Innovation

Designing a Global AI-Powered Pricing Strategy Platform

Energy Company

A major global energy company set out to create a next-generation, AI-driven pricing platform to unify and automate how fuel prices are determined across international markets.

Business Problem

The organization’s midstream pricing operations—responsible for setting prices for both commercial resellers and retail fuel stations—had become increasingly fragmented.

Multiple teams across different countries relied on spreadsheets, emails, and disconnected systems to perform complex pricing tasks.

My Role

I was brought in to define the product design strategy for this transformation.

My role was to realign a previously failed design effort, convert long-term business goals into a usable product vision, and establish a phased path toward automation.

The result was a unified product strategy that helped the company transition from manual workflows to a scalable pricing platform powered by artificial intelligence.

Mapping Chaos — Understanding the “As-Is”

The initial ask was broad: create a unified platform to support daily pricing activities across various contract types.

While the long-term goal was automation, there was no clear understanding of how current workflows operated or what could realistically be standardized.

Process Explained

To reframe the challenge, I led a discovery effort with a researcher.

We conducted one-on-one and group interviews with pricing teams across several regions in Europe and North America.

These teams had previously experienced a failed design initiative, so we had to re-establish trust before gathering insights.

Screenshot of online pricing analyst interview

Key findings:

  • Countries (regions) varied significantly in how pricing decisions were made and what tools they used.

  • Many pricing processes depended heavily on individual knowledge and were undocumented.

  • Opportunities for automation existed but were hidden behind fragmented practices.

Screenshot of a business process map

We mapped the individual countries’ business processes and synthesized our research into a set of Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD), reframing daily responsibilities regarding outcomes instead of internal process steps.

This allowed the business to understand better where common ground existed and where customization would still be necessary.

Making Research Actionable

We translated our research into over 60 structured user stories, each tied to the JTBD framework. These stories helped the broader team understand where design and engineering effort could have the most business impact.

To prioritize, I worked with stakeholders to score each user story by value and feasibility. Tools like Miro and Dovetail supported this analysis, and we created visual maps of overlapping responsibilities and automation readiness across regions.

This process shifted the project from vague strategic ambition to actionable steps. The team was able to clearly see which workflows to standardize first, and which to defer for later automation.

Screenshot (photo right) of the Jobs-to-Be-Done in Excel and the client presentation (photo left)

Bridging the Gap Between Strategy and Product

Business Strategy

In parallel, the business had developed a multi-year roadmap outlining high-level objectives for digital transformation.

However, these goals weren’t tied to real-world user behaviors or technology implementation plans.

Translating Business Strategy into a Product Design Strategy

I partnered with analysts to translate this business roadmap into design milestones using the JTBD structure. This helped us:

  • Define new responsibilities that the pricing staff will have at each stage.

  • Plan user-facing features in parallel with backend AI development.

Prototyping the Future — From Manual to Machine-Led

Screenshots of the feature progression to reach automation and of a MVP screen.

To bring the vision to life, I created concept wireframes for different phases of the platform’s evolution:

  1. Standardized manual interface — for immediate improvement and consistency.

  2. AI-assisted workflows — where human teams validate automated recommendations.

  3. Fully automated system — where the platform independently suggests optimal pricing with human oversight.

These prototypes helped stakeholders visualize how the product would support both current tasks and future innovation.

This clarity accelerated decision-making and allowed development teams to begin shaping the backlog based on real user needs.

Strategy Adopted and Design Work Initiated

The final design strategy became the foundation for the company’s global pricing initiative.

My work delivered:

  • A unified framework for understanding user needs across regions.

  • A design roadmap aligned with business transformation milestones.

  • Wireframes that made a complex vision tangible.

  • A prioritization model to balance user value with technical feasibility.

Most importantly, we reset the project’s trajectory—shifting it from abstract ambition to a credible, user-centered plan that could scale globally and evolve toward full automation.

Impact of my Work

This was more than a platform redesign. It was a reinvention of how a global company approaches fuel pricing in a dynamic, high-stakes industry.

By grounding strategy in user insight and aligning design with long-term goals, we laid the foundation for a product that supports both human decision-making and future AI optimization.

This case shows how I:

  • Translated long-range business strategy into product design milestones.

  • Unified fragmented pricing operations through research and systems thinking.

  • Restored trust in design following a failed initiative.

  • Positioned design as a bridge between user experience and AI-driven innovation.

“We laid the foundation for a product that supports both human decision-making and future AI optimization.”