Context

Challenge

• The original concept had been developed over the course of 2 years before launch. It was passed-off between designers 3 times at an agency and 2 HG designers (including myself). When I joined, user testing had only been done on VERY early iterations. The concept had changed dramatically since it had last been tested.
• A lot of scope, features and pages were trimmed, user testing was cut from the budget.
• Launch date was set to 2 months out from the time I joined, so I couldn’t delay the release with crazy design changes that would impact development.

My Role

• I ramped up and learned the project and its history/baggage quickly while building a relationship of trust with the Product Manager.
• I conducted a heuristic evaluation of the app in it’s current state, my findings and analysis were alarming; they indicated an imminent failure of the app.
• When the development was far along enough to be functionally tested, I required my cross-functional team (engineers, PO, QA) to take notes and observe during the user tests I conducted.
• The results of the user tests spoke for themselves, I didn’t have to spend much time advocating for a pivot, the team had seen first-hand how unusable the app was and galvanized to take action.
• We decided to use Google Ventures’ Design Sprint process in order to accommodate the need for a high-velocity pivot.
• I facilitated and participated in the Design Sprint to build a prototype that would address usability issues and consider the feedback from the executives.
• Conducted user tests with the new prototype to test the proof of concept.
• I gathered all feedback from the tests and management and iterated on based on many factors for the beta release.
• Updated UI design to make it more inline with our target audience.
• After Android Launch I shifted towards converting the existing iOS app, which hasn’t had a new release in over a year, to a refreshed UI and set up for parity with the Android version.

Results of Android Pivot 

• Gained full support from executive management as the pivot successfully aligned with HG without having to throw out all development up until that point.
• PoC was better-perceived by users and gave move-forward confidence.
• Improved team mission clarity, communication, and velocity (including improved output and ownership from our distributed team in India).
• Minimal impact to existing code and maximum consumer value improvements.
• Post release: Initial data shows Android conversion rates well above benchmarks at 58.8% for organic traffic in Play Store.

iOS app

Initially, the goal was to bring the existing iOS app to parity with the Android beta release, but with changing business goals we decided not to bring in some of the features done in the Android app. I pitched to the Product Manager that instead of ditching any allocated development efforts, we refresh the iOS app with it’s current functionality with a UI re-skin, improve usability and IA changes that would get us set up for (future) parity, but would also add value to the user.

App Store rating 4.6 Stars