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 mStylelab 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: ran a weekly web 3 meeting to discuss all things blockchain, crypto, NFT, taught colleagues how to create and use a crypto wallet to engage with web3 transactions including token based login, wallet based login, buys, sales and using different blockchain networks like ethereum, polygon, immutable, test nets and more.

  • Relentlessly advocate for user centered design via user research & testing, facilitating research synthesis sessions & competitive analysis, maintained close alignment with senior leadership and business goals.

4. Process & Decisions

Research;

  • 5 internal usability tests on proposed user flows

  • Identified emerging trends across branded web3 activations & decentralized exchanges

  • Feature prioritization based on solving stated problems and business 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 under one 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 low and medium fidelity wireframes

  • 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

  • x accounts created

  • x views / media / etc.

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.