As Design Lead at WISK, my responsibilities included a complete cross-platform redesign and rebranding, feature design, asset creation, copywriting, & maintenance of the product. Redesign efforts increased our MMR by 35% within 2 months.
The Problem
Joining as the first design hire of the company, I knew this meant touching an existing, complex product with active, paying users. The platform, inventory software for only bar venues at the time, was in very clear need of a full redesign and rebranding, as the mentioned active users struggled and new users showed very poor retention. All its powerful features were buried under an outdated, unintuitive UI. I knew all changes had to be done mindfully, to make the UX clearer to new users but not confuse existing users with new patterns.
I conducted primary UX Research as my first step, talking to venue owners and employees who ran inventory weekly, studying their pain points. Secondary research followed, and once I analyzed the data, I started the redesign. I directly to the CTO and consulted with the Engineering Leadon each step, as we needed to meet in the middle to make changes fast, but not to the detriment of the tech stack and codebase integrity. This meant certain pixel-perfect changes were not always possible, which was an invaluable lesson in adapting in real-time to non-ideal design situations that inevitably happen in every role.
In between the redesigns, I was able to add features that increased the value of WISK in the eyes of existing costumers, such as inventory push reminders. Seeing that feedback coming in in real time excited us for the final redesign that was to come. As mentioned, the redesign increased our MMR by 35% within 2 months of launch.
After our success, we created WISK FOOD, increasing company reach three-fold. I conducted primary UX Research and developed major key features, such as batch + recipe yields, median item weight, & our price suggestion tool. For this project I worked closely with my teammates mentioned before, as well as the CEO, who had previous experience as a venue owner himself, to realize the business vision.
WISK's most powerful tool, online & offline inventory, is possible due to the mobile app. I redesigned this as well to create better UX for both venue owners & employees. After changes and optimization, the sign-ups increased ~25% and conversion from free trials to paying users went up exponentially each month.
Other day-to-day responsibilities includedmanaging junior and mid-level designers on a project by project basis, helped instate and lead the new marketing team on their first projects, and found and managed the appropiate contractors for off-site development, when our in-house developers needed extra hands at work.
