Web App for Manufacturing • Xometry // ManufacturingMarch 2016 - April 2019Streamlined how manufacturing shops review and respond to new work by reducing the need for time-intensive manual quoting.
Problem
Manufacturing shops often had to spend days reviewing specifications, estimating costs, and generating quotes for jobs they might never win. Since buyers typically reached out to multiple vendors, suppliers were investing valuable time and labor into a manual process with no guaranteed return.
This created a clear opportunity for Xometry to improve the supplier experience and reduce friction in the quoting workflow. The design challenge was to create a job board that helped shops quickly evaluate incoming work, make confident decisions, and save time otherwise lost to traditional quoting.
ApproachI started by learning how machine shops quote and fabricate parts. That included working closely with Xometry's internal machine shop, visiting shops in Xometry’s network, and interviewing shop owners to understand how they reviewed specifications, estimated work, and decided whether a job was worth taking on. Those conversations helped reveal where time was being lost and what information shops needed to make faster, more confident decisions.
From there, I translated research insights and product metrics into interface concepts that could simplify job evaluation without removing critical context. As the sole Product Designer at the time, I led research planning, synthesized findings, and created high-fidelity designs that were tested with customers before development. That process helped ensure the final experience addressed real workflow pain points and supported the needs of manufacturing shops in a practical, usable way.
Decisions
A key decision was to shift the experience from manual quoting toward faster, more confident accept-or-reject decisions. The interface needed to give shops the critical context required to assess fit, feasibility, and effort, without recreating the time-intensive quoting process. Research with machinists, shop owners, and Xometry's internal machine shop helped identify what information mattered most and how to structure it for practical decision-making in a specialized workflow.
Reflection
Outcome
By helping shops assess jobs more efficiently, the product created a clearer path for suppliers to identify the right opportunities and respond faster. For Xometry, this improved the value of the platform by making participation easier and reducing friction in an important part of the supplier workflow.
This project showed me how important it is to design for clarity in high-volume, high-stakes workflows. It reinforced my belief that systems thinking, iterative testing, and careful information design are essential when improving complex products.