Launching the Nexon EV 3D Commerce Experience: Ambitions, Setbacks and Success

On 9th September 2020, world EV day, Tata Motors together with Eccentric Engine Launched the Nexon EV 3D Commerce Experience.

The launch of Nexon EV 3D Commerce experience was to coincide with world EV day. Being one of the launches that we delivered while working remotely, we found ourselves in uncharted territories, but luckily all in the same boat.

During the lockdown consumer behaviour saw a shift and customers wanted to access more information about the product online, with offline experiences shifting completely online and a desire for smoother experiences and a crisp design, it was imperative that we deliver on these expectations.

To make this happen our team had to come together and take it up head on while working from home. Wish we could say that the journey to the launch was smooth, but the reality was far from it.

Making mistakes, communication gaps, delays, errors and bugs all of it made us constantly try to find ways of being more efficient and avoid evitable delays.

Planning

Being able to work next to our teammates and constantly being able to track each other and plan accordingly sounds feasible to do online but power cuts, poor internet connectivity, and cyclones aren’t part of any plan and cause a ripple effect from one team member to another.

As such all members had to be extra cautious. All delays were tracked daily and if one team member was not available the other members were ready to take charge and give a helping hand to complete the tasks at hand. New team members had to get familiar with the project and adapt swiftly.

Technical issues

For recreating any car in the form of a 3D Model, close up photos of the physical car become very important, especially when replicating the material and colour. Few accessories, didn’t have any visual reference and due to the lockdown setting up a photo shoot for them was out of question. The team countered this by using the reference of other accessories of similar material that did have photos of.

Working with Other Partners

For the experience we were working alongside WatConsult who was developing the Homepage UI of the website. With our internal team and WATConsult managing different pages of the Nexon EV 3D Commerce experience, we had to be attentive that we link the pages and functions accurately so users land on the right page. And while communicating with the team itself becomes a challenge, that with a third party, was initially a cause for concern. But constant communication and staying up to date on the tasks assigned and completed on a daily basis helped us stay on track. And true to our One 3D Promise, it was seamless for Website Developers to adopt 3D Visualization with ease.

Approvals.

What remains crucial for timely deliveries is a prompt response and feedback from the client. For every component of the website, approvals are a must at every step of the way. Not only that but approvals come after ‘blessing’ from multiple managers and heads.

As a consequence finalization could even take days, but thanks to the team at TML, feedback was precise and approvals were not only timely but almost instantaneous

Our learnings:

• Communication is key. Without which you can have all the parts of a puzzle but won’t be able to put it together.
• Our Motto- Have faith. Set Expectations. Deliver was our motiver and our strength.
• Better Ownership and accountability enforced our ,one for all and all for one, thinking
• You can never be 100% prepared, no amount of planning is going to suffice. The most important is to accept it and be prepared to learn.

All in all Launching India’s most affordable homegrown EV has been a ride. We’ve made more mistakes and we’ve learnt even more from them. We’ve come out stronger and smarter than before. More prepared to face new challenges head on.

Here’s a snippet of the experience.