My Leadership Focus Areas
Analytical Experimentation
We launched A/B testing to inform customer-facing surfaces
Empathetic Flexibility
We reworked the CMS for employee-facing capability expansion
Enterprise Prioritization
We practiced cross-functional buy-in & feedback loops for collaboration
Intended results
Increase year-over-year revenue
Independent empowered action
Shared understanding
Research & Planning
Design Thinking for Stakeholder Alignment
We started with empathy-driven research, using quantitative & qualitative research to understand to cause & impact of our efforts. By grounding decisions in user needs—whether customers or internal teams—we aligned stakeholders early, ensuring cross-functional buy-in and a shared understanding of success.
We developed a key user story based on qualitative research.
User story: As a customer of REI, I would like to explore various adventure trip options and see the different landscapes and activities available. This will help me choose an activity that resonates with me and explore further. — Note: We leveraged data and personas developed by the enterprise to identify the size of the audience.
We validated the problem using quantitative research.
- suboptimal CTR and fewer views of trip detail pages
- the current UI limitations affect performance (page speed) and accessibility (WCAG)
Design & Prototyping
Our first A/B test found results that showed promise.
We achieve the target revenue goal (103%) on time. We were surprised that there wasn't a more significant increase in CTR, but also that we successfully moved the needle on engagement.
Development & Implementation Challenges
We lost dev & analytics resources to support both CMS integration and further A/B testing.
We needed a cross-divisional partnership to complete the integration — timing & prioritization mattered.
We leveraged agile development when and where it was possible.
Testing & Optimization
With A/B Testing the UX strategy success, we quickly moved to iterated frequent content testing, accepting approximation over accuracy,
Flexible Customer-facing UX Structure
Dynamic UX allowed for multiple content variables to expedite campaign production while continuing to test content.
CMS Dynamic Components
Friendly CMS interfaces improved the effieciency of production
Lessons for UX & Product Teams
Balancing Short-Term Wins & Long-Term Gains — A/B testing helped optimize engagement, but CMS integration was needed for sustainable growth.
Cross-Functional Buy-In is Key — Dev resources shifted, reinforcing the need for strategic alignment across teams.
Agility vs. Perfection — Prioritizing iteration over perfection allowed us to make incremental improvements instead of waiting for the ideal solution.
Lessons in Partnership
Socializing Wins Opened Doors for Bigger Impact: Don’t just deliver—evangelize. Socializing wins helps design teams shift from execution to strategy.
Durability Requires Deeper Product Partnerships: UX solutions should be designed for both immediate impact and long-term resilience.
Lessons in Leadership
I learned how to lead articulating design decisions and prioritization based on user empathy.