Sunstone Circuits produces custom made circuit boards. Most orders are turned around quickly, which gives Sunstone only a three day view into it's order cycle. They used past years to, but this would produce limited knowledge into future sales volume.
Over 20 customers of varying sizes from small time hobbiests to CalTech scientists were inteviewed to understand their design process. A heuristic analysis of the current shopping cart was done to produce a set of recommendations. Personas were also modeled to understand each customer segment.
Final research showed primary motivators were not circuit board size and price, but time to ship and price. The shopping cart was redesigned with a travel-like matrix that allowed the customer to select when their order could ship. This also changed Sunstone's business processes, allowing them to extend their production forecasts from three days to three weeks.