SPEOS, bpost group · Design cell lead · 2024-2025

One delivery,
five entry points to follow it.

Clients had to reconcile references across five tools to find a document. Working with seven teams, I designed a shared portal from setup to handling an error. Six organisations tested it; file search and the ability to stop a batch came from their feedback.

Explore the reconstructed journey

The 2026 demo uses fictional data. The client tests cited in this case concerned the assignment prototype.

Reconstructed prototype
30+internal and client interviews
6client organisations tested
2controls added after the tests
7months, November 2024 to May 2025

My design decisions

One shared reference

The same delivery changed names between tools. The portal keeps its reference from setup through tracking.

Act within the document’s context

The error status leads to the document and the actions to correct it, remove it or choose the fallback channel.

Revise the controls after testing

Customer feedback added file search and stopping a batch to the project prototype.

01Find the document

The client needs to know the document was sent.

  • SPEOS prepares and distributes documents by post and through digital channels. For the client, the service begins with a file and ends with proof of dispatch.
  • Between those points, five entry points exposed the service’s divisions: catalogue, production, tracking, archives and billing. Clients moved between them to piece together what had happened to a document.

Before calling support, find the right reference.

  • Batch reference, processing ID, delivery number: the tools labelled the stages of the same communication differently. Clients had to make the connections themselves.
  • Archives and billing added their own views. Before discussing an incident with support, clients first had to establish that everyone was looking at the same document.

I follow the document through seven teams.

  • I mapped the file’s journey with operations, technology, finance, customer service, marketing, sales and production. Each team described its part. On the shared journey, we could examine what it handed to the next team.
  • I compared that map with the difficulties raised in more than thirty staff and client interviews. Three moments kept recurring: set up the service, find a delivery, resolve a blockage. They shaped the portal’s first journeys.

I led the design team and coached two junior designers. With the front-end team, we translated journeys into screens and components. Product owners decided backlog priorities.

  • Operations
  • Technical
  • Finance
  • Customer service

The same document

From file to proof of delivery

  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Production

  1. Start the service

  2. Find a delivery

  3. Resolve a blockage

Editorial research diagram: seven functions following a document’s journey, then three recurring moments identified in interviews.
02Prepare its delivery

The workshops set two priorities: setup and delivery tracking.

  • In workshops, I asked each team to place its difficulties on the six-stage journey. We could then link a client’s expectation to the setting or internal handover it depended on.
  • The teams’ vote prioritised setup and production tracking. That defined the first journeys to design and the people who should test them.
  • The teams prioritised the roles to serve: IT and operations managers, client decision-makers, production coordinators.

The proposed portal follows the stages of a delivery.

  • I organised the concept around what clients prepare, produce, track and correct. The five existing applications helped identify the functions to retain and the gaps to resolve.
  • Clients find the same names and references during setup and tracking. Channel choices and distribution rules prepare what will later need to be visible in production.

VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS · STRATEGYZER

The Ad-Lib: the value proposition in one sentence.

Product or service
Our shared document management portal
Customer segment
helps IT and operations managers who organise their company’s document deliveries
Job to be done
who want to configure the service, track a document and act on an error,
Customer pain
by reducing the effort of reconciling tools and reliance on IT for routine settings
Customer gain
and connecting channels, distribution rules and controls to the same document,
Competing value proposition
unlike five separate entry points with their own references and views.

Concept value proposition · editorial synthesis.

Putting routine settings within the client’s reach

Setup could take several months and involve IT teams on both sides. I worked through common configurations to identify what clients could set up themselves.

  • I separated channel selection, field mapping and distribution rules. Clients can review and change each setting before moving on.
  • Sales and the client can see the same settings while preparing the service.
  • IT remains responsible for the technical foundation; customers have controls for the settings the service supports.

Target to test in production: prepare common configurations in a few days, compared with several months at the outset.

Reconstructed prototype
Two source fields become one Peppol reference, visible and checkable before delivery.
Open the full screen
03Act when it gets stuck

The failed document needs to lead to the action.

An error status leaves several questions open: which document is affected, where did processing stop, what can still be done? I designed the detail view around those questions.

  • I connected the batch to the document, then the error message to its controls. The person can examine the problem and choose an action without losing that context.
  • Search, error details and intervention controls stay linked to the same document. Clients can return to the batch without losing that reference.

Reconstructed prototype
The incorrect address appears with three actions: edit it, remove the document or use the fallback channel.
Open the full screen

Reconstructed prototype

From the customer account to the processed document.

Eight connected modules show the portal’s scope: organise the account, prepare files and channels, define distribution, track a batch and act on a document. This demonstration reconstructed in 2026 uses fictional data; testing of the engagement prototype is presented next.

Define the entity and its scope.

The customer administrator, tenants and cost centres are configured in one place. These references then carry through the service setup.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Choose the delivery channels.

Each channel shows its state and activation control. This choice prepares the routing used by the workflow and the monitoring view.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Prepare the file intake point.

The SFTP connector is named and described before its access details are prepared. The prototype simulates this connection; no personal files are transferred.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Map the fields before distribution.

The country and VAT number form the supplier identifier expected by Peppol. The demo lets you change these two inputs and see the result before validation; mappings that still need attention remain visible.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Connect the setup to the routing.

A workflow brings together the connector, data tool, channel, department and cost centre. The setup becomes an identifiable distribution rule.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Monitor a batch and spot discrepancies.

The batch keeps expected and transferred volumes, channels, states and errors together. The pause control stays within this production context.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Find a document by its reference.

Identifier search and status or channel filters narrow the list. The result retains the recipient, batch and access to the processing details.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen

Move from the error to an intervention.

The timeline and error stay with the affected document. Correcting the address, removing the document or using the fallback channel are three simulated interventions in the demo.

Open the prototype
Open the full screen
04Validation and handover

In testing, clients also ask to stop a delivery.

Six customer organisations tested the prototype. Two requests changed the portal’s controls: search directly for a file and stop a batch in progress. I added both to the journey.

Around 4.5 out of 5 on an adapted SUPR-Q questionnaire, raw average after the sessions. The score covers the prototype experience.

Try production monitoring

Reconstructed prototype

File search and stopping a batch: the two requests from engagement testing, illustrated in the 2026 reconstruction.

The team receives the screens, their rules and the reasoning.

  • I handed over the sponsor-approved report, journeys, prototype and specifications. The design system brought together the components needed to continue building the portal.

Approved report

Needs and decisions, approved by the sponsor.

Journeys

Steps and handovers.

Prototype

Screens and their connections.

Specifications & design system

Rules and components to continue the work.

Editorial synthesis of the material handed over to the teams: report, journeys, prototype, specifications and design system.
He masterfully bridges the gap between high-level theory and practical execution, translating complex concepts into clear business benefits.

Robin Roelands · Operations Manager, SPEOS - bpostgroup

Contact

Do your clients piece a service together across several tools? Let's discuss what needs to hold together.

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