Physical-digital operations · arabam.com · 2023 – 2024
Fifty-eight branches, one way to inspect a car
A vehicle-inspection service that worked differently in every branch.
In short
Situation: The vehicle-inspection service of one of Türkiye's leading automotive marketplaces ran across 58+ physical branches, with more being added, and each branch booked, inspected and reported in its own way. Decision: Treat the inspection as a single product. One central platform for appointments, the inspection workflow and reporting, used to the same standard in every branch, with a hybrid physical-digital flow that the customer can follow online. Result: 58+ branches on one platform with standardised, traceable inspections and a service quality that could finally be measured. On the same marketplace, Trink Al handled appraisal, notary and transfer on the buyer's behalf. My role: Senior Product Manager: product definition, cross-functional leadership across operations, branches and engineering, rollout.
- My role
- Senior Product Manager
- Period
- 2023 – 2024
- Scale
- 58+ branches · web and mobile
- Key figure
- 58+ branches · 2 products · ~40% shorter time to market
Situation and complexity
In a used-car purchase, the inspection is where the buyer decides: they want to know what they are getting. The service existed and was in demand, but it ran as fifty-eight local operations. Booking, inspection steps and report formats varied by branch, so quality varied too, and the company could not see its own service end to end.
The complexity was organisational before it was technical: branches, a central operations team, customers who book online and show up in person.
Options on the table
- Give branches a better booking tool and leave the rest
Rejected. Booking was the visible part; the inconsistency was in the inspection and the report.
- Centralise operations and remove branch autonomy
Rejected. The branches are the service; the platform had to make them consistent, not replace them.
- One platform: appointments, inspection workflow, reporting, in every branchChosen
One standard flow, run by the existing branches.
The decision and how it was organised
Appointment booking, the inspection workflow and the report came together in one system used in every branch. The report became a standard document the customer could read online, which turned a local service into a product with measurable quality.
Rollout ran branch by branch with the operations team. The two-week sprint cadence we introduced for web and mobile work shortened time to market by roughly forty percent across the roadmap.
On the same marketplace, Trink Al coordinated appraisal, notary and transfer on the buyer's behalf for cars bought online, whether the car was in the buyer's city or elsewhere. It was the same approach, applied to another fragmented process.
Result
Operational volumes are shared in conversation as relative changes.
What went wrong, what I learned
Intent: Standardise every branch within one rollout wave.
What went wrong: Branches turned out to differ more than expected. The first wave surfaced local practices that the standard flow did not cover.
What changed afterwards: The second wave started with a short on-site observation per branch before configuration.