Gillette On Demand

About This Project

Business Problem

In the digital razor market, subscription platforms like Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s were dominating, so it was our job to take over the existing Gillette on Demand web app and give it a complete UX and front-end overhaul.

The Task: overhaul & launch a web app in 4 months

(Spoiler alert: it took 6 months.)

Being presented with the deadline and business scope, we focused on lean processes, fighting for the users, and educating Gillette in the human-centered design along the way.

The business requirements included:

• Increase revenue, users, and basket size 💸🛒
• Maintaining or improving site score on performance and SEO 🛠
• Improve site accessibility 💡

The Team

This was a large effort with a lean 4-person scrum team. Core members: Janella Polack (UI), Myself (UX), Adriana Rios (Front-End), Anum Qassam (Product Manager).

Stakeholders: Gillette’s North America Visual Design Group and Marketing Group.

My Role

• Lead Research and Design
• Lead Usability research, Testing, and Synthesis
• Research and created Personas
• Designed ongoing UI/UX on new grooming products

Research

Personas

Gillette didn’t have defined personas, even for their brick-and-mortar user. “18-40 years old and uses a systems razor” was what they knew. This was more undefined in the digital subscription space, where DSC and Harry’s champions affordability and the little guy. We needed to have an understanding of who their current user base really is.

As-Is Empathy & Affinity Maps
Taking 10 interviews with Gillette On Demand users, we created 10 As-Is Empathy Maps and synthesized the results into Affinity Maps to identify reoccurring themes and key opportunity areas.

Our Personas
We narrowed down to two personas. The cool Suburban Dad, a Gillette loyalist who wants to break the “dad” mold, is a legacy customer and wants to elevate his shaving experience. And the career-driven Gen Z, who feels that what he buys, its price, and the mission behind it, affects his appearance – he is a mix between (fewer) existing consumers and a desired marketing persona.

Findings & Results

• 100% of users are cost-aware (but will not forgo quality)
• 80% look for premium products
• 60% are analytical about shopping
• 60% have other subscriptions

Our findings helped us start conversations with stakeholders to prioritize product launches, from grooming products and kits to a $200 heated razor.

Benchmarking & Usability Testing

To understand how we should create the new site, we wanted to gain user-focused insight on the previous Gillette On Demand. To discover users’ delights and pain points, I was responsible for conducting qualitative user testing. I lead writing the script, moderating 10 user interviews, and synthesizing the findings to gain an overview of if users find value in the previous website and their path-to-purchase flow.

Our first round of testing taught us:

• Information Architecture: users struggled with navigating the site
• Value Prop: The concept of subscriptions make consumers uneasy, and not all understood why they’d prefer the online service over their normal Brick & Morter
• Layout and copy: The layout of product information wasn’t fully utilized
• Register: Consumers disliked being required to create an account in order to checkout
• Product Selection: Consumers are always doing mental cost-benefit analyses

From testing, we still had more questions (such as):

Why would a user choose one razor over another?
What information is the most valuable under their account?

In further interviews we dove deeper, conducting research to develop personas of existing On Demand users.

Synthesizing and Changes

From synthesizing, Harry, Anum and I worked To-Be changes in changes from navigation, user flows, and overall UX that tied into customer motivations and business objectives.

We couldn’t solve for all of the users’ pain points. Due to constraints from internal systems, we had to find workarounds to guide users along their paths with reduced friction.

Launch, Results, & Additions

So, how did we do? We had a successful launch on March 25, 2019. We saw major improvements along most dimensions.
After launching our new site, we continued to iterate and also provide new products over 2-3 months following our go-live date.

Post-launch metrics:

• User growth of 35% ✅
• Revenue growth of 150% ✅(new products → increased basket size)
• Met user goal of increased product assortment ✅
• Site speed became 50% faster ✅
• Improved Lighthouse score ✅