Digitizing India's Manufacturing Long Tail
Qualitative research with 20+ Indian manufacturers that cut one planned feature, reframed the core problem from "fabric sourcing is hard" to "manufacturers are starved of working capital," and shaped a mobile app now used to self-report order status.
PROJECT DETAILS
Industry
Manufacturing : Lal10
Role
Product Designer
Team
2 designers, 1 PM
Outcome
Research cut one feature, reframed sourcing as a working-capital problem, and shipped a mobile order-update app that dropped merchandiser follow-up calls by 40%.
Read full case study here
Overview
Lal10 promotes ethical Made-in-India products globally and runs a design-to-delivery platform for Indian MSMEs.
Brands like Zara and H&M wanted real-time order updates; that information lived with merchandisers who got it by phoning manufacturers.
Lal10's plan: hand the updating to manufacturers via an app, plus financing, fabric sourcing, and design help.
The roadmap was set, but no one knew whether it fit how a weaver in Amroha runs a normal day.
My job: test the roadmap, not rubber-stamp it.
The approach
Sole designer; 2 designers, 1 PM, 3 engineers; 4 weeks.
Rewrote the four-feature roadmap as claims that could come back false, so a "no" was a finding, not a failure.
Chose in-person interviews over surveys because the scope was unclear and I didn't yet know what to ask.
Interviewed 20+ manufacturers, ages 19–55, across three deliberately different towns: handloom Amroha, hand-block Bagru, fast-fashion Noida.
Sequenced each interview phone first, then workflow walk-through, then money last, so people opened up about off-book loans.
The Solution
Cut Design Intelligence; manufacturers never wanted it.
The reframe: this was never a sourcing problem. Manufacturers can get fabric, they just can't pay for it on day one, so sourcing and financing became one answer.
Mobile-only, low-text, icon-led, English and Hindi, built for low-literacy users and family helpers.
Order updates built on photos and video, not typing, in a short linear flow that fits a minute between jobs.
Financing via NBFC against a confirmed order; sourcing through Lal10's bulk fabric buying.
One persona on purpose, since needs lined up tightly across the whole group.
The result
Shipped a mobile order-update app; manufacturers self-report status feeding Lal10's ERP.
Merchandiser follow-up calls dropped by 40%.
One planned feature cut before it was built, when killing it cost almost nothing.
Win-win: brands get real-time visibility, manufacturers get cheaper credit and fabric plus update incentives, Lal10 gets new revenue streams.
Honest limit: interviews show what manufacturers struggle with, not how many, or whether they keep updating month after month.