Summary
Led design of 23andMe’s Cart/Checkout overhaul. Negotiated +1 week for ENG to rebuild the entire experience with an existing design system, effectively reducing build time by 50% for all future iterations.
Product Problem Summary
I was sourced for 23andMe’s Cart & Checkout experience to implement a new Apple Pay option and to add a sticky CTA for mobile flows. During my review, I noticed that the visual language was inconsistent with the rest of the product. After syncing with the Growth ENG team, I found that the Cart/Checkout experience was built with a custom design system.
As I began to implement the product team’s requirements, I proposed quick changes to improve the user experience and increase scalability: reducing vertical space, modifying copy, adjusting for consistent visual language, and more.
These proposals were quickly shot down, and when probed for why, it was revealed that the Cart/Checkout experience’s design system severely limited technical solutions.
Product Solution Summary
Recognizing that the Cart/Checkout design system was not scalable, I synced with the design system team to gather their feedback on the situation. We gathered that rebuilding the experience using 23andMe’s product design system and grid could improve Design + ENG execution phases by 30%-50% for all future iterations.
I then met with the engineers to share my proposal and gather their feedback. Building the product grid would take up to two days, and rebuilding the experience with the product design system would take up to three days.
I brought this data to my PM partners and proposed adding a week to the project timeline, in exchange for up to 50% increase in build efficiency for all future Cart/Checkout projects.
Product Outcome
After meeting with my PM partners, I was met with overwhelming support. My proposal was brought to the Director of Product and accepted. The timeline for this project was extended by a week and the engineers implemented the changes in the estimated time.
Further test variants were built with a 50% efficiency rate, effectively cutting ENG build effort by half.
Despite such minor UI changes, I recognized a problem beyond the user experience and negotiated a solution that resulted in major business impact.