1. Overview: mStylelab

  • Product: A digital fashion platform for Tokenized clothing & the future of fashion

  • Role: Specialist, Design Research & Product Management

  • Impact: Launched Macy’s first ever digital fashion platform

2. Problem

  • Macys has created about 8 separate NFT collections and novice web3 users had a hard time managing multiple 3rd party crypto wallets across blockchains. Research showed that even frequent collectors had trouble with minting NFTs across different web3 blockchains due to complex userflows involved in cryptocurrency conversion.

  • Users needed clear & concise UX copy instead of our usual on-brand marketing copy, along with a more familiar web2.0 user experience with affordances for NFT collection and showcase.

  • The Business needed to abstract away complexity of blockchain transactions and Web 3.0 usability to reduce customer support requests submitted via the Macy’s Discord server.

  • Regulatory uncertainty prompted concerns over high-risk laws surrounding money transmission and securities in addition to KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti Money Laundering) and CFT (Counter Financing of Terrorism).

 

3. Role & Team

  • Specialist, design research: strong advocate for user centered design, lead by action with competitive/comparative analysis, user flow design & low to medium fidelity wireframes and prototypes.

  • Collaborated with:

  • 3-5 engineers (front & back end)

  • 2 VPs (marketing and treasury)

  • 3 creative directors

  • 2 UX designers

  • 2 internal legal counsel

  • 1 external legal counsel

  • 3 risk management

  • 4 enterprise security

  • 6 marketing finance

  • 1 copy

  • 2 marketing creative

  • 3 external vendors

  • Leadership angle: Co-led design critiques, delegated tasks related to design ideation, competitive/comparative analysis, userflow creatoin, information architecture, prototyping. Influenced contract negotiations, scoping, and external vendor management.

4. Process & Decisions

Research:

  • Competitive/comparative analysis of leading NFT marketplaces & Brands entering the NFT space.

  • Identified trends and opportunities across web3 activations.

  • Highlighted feature prioritization needs based on stated objectives.

UX improvements:

  • Implemented a default wallet-as-a-service API to simplify & standardize NFT minting, collection, and display.

  • Included affordance to connect additional user wallets to consolidate token holdings and display under one user account.

  • Defined user flow and Information architecture for site navigation.

Visual / UI enhancement:

  • Participated in vendor creative reviews and bug testing for 3D world buildout & facilitated asset transfer between vendors.

  • Designed wireframes across low and high fidelity to support cross functional ux and marketing creative teams.

  • Advocated for mobile first design approach with simplified visuals, allowing focus on goal oriented behaviors other than shopping.

Collaboration:

  • Led competitive & comparative analysis, information architecture and userflow planning.

  • Designed wireframes and prototypes with UX and Marketing Creatives.

  • Represented the business in legal contracting with vendors.

  • Acting liaison between creative, engineering, legal, enterprise risk & security stakeholders from VP leadership level down to communicate vendor API integrations and produce data-flow diagrams required for compliance with corporate policy.

5. Impact

  • Launched macys web3 platform alongside a revamped discord server for our verified NFT collectors.

  • 1,000+ accounts created.

  • Created a proof of concept framework for personalized fashion design and delivery.

6. Reflection

This project emphasized the need to be a nimble product leader. As business priorities shifted, ambiguity took hold and forced me to wear multiple hats as a key individual contributor to keep the product moving forward. Connecting people with the right information, facilitating collaboration between silo’d teams and ultimately removing a wide variety of operational roadblocks through my own action and delegation was an exciting challenge and prepared me for leadership. This project also taught me the importance of roadmap planning, maintenance and clear communication.