health Anxiety 😷 Many people searched online to understand symptoms, treatment options, and preventive measures, often encountering misinformation.

THE STRATEGY ✊

Based on the research insights, I conceptualized a digital platform that could act as a coordination layer between citizens and critical services. The goal was to simplify crisis navigation by providing centralized access to information, services and guidance. The platform architecture focused on six key capabilities:

* Real-Time Updates ⏫ Provide citizens with localized COVID updates, government announcements and hotspot alerts.

* Emergency Support 🚐 Enable quick access to emergency helplines, hospitals and ambulance services.

* Healthcare Navigation 🏥 Help citizens discover nearby hospitals and healthcare facilities.

* Essential Services Discovery 🏪 Provide access to grocery stores, pharmacies and online delivery platforms.

* Mobility Enablement 🚖 Simplify the process of applying for travel permissions through an integrated e-pass system.

* Health & Wellness Guidance 💌 Provide reliable information about symptoms, prevention and mental wellbeing.

THE IMPACT 👊

The proposed platform transforms crisis navigation by connecting citizens with critical services through a single interface. Key outcomes of the solution include:

* Reduced Information Fragmentation👍 Citizens can access verified updates and guidelines in one place.

* Faster Emergency Response👍 Quick access to hospitals and helplines reduces time spent searching during emergencies.

* Simplified Mobility Compliance👍 The e-pass feature helps citizens travel legally and confidently during restrictions.

* Improved Access to Essential Services👍 Users can discover local vendors and delivery platforms more easily.

* Improved Health Awareness👍 Self-assessment tools and wellness resources support informed decision-making.

THE PROBLEM😑

Croma operates at the intersection of digital commerce and physical retail, with over 150+ stores across 40+ Indian cities and a large catalog of electronics products. Despite strong brand presence, the shopping experience remained fragmented across channels.

Customers frequently researched products online but purchased in-store, leading to a disconnect between digital product discovery and physical store experience.

MARKET & INDUSTRY ANALYSIS📶

Electronics contribute nearly 48% of online retail sales in India

Over 55% of buyers still visit physical stores before purchasing

71% of shoppers use smartphones in-store for research

KEY CHALLENGES🔥

Online product categories did not mirror store aisle structures, making navigation unintuitive.

Product pages emphasized e-commerce purchase flows, while Croma’s core strength was store experience and assisted selling.

Customers lacked visibility into nearby store availability, demos and pickup options.

Complex product specifications made it difficult for customers to quickly evaluate electronics purchases.

Cross-device journeys (desktop - mobile - store) lacked continuity.

KEY OPPORTUNITY AREAS 👉

THE STRATEGY✌

Based on the insights, I developed a design strategy centered on store-connected commerce. The strategy had four key pillars.

1. Store-Integrated Product Discovery 🔎

Product pages were redesigned to surface:

Nearby store availability

Pickup and delivery options

Store directions

“Connect to Store” for expert advice

This reframed the product page from pure e-commerce to assisted retail experience.

2. Omnichannel Fulfillment Options📦

Customers could choose how they wanted to complete the purchase:

• Reserve & Pick Up • Standard Delivery • Express 3-Hour Delivery

This gave customers flexibility based on urgency and convenience.

3. Smarter Product Information Architecture📃

The navigation system was restructured to mirror real-world store categories, improving cognitive mapping between online browsing and physical store aisles.

Navigation simplified into:

• Products • Brands • Deals • Croma Exclusives

Product categories were reorganized around customer mental models rather than internal merchandising structures.

4. Mobile-first Omnichannel Experience📱

A responsive interface ensured continuity across devices.

Key mobile features included:

• Personalized recommendations • Saved product suggestions • Seamless login and account continuity • Real-time store information

The mobile experience effectively became a personal shopping assistant during store visits.

THE IMPACT 👊

This omnichannel redesign positioned Croma’s digital platform as a driver of store engagement rather than a competing channel.

Key business outcomes the strategy aimed to unlock:

Higher Conversion Rates : Customers arriving in-store with shortlisted products are more likely to convert.

Improved Store Utilization : Digital discovery drives footfall to nearby stores for demos and assisted selling.

Reduced Decision Friction : Simplified product information and clearer purchase options reduce analysis paralysis for high-value electronics purchases.

Somewhere along the way, the objective of helping people fix issues quickly got replaced by something else: categorization, routing logic, ticket hierarchies, SLA layers, approval chains, automated responses, and workflow matrices.

In theory, all of this improves efficiency.

In reality, it often slows everything down.

* The Problem We Don’t Talk About

If you have worked inside a large organization, this scenario probably feels familiar.

Your laptop stops syncing files.😦 You cannot access a shared drive. 😧 Your VPN suddenly stops working before an important meeting. 😮

You open the helpdesk portal expecting help.

Instead, you are asked to :

Select a category

Choose a sub-category

Pick a service

Identify the affected asset

Describe the issue in detail

Attach screenshots

Select priority

Submit a ticket

And then wait.

Sometimes you receive an automated email asking for more information.

Sometimes the ticket is reassigned three times.

Sometimes the solution already exists somewhere in a knowledge base you didn’t know how to find.

The irony is simple: the system designed to solve problems creates friction before the problem even begins to be solved.

* Complexity Is Often Disguised as Sophistication

Over the years I’ve seen enterprise helpdesks evolve into highly sophisticated operational systems.

They integrate with asset databases, service management tools, workflow engines and monitoring dashboards. From a systems architecture perspective, it’s impressive.

But from the employee’s perspective, the experience is very different.

When something is broken, people are not looking for a system. They are looking for help.

This is where design thinking needs to intervene.

* A “Silly” Idea That Might Actually Work

While exploring ways to simplify enterprise support systems, I once proposed something almost embarrassingly simple.

A two-step helpdesk experience.

Step 1 - View the Issue / Ticket

Instead of navigating layers of forms and categories, the employee simply sees a clear issue ticket screen.

The problem is captured quickly in plain language.

No complicated routing logic upfront. No elaborate classification. Just the issue.

Step 2 - Connect With IT Support

Immediately after logging the issue, the user is presented with three simple ways to connect:

Call support

Email support

Chat with support

That’s it.

View the issue. Connect with support.

Two steps.

When I first shared this idea, it felt almost silly. Almost dumb. Surely enterprise systems can’t be this simple.

But the more I reflected on it, the more it made sense.

Built in 5 mins.

The collaboration with Ubamarket was born out of a shared recognition: grocery retail was at an inflection point. While e-commerce had reshaped customer expectations, physical stores still accounted for the majority of grocery shopping. Yet research showed growing frustration. The long queues, fragmented loyalty programs, difficulty tracking spend and inefficiencies made grocery shopping one of the least liked weekly activities for millions of consumers in the UK.