Lifting an e-commerce marketplace Team
Director of Product Design, Creative Market
Creative Market was in transition
Creative Market is an e-commerce marketplace for digital design assets, such as fonts, page templates, and stock images. The company saw rapid initial growth but now faced significant marketplace decline.
The design team suffered, down to only one designer and, naturally, that designer was overwhelmed and constantly "playing defense." The team needed a new direction aligned with the company's revised organizational and business goals.
Elevated team, elevated impact
After building out the org, stabilizing operations, and taking on a major platform redesign, the team improved design maturity within the organization and saw a 40% conversion improvement.
Start With Design Org Strategy
By evaluating the survey data from Invision’s “The New Design Frontier” I identified the behaviors with the greatest leverage for a team like Creative Market.
As the new design leader, my role called for elevating the design maturity of the entire organization.
Leveraging survey data from design maturation research, I set a chart forward for moving the team into a higher state of operations.
To deploy the greatest impact, the plan focused on:
Leading efforts to elevate the craft of design
Streamlining efficient design infrastructure
Setting the stage for personal and professional growth
Through these efforts we set targets for growing the design team, aligning our efforts with business goals, and implementing data-driven improvements to our e-commerce operations.
Providing Team Leadership
Expanded and restructured the design team, hiring key personnel and establishing regular critique sessions and workshops.
Developed personal growth plans for team members and career leveling framework for the team as a whole
Introduced design facilitation techniques like sketching sessions.
Refined the hiring process, position leveling, and core operations.
Facilitated a workshop to define guiding Design Principles and Team Values.
Special Attention to Design Ops
Since the team had faced nearly complete attrition that resulted in constant firefighting mode, Design Ops had to be addressed to stabilize team workflows and create the platform for organizational design maturation.
Transitioned from Sketch to Figma for enhanced collaboration and significant cost savings.
Aligned the team on a mobile-first design process, despite detractors from within the org
Implemented objective-based critique and introduced new design facilitation techniques
Expanded access to key resources such as Baymard Institute to provide objective third party perspectives into design and product conversation
Designers now had unimpeded access to critical research tools, stable tooling platforms, and clear expectations for conducting an objective-driven design process.
Establishing career leveling provided transparency to the team on the expectations that must be met.
Facilitate a workshop to collaboratively define our Design Principles and Team Values
Team development through design
I used projects on the core e-commerce experience as a development tool for improving our operations and practicing professional growth.
Lead the team in research
Beginning with desk research to gain context, I led a comprehensive analysis of our e-commerce funnel, identifying key areas for improvement. In collaboration with our researcher, we conducted deep expository research with multiple segments of Creative Market sellers and customers.
Gained alignment on the future vision
I drafted a high-level diagram of the intended future state experience. We adopted a typical e-commerce transaction flow, both in payments and in how we prompted account creation. With this approach, I gained critical executive sponsorship of new e-commerce funnel improvements and re-designed sight experience
“Why do you keep asking me to sign in? I’m just trying to look around!”
— Creative Market Customer
“Why are you asking for my credit card here? This looks like a scam.”
— Creative Market Customer
Bringing it together with a Design System
We used the e-commerce experience project as an opportunity to (finally) build out a desing system. Working with engineering partners, I oversaw development of a component development workflow for more efficient production.
The design system elevated design team operations while also making site optimization more consistent and effective: e.g., A/B tests were more accurate as consistent design eliminated unintended discrepancies.
A high-performing team making significant business Impact
Based on the initial strategy, the design maturity of the organization evolved. from level 2 on most criteria to level 3+.
E-commerce on-site conversion improved by 40% after the release of the new design system, Product Detail Page, and checkout flow.
These actions led to significant improvements in the design team's performance, morale, and Creative Market's business.
The alignment on these principles, values, and processes enabled the design team to have an outsized impact on the business, helping navigate through the challenges of 2020 and beyond. Our revitalized design practice played a crucial role in Creative Market's evolution and success as a re-startup.