UX Vision & Strategy

Company Overview

Amyris is a B2B biotech company that is building a B2C division within the company. They will create consumer products using their own molecules. Their products include cosmetics & skin care.

Project Goals

Several years ago, they started by outsourcing work to agencies or acquiring companies. Now they want to centralize the design and development of the digital experience in-house. They sought strategic advice to build & integrate a UX team, and then design strategic digital programs & features.

Tasks

Define role of UX team in company & the process to work in multidisciplinary teams
Define UX vision for a digital feature
Define UX strategy for the loyalty program
Define the strategy for building a design system that meets company & brand needs

Define UX Team & Process

When the project started, Amyris has multiple brands, some created in-house, and others that were acquired. Each brand worked with a different agency. Now Amyris wants to create a digital team in house to design future experiences and coordinate with Brand Management regarding unique brand needs.

I interviewed stakeholders regarding business goals & timeline. I performed an expert review of their current brand websites, and conducted a competitive analyses of skin care & cosmetic companies. From that I summarized initial steps for building an internal UX team and the prioritizing UX tasks.

The second document illustrates a typical design lifecycle and how the various teams could play a role at each step.

Define UX Vision & Strategy for Digital Feature

I used a traditional product vision board, where the product a feature on the digital site rather than the cosmetics themselves.

The virtual cosmetics try-on experience is a key feature for engagement, sales, and reach. It gives shoppers a safe and fun way to try on cosmetics, especially when people cannot go to stores. Shoppers feel more confident purchasing with a preview. And shoppers share their personalized looks with friends & on social media.

Based on stakeholder interviews, I explored the primary personas, each persona’s needs around this feature, and Amyris’s business goals. I conducted competitive analyses with other cosmetic companies. I used all of this data as the basis for defining key feature experiences.

Define UX Strategy for Loyalty Program

Amyris is launching a loyalty program. I spoke with stakeholders to regarding business goals and the primary personas. They want to increase the number of new customers and retain existing customers. In addition, they want to tap into sales through product influencers.

I researched loyalty programs in other cosmetic companies to understand common features, promotions, and tasks. From this, I brainstormed and organized the ideas in an affinity diagram, a process I often run with multidisciplinary teams.

Then I summarized features, mapping the features to the primary personas. And I suggested a timeline for design & implementation.

Define Design System to Balance Company & Brands

With a company brand and multiple product brands, it is critical to create a design system. The system should be based on the well-established principles of Atomic Design.

Stakeholders will understand who owns each part of the design: company vs brand.
The designs are chunked so they can be replicated & scaled for new products & product lines.