I appreciate you taking the time to review this case study. I chose this example because I feel it demonstrates:
My ability to work fast on a high-visibility project
My ability to navigate collaborations and negotations with multiple team members and stakeholders
My ability to work within confines of pattern library and technical limitations
In November 2021, Best Buy announced it’s acquisition of Yardbird, a company that specializes in premium outdoor furniture made of sustainable materials.
As part of the acquisition, Best Buy committed to launching the Yardbird brand on bestbuy.com by mid-February 2022 (to a limited market) to coincide with outdoor furniture peak shopping season.
Thanks to efficient collaboration & transparent communication from leadership, Yardbird’s product line launched on time on bestbuy.com and eventually launched nationwide.
Demonstrate the customer problem to leadership and work toward a solution with the best possible customer experience within the time constraint.
The existing solution was not intended for a SKU collection such as Yardbird that included up to 8 separate items and would lead to a poor customer experience on bestbuy.com.
Understand what other UX enhancements will be implemented to Yardbird purchase journey
Discuss existing technical limitations
Adjust UX if needed to align with overall flow
Note: PDP designer chosen to user test overall flow to identify any usability problems and identify future enhancements
Product
Detail
Page
(PDP)
Cart
&
Checkout
My Responsibility
purchase
history
order
cancel,
return,
etc.
Task: Create multiple iterations with varying balances of engineering effort & customer experience to help decide on MVP within time frame.
Focus: Utilization of existing elements within pattern library to ensure efficient engineering effort
Version 1:
+ Lowest engineering effort needed
- Worst customer experience
Considerations: Multiple ‘Cancel & Support Options’ per collection
If the customer wants to cancel their Yardbird order, they will have to complete multiple cancellation flows per collection
Allowing customer to “break” collection violates Best Buy’s agreement to sell Yardbird SKUs as complete collections
Displaying Yardbird collection as separate SKUs is inconsistent with how collection is displayed on PDP (single image) and could lead to customer confusion
Differing product name links going to same PDP could lead to customer confusion
Version 2:
Medium engineering effort needed
Reasonable customer
Considerations: Consolidate to single ‘Cancel & Support Options’ button and single collection product “card"
Displaying Yardbird collection as consolidated product “card” helps visually group SKU
Single ‘Cancel & Support Options’ button allows customers to easily modify items as full collection
Version 3:
- High engineering effort needed
+ Ideal customer experience
Considerations: Consolidate to single ‘Cancel & Support Options’ button and display collection as single image to match PDP
Displaying Yardbird collection as single image creates most consistency across customer journey
Displaying Yardbird collection as single image also reduces amount of scrolling for both desktop and mobile
Single ‘Cancel & Support Options’ button allows customers to easily modify items as full collection
Criteria:
Must be buildable within deadline
Should provide best customer experience possible
Should be scalable for future similar product offerings
Solution chosen:
Consolidated ‘Cancel & Support Options’ button that’s also moved from item-level to order-level
Positive impact to order modification flows
Consolidated product “card” and single collection name that links to collection PDP
Positive impact to navigational expectation when clicking collection name link
Displaying collection as single image added to backlog as future enhancement
Definition of user requirements
Based on solution chosen by leadership
Other Use Cases / Considerations
What if customer orders multiple Yardbird collections?
What if Yardbird collection is split into multiple deliveries?
What if Yardbird collection is ordered with unrelated product?
What if employee in-store places order for single Yardbird SKU or mismatching collection?
As the Post Purchase Team was defining user requirements, a different designer was assigned to the Yardbird work and I was moved to focus on a different effort.
I still made myself available as a consultant to answer questions from the team.
Despite hitting some speed bumps, the Yardbird product set did launch on time and the company still plans to expand nationwide
This experience was a great reminder of the value of understanding the technical possibilities and limitations of a design. It helped me be better equipped for negotiations with stakeholders to advocate for the best possible customer experience.
It is also a reassuring example of how I can thrive under an aggressive deadline while effectively balancing different goals/motivations between different team members/stakeholders.
“In early 2022, a number of product teams had their scheduled roadmaps disrupted without warning when a recent acquisition by Best Buy turned in to an “all hands on deck” situation. Jake stepped up to lead the experience design for the post-purchase touchpoints in the customer journey. Jake took on a high-profile project with aggressive deadlines and knocked it out of the park. He worked with speed while maintaining a thorough view of the customers’ needs and delivered his part of the experience while balancing his regular responsibilities. This project had a ton of eyes on it and Jake truly came through in the clutch.”
