I led the design and innovation for the transformation of Michaels from an outsourcing / buy it off-the-shelf model to becoming an eCommerce technology provider.
I built a team of 50 UX designers and researchers in the US and China, acting as the Creative Director, Sr. Director of UX, and Sr. Director of Innovation, and when needed, do hands on design work. I developed the on-boarding processes, and UX growth path for Michaels UX.
I own strategy, design, and innovation for all of Michaels Pillars; eCommerce, Mobile, Web, Enterprise, Supply Chain, In Store, Distribution Centers, Community, and New Ventures.
Below is an example of the hands on design work I did. All of the other work is held under NDA. If you have any questions please reach out.
Go here to see the active site: Michaels
SOAR Story
Situation:
Michaels.com sells have been flat for 4 years (take out 2020, the uptick was due to COVID)
Objective / Obstacles:
Objective:
Object is to review our sell engagements and see if we can find out how we can grow the business. Today, online is a $1.5B chunk of the business. Leadership is asking to grow that to $3B in the next 2 years.
Obstacles:
My team was not the eCommerce or marketing team, we are technology. The ecomm and Marcom teams are our internal customers and they did not feel we understood the business and we should not be focusing on this problem.
Continuing down the same path would result in continued flat sales. Our eCommerce approach is based on Pavlovian physiology of coupons. If we want to highlight a product we do not show the value of the product we just slap a discount on it!
I needed to convince my CEO, his Marcom and eComm teams that we should use coupons only as a seasonal driver and move more towards a value selling model.
Action:
Using my background in User Center Design, I got my team together and we kicked off a market research campaign / discovery. We got out of the office and talked to our customers online, in stores, and within the community. We worked closely with our customer insights team to see what was trending in the industry. We gained some keen insights around our customers, they referred to themselves as "Makers" and wanted to be treated as such. They do like the discounts, but questioned how we can continue to operate with everything on sale, we must be inflating the prices!
We ran multiple design studios so we could ideate and put a laser focus on each customer touch point with our site (and expand to the omni-channel engagements), the outcome was, that we needed to take the opportunity to create more meaningful relationship with our customers, and understand their passion areas as Makers.
For next steps, we ran competitive analysis as we looked outside our company for ideas on how to stand out from our competitors. I encouraged my team to above all, have fun. Passion is contagious. If we are not having fun, our customers will not either.
After pulling all the research together, discussions, and with the support of my team, I was able to distill it down to
"Michaels Stores should attract shoppers, not by offering discounts, but by “enriching lives."
I pitched this as " We are here for the Maker!" We should focus on how to make the Maker better through more targeted engagements, training, and projects that expand their skill sets. Also the building of a community to give Makers a safe place for feedback and to get "unstuck".
Results:
My team was very excited, our findings allowed us to collaborate with the ecomm and marcom teams to create targeted campaigns to the Makers different passions areas. These collaborations are resulting in a 23% growth in Conversion Rate (additional 435,000 sells / wk) and a 11% growth in average sell from $17.43 to $19.52.
The result was my team was given the green light to redesign the Michaels.com website and create a new site that allowed Makers to sell their products.
A great example of how to use User Centered Design to solve business problems and not just design problems.
I started by leading the development of the Master Design System
I led the redesign of the Michaels eCommerce site, I had 1 researcher, 1 designer, and 2 Front end developers working on the new site. My focus was to move Michaels away from the Pavlovian Coupon approach to a Value Selling approach. Based on our new direction of "We are here for the Makers" to target a more fluid site that focus' on the needs of the Maker, how to grow the Maker's skill set and to target a more efficient cross sell up sell using conversational UI tactics. I did the hands on creation of the new design language and design direction. I lead the creation of our UX process and procedures by creating a Design Center of Excellence. I hired 38 designers to support the transformation of Michaels to a software development organization. I then mentored my team on Value Selling and how to incorporate into our designs.
OLD MICHAELS.COM
Here on the left you can see the existing Michaels.com, no value selling, nothing to support the maker, just transactional couponing.
THE NEW MICHAELS.COM
Here is the new page layout, it is focused on the maker, the recommendations are more targeted, the focus is on the maker, there are call outs for classes and projects to help improve the makers skill sets. This should go live in April. 2023.
