Every technology company that has or is building a platform faces the same set of user-related challenges: efficiently managing those users’ identities and securing access to disparate services, all while ensuring a seamless user experience. Carbon6 recognized the importance of addressing these challenges and partnered with Thin Air Labs’ Product Traction team to build a best-of-breed Identity Management framework on their core technology platform. The primary objectives were to build a robust foundation, enable scalable growth, and enhance user security.

Carbon6 is an all-in-one Amazon Growth Platform that offers Amazon sellers a broad suite of tools to manage and optimize their online businesses. From advertising to reporting to recovering reimbursements, Carbon6 gives Amazon sellers everything they need to maximize their profits.

CHALLENGE

Many businesses struggle with fragmented user data, leading to a disjointed user experience and difficulty tying a single user across an entire platform. Carbon6, particularly, had to deal with this issue, as they have a number of tools with independent user stores and systems, all interacting with a common core platform. Being able to make changes across multiple tools is difficult when there are different architectures, disconnected user stores, and a ton of edge cases. Add to that the growing need for security in today’s e-commerce world and you have a serious technical challenge to overcome.

SOLUTION

Carbon6 brought Thin Air’s Product Traction team in to address this challenge. The team quickly recognized that just centralizing user data was not enough; a deeper understanding of the technical intricacies of each tool was essential. The team designed and implemented an Identity as a Service (IDaaS) platform that not only unified user authentication and authorization but also integrated deeply into each tool's unique user management solution. The result was a seamless user experience across the entire platform that still honoured individual tools’ workflows and technical requirements. This comprehensive approach allowed Carbon6 to bridge the gap between its disparate tools, minimizing the effect on users while still keeping those users better organized than they ever had been previously.

As companies expand, the demand for scalable identity solutions becomes paramount. Carbon6 chose Auth0 as their identity provider as a baseline for scalability. Thin Air’s Product Traction team then leveraged Auth0's scalability features, ensuring that Carbon6 could effortlessly onboard new users, all while integrating additional services and expanding their business operations. Expansion should not be at the expense of security so the team built in security as a first class concern from the outset of the project. Product Traction implemented multi-factor authentication, new more secure password policies, and continuous monitoring for improper or suspicious access. This not only fortified Carbon6's security posture but also significantly improved the user experience by seamlessly balancing security with ease of access.

OUTCOME

Thin Air Labs' collaboration with Carbon6 resulted in a critical shift in their identity management. The unified access foundation that the team built streamlined user interactions, reduced user frustration, and prepared the way for more integrated cross-sell and up-sell opportunities on a unified platform.

Even more importantly, the work that Product Traction accomplished set up Carbon6 for tremendous scalability with thousands of new users coming online across multiple tools every month. The result is a single source of truth for users across the platform, a unified signup that creates a massively improved user experience, and facilities for customer support and customer success to provide unrivaled care and management of Carbon6 users. All of this demonstrated Thin Air Labs’ continued commitment to empowering businesses by transforming their identity management challenges into opportunities for growth, scalability, and security.

FROM CARBON6

“The [Thin Air Product Traction] team has worked incredibly well as part of the larger Carbon6 R&D organization. They’ve shown grit, determination, a willingness to adjust to changing priorities, and do it all with the perfect blend of autonomy and interaction with Carbon6 leadership. They’re a fantastic part of our team, and a perfect example of a great contracting partner.” — Brett McLaughlin, CTO