Designing a system that empowers account managers to lead the sustainability shift.
Pon Equipment & Pon Power (PEPP) is the official dealer of Caterpillar machinery in the Netherlands and a key player in the shift toward sustainable construction. While both PEPP and its customers express a strong interest in sustainability, real progress has been slow.
This project aimed to investigate the future of sustainable construction, identify the real barriers customers face, and explore how PEPP can evolve beyond its role as a supplier to become an active enabler of change.
Strategic Product Designer
Design Research, Service Design, Learning Experience Design, Facilitation & Co-Creation
September 2022 - February 2023
PEPP, a leading supplier of Caterpillar machinery and engines in the Netherlands, set out to strengthen its role in the shift toward sustainable construction. While customers expressed interest in greener solutions, adoption remained slow—raising the question: what’s really holding them back?
I was brought on as a Strategic Product Designer to investigate that gap and design a solution. What began as a customer-focused challenge evolved into a deeper, systems-level opportunity: to equip PEPP’s internal teams—particularly account managers—to become confident partners in their clients’ sustainability journeys.
Over the course of the project, I led the project through research, co-creation, and rapid prototyping. Highlights of my contribution include:
Revealing 16 customer challenges, which helped inform new sustainable strategy and internal initiatives at PEPP.
Uncovering a critical internal knowledge gap, which became the key barrier the project aimed to solve.
Conducting a training needs analysis with 15 account managers to define real learning needs and behaviors.
Building cross-departmental buy-in, ultimately leading to the launch of PEPP’s sustainability training program in September 2023.
And along the way, I grew into a more confident communicator, stepping into high-stakes presentations that shaped the direction and success of the project.
Before engaging with customers or jumping into design, I first needed to understand PEPP’s role in the construction ecosystem and what the “sustainable building site of the future” truly entails. Through targeted desk research and internal conversations, I explored emerging sustainability trends, technological shifts, and regulatory pressures shaping the industry. This early work helped ground the project in both strategic relevance and real-world constraints, ensuring that every step forward aligned with PEPP’s business goals and the broader transformation ahead.
Given the wide range of possible directions, I conducted qualitative research to focus the project around real user needs. Through semi-structured interviews with customers and internal stakeholders—particularly those in customer-facing roles—I explored both external challenges and internal barriers shaping the transition to sustainable construction.
My research focused on:
Understanding customer goals, behaviors, and decision-making
Mapping current efforts toward sustainability
Identifying key pain points along the journey to a sustainable building site
Through my research, I identified two distinct customer mindsets in their approach to sustainable construction. These segments helped clarify the varying needs, motivations, and barriers faced across our customer base.
Industry front-runners actively investing in sustainability to ensure long-term success. Their motivation comes from leadership, and cost is not a primary barrier. However, external factors—such as slow industry adoption and unclear regulations—hinder their progress. These customers seek partnerships to co-develop solutions and drive innovation.
Customers who recognize the shift toward sustainability but hesitate to act without clear industry direction. Lacking internal resources to explore solutions independently, they often wait for external validation, client demands, or regulatory incentives before investing. They seek guidance and collaborative strategy development to navigate the transition effectively.
I synthesized the data using affinity mapping to uncover patterns across conversations. This led to the identification of 16 core challenges, grouped into five overarching categories that reflect the most significant barriers customers face when transitioning to sustainable construction.
Note: Some challenges have been blurred out due to confidentiality, as they fall outside the scope of this project.
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Conducting a training needs analysis with 15 account managers to define real learning needs and behaviors.
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Lack the capacity to research what solutions are out there
Without knowledge they do not have a vision and cannot create a strategy for the future.
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PEPP’s customer-facing personnel (account managers) lack knowledge & confidence to discuss existing/upcoming zero-emission solutions.
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With 16 core challenges identified, I used an impact vs. effort matrix to narrow the focus and determine where design efforts could make the greatest difference. By collaborating with both internal stakeholders and customers, we evaluated which issues were both high-impact and realistically addressable within the project scope and timeline. This process helped align the team around a clear direction for the next phase of development.
One insight rose above the rest:
PEPP’s account managers—and other customer-facing staff—lacked the knowledge and confidence to speak about sustainable technologies.
This internal gap emerged as a critical root cause behind several external challenges. Without the right expertise, account managers were unable to guide customers, support strategic planning, or communicate the value of zero-emission solutions—often avoiding the topic altogether. This directly limited PEPP’s ability to act as a true partner in its customers’ transition to sustainable construction.
Account managers are PEPP’s direct link to customers—and a key lever for accelerating sustainable adoption. Yet without the right knowledge or confidence, they can’t play that role effectively.
By equipping account managers with the tools to engage in meaningful sustainability conversations, PEPP can turn passive interactions into proactive partnerships—supporting proactive adopters in moving faster, and helping cautious observers build a strategy from the ground up.
With this in mind, I defined the design challenge:
How might we equip PEPP’s account managers with the knowledge and confidence to actively engage in sustainability conversations—so they can better support customers and drive the transition to sustainable construction?
As the project shifted from external customers to internal customer-facing teams, it became essential to understand the people who would bring the solution to life: PEPP’s account managers. I set out to explore their knowledge gaps, learning behaviors, and motivational triggers—ensuring the training program would be relevant, engaging, and actionable.
Note: While specific research outcomes remain confidential, the steps below were critical in shaping the final solution.
I conducted a qualitative Training Needs Analysis, inspired by the Academy to Innovate HR framework. Through 15 in-depth interviews with account managers, I explored:
Their current knowledge levels and gaps
How they prefer to learn and absorb new information
What motivates them to engage with internal training
Using the insights gathered, I developed a detailed persona representing a typical account manager—capturing their goals, pain points, motivations, learning preferences, and a “day in the life.” This helped ground the training experience in real user needs and work contexts.
To ideate around potential training solutions, I facilitated a cross-functional co-creation session with stakeholders from account management, marketing, HR, and engineering.
Using brainwriting and group discussion formats, participants generated, grouped, and prioritized ideas using sticker voting. Open discussions helped surface rationale, build alignment, and identify the strongest directions for prototyping.
The co-creation session resulted in a shared product vision for a sustainability development program—designed to educate, engage, and empower PEPP’s account managers. This early vision was shaped by two core stakeholder needs:
1. The training should be relevant, engaging, and easy to absorb.
2. The experience should motivate continued learning over time.
To meet these goals, the solution would combined flexible content formats with motivational design elements, forming a hybrid learning experience. While still evolving, the core components of the vision included:
Blended Learning (In-Person +Online)
A mix of online and in-person formats to accommodate different learning preferences, tight schedules, and the realities of being on the road.
In-House Experts as Educators
Tapping into internal expertise by involving PEPP professionals in content delivery—ensuring credibility, relevance, and relatability.
Gamification: Teams & Points
Adding a competitive, team-based points system to spark motivation. This built on key account manager drivers: social connection, achievement, and incentives.
With just under five weeks, we adopted a rapid, iterative approach to test core elements of the training concept—focusing on digital learning formats and a motivational gamification layer.
Although account managers preferred in-person training, their decentralized and travel-heavy roles made digital delivery a necessity. We hypothesized that, if designed well, digital content could still be engaging, effective, and scalable.
Using a mix of in-house expertise and AI tools, we created and tested four lightweight learning content formats—each prioritized during the co-creation session:
🎧 Podcast – Short audio interviews with in-house experts
📖 Comic Strip – Story-based visuals to explain key concepts
🎥 Explainer Video – Mixed-media content for clear deliver
📄 Digital Document – Digital webpage with terms and diagrams
To keep users motivated, we introduced a team-based points system. Account managers were grouped into teams and earned points by completing content and quizzes. This added a social and competitive dimension to the learning experience, aligning with motivation drivers uncovered during research (social, achievement, and reward).
Each week, a new prototype was released to all three teams. After engaging with the content, participants:
Took a short quiz to test knowledge retention
Completed a feedback survey to evaluate clarity, usefulness, and experience
Earned points toward their team’s total
We iterated weekly based on feedback. At the end of the cycle, a final survey and follow-up interviews with both active and inactive participants provided deeper insight into what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve future iterations.
This testing process led to several key insights that would help inform the next phase of development—highlighting what resonated with users, what needs refinement, and how to design a more engaging and effective learning experience going forward
“I’ve always liked podcasts and I found the material interesting”
“I liked the visuals in the comic and the document. They were easy to scan and helped me understand things quickly—and I could use them in conversations with clients too..”
- Account Managers, PEPP
Takeaway:
Users absorb information in different ways—a one-size-fits-all approach won't work.
Not all formats work for every topic; content needs to be matched to learning goals.
Visual formats (e.g. two-pager, comic) offer added value as tools for customer conversations.
Next Step Implication: The hybrid learning approach should include format-specific guidelines—matching content types to learning goals and including customer-facing versions where relevant.
“We actually made a WhatsApp group. Every time a task came out, we reminded and encouraged each other. At the end of each week, we even shared screenshots of the points we earned.”
“Honestly, I did not care about the prize. I just wanted our team to win.”
- Account Managers, PEPP
“It was fun to do it together—I wanted to get my whole team involved.”
- Team Lead, PEPP
Takeaway:
Social motivation (team pride, peer encouragement) outperformed extrinsic rewards.
Peer communication and a shared goal significantly increased engagement.
Participation thrived when a motivating team lead or ambassador was present.
Next Step Implication: Future rollouts should build in structured team dynamics—shared spaces, challenges, and leadership roles to reinforce engagement.
“It felt like what we talked about in the interviews actually mattered. You really listened and turned that into content that made sense for us.”
“I like that we had say on what we were learning and how we were learning it”
- Account Managers, PEPP
Takeaway:
Giving users a voice created ownership and a stronger emotional investment.
Seeing their feedback reflected in the program increased trust and long-term engagement.
Next Step Implication: Keep involving users throughout development—ongoing feedback loops, co-creation, and iteration will help keep the program relevant and trusted.
“I wanted to do more, I just didn’t have time. I had a lot of other work that was a priority.”
“My team wasn’t really working together, and that made it hard to stay motivated.”
“I saw the emails, I just forgot.” “
Time was an issue, but I found the material important so I made time for it.”
- Account Managers, PEPP
Takeaway:
Time constraints were the main barrier, especially for inactive participants.
Participants who perceived the content as valuable made time for it, despite other demands.
Lack of structure, reminders, and peer accountability reduced participation.
Next Step Implication: In future iterations, introduce lightweight reminders, better pacing, and team ambassadors to keep momentum. Emphasize content relevance early to build intrinsic motivation.
This project laid the foundation for a new, more engaging approach to learning at PEPP—one designed to empower account managers as confident partners in the transition to sustainable construction.
Following the success of the prototyping phase, a second development phase was carried out and the sustainability development program was officially launched in September 2023. The energy and buy-in generated through co-creation, testing, and stakeholder pitches helped secure cross-departmental support and positioned the training as a strategic priority within the organization.
While early feedback was positive, this was just the beginning!
This project was an incredibly rewarding opportunity to work at the intersection of strategic design, service design, behavior change, and sustainability—all within the unique context of the construction industry. What began as an exploration into external customer challenges evolved into something much deeper: uncovering an internal barrier that was quietly limiting PEPP’s ability to lead the sustainability transition.
Some of the most valuable lessons I learned during this project include:
1.
Let insights—not assumptions—guide the design process.
This project reminded me the importance of staying open to where the research leads. While my original brief focused on designing a solution for customers, the data pointed clearly to an internal need—shifting the project’s direction in a way that ultimately had greater long-term impact.
2.
Behavior change requires more than content—it needs context, motivation, and empathy.
Designing a training program meant understanding not just what account managers needed to learn, but how they preferred to learn and what motivated them. By focusing on real-world context, team dynamics, and intrinsic motivation, we created something that felt useful, not just informative.
3.
Confidence grows through discomfort.
Throughout the project, I had to present my work to senior stakeholders—often outside my comfort zone. Over time, those moments became the most valuable: I learned how to clearly communicate strategy, build buy-in, and speak with confidence about complex work I truly believed in.
Finally, I gained a deeper appreciation for the role of account managers—not just as salespeople, but as potential sustainability champions. Empowering them with the right knowledge, tools, and motivation could have a ripple effect across the industry—and it was energizing to help lay the groundwork for that transformation.
“I worked closely with Michal for 6 months as her manager, during this period she completely made the project her own and became a subject matter expert within months. Michal is an exceptional professional; eager to learn, organized and has a meticulous attention to detail which makes here a great contribution to any team that wants to drive for success.
Michal's presence uplifts the team spirit, infusing enthusiasm into her work and that of her colleagues. Her contributions have been invaluable, and she leaves behind a legacy here at Pon Equipment. Most of all, I personally enjoyed working with her and hope to do so in the future.”
Boris can Toor | Project Manager
Business Innovation Partner, PEPP
“You dives in deep. Just a no or a yes is not enough, the why is what you are always looking for. And looking further at what the outcome of whatever question or interview means for your project.”
Jorgen van der Voorden | Project Mentor
After Sale Manager, PEPP
