Background

• Beautycounter is an omnichannel clean beauty company based in Santa Monica, California

• Company sells through the following channels: ecommerce website, retail locations, and direct sale ‘Consultant’ network (which consisted of over 90% of transactions and 45,000+ Consultants in early 2019)

• When I joined in early 2019, existing iOS app was available to download for Consultants only and included a limited amount of Behind the Counter (BTC) features

• Behind the Counter - the CRM that powered the Consultant network was desktop only, and extremely dated. When I joined, a re-platforming was about to start for desktop application, but no thought had been given to the potential that an iOS application might have on the user base.

Product Goals

• Bring newly re-platformed Consultant dashboard and customer relationship manager Behind the Counter (BTC) into the app so that consultants can manage their businesses on the go

• Thinking mobile first, how can we take into consideration some of the complexities of BTC and create a simplified experience that is optimized for mobile paradigm

• How can we also expand this experience to non-consultant shoppers and create an experience that folds in our mission and values

Primary Challenges & Considerations

• Diversity of user types and ways that they would utilize the platform

• Limited resources

• Inheriting and managing multiple design systems

Team Composition

• I managed three Designers - two product designers focused on different verticals and one user researcher

• I was the individual contributor and ‘owner’ of the Behind the Counter iOS app design. Another product designer on my team ‘owned’ the ‘Behind the Counter’ web application - our primary CRM platform. Another ‘owned’ our e-commerce platform and our design system.

• We also had a dedicated user researcher that helped with user testing analysis.

• Small, but agile iOS development team of 3 for the iOS app.

My Plan

• Test existing interface prior to designing navigational concepts

• Test navigational concepts while garnering feedback on current Consultant usage of the app

• Once core navigational structure has been designed, move onto BTC modules in an order that makes sense based on mobile usage patterns

• Continue to user test and survey

• Update shopping experience overtime to make sure it is parity with web experience

• Develop set of metrics to continue to monitor post-launch

Existing App Data

• 29k downloads (as of April 2019)

• AOV $119

• 8,400 MAU

• Average rating of 3.2 Stars on Apple App Store

• Access to Mixpanel Dashboards and ability to survey in app

Testing Navigation Concepts

User Interviews

• Moderated discussions were focused on self reported feedback on existing app features. Goal was to understand general attitudes (needs, motivations, wants, desires) about the Beautycounter iOS application. Spoke with 15 Consultants.

Direct Observation

• Provided a first hand understanding of user processes as it relates to an updated navigation concepts and PDP design within the app. Observation made through Lookback program which allowed me to view their screen as they navigated on the prototype.

• Recorded sessions and organized responses in Excel

Major Pain Points

• Unsure how to share products and social media assets

• Lack of motivational content

• Some of navigational concepts were difficult to master and not ‘user friendly’

Desired Ability To

• Easily reference their current level

• See Alerts

• See/share client order information and updates

• Share links to products with PWS attr’b

• Share social media assets

• Clear notifications

• Search ingredients

• Gamified experience like Start Counting