My roles

Player/coach, thought leader, team builder, evangelist, and therapist. From vision to MVP.

I joined VistaPrint to help define the vision –– and build it. With hands-on and facilitative leadership, I managed two agency engagements and an internal special projects team, built a new UX team from scratch, and co-led the multi-team program. I spearheaded ideation, concept validation, alignment, storytelling, and socialization across the company, including executive leadership and CEO. This effort tested the team’s stamina. I made sure individuals felt supported and motivated. We delivered the vision, strategy, frameworks, and MVP.

Problem

The north star was clear. How to get there was not. Lots of ideas, but first, we needed to answer three big open questions.

To be the marketing partner for small businesses, VistaPrint acquired and developed new brands, design services, and digital offerings to expand beyond print. My team was asked to create a 3-5 year vision that didn’t just work; it had to organize all of VistaPrint’s capabilities, leapfrog the landscape, and align and inspire our company and customers. We had to show what experience paradigm made sense, uncover the fundamental value proposition, and validate whether VistaPrint customers would resonate with it.

Vision

Q: What marketing capabilities resonate with small businesses?

A: Outcome-based omni-channel campaigns and workflow efficiencies.

Through generative research, my team (agency) uncovered that small businesses don’t have time for multiple brands and sites, need actionable guidance, and feel like “real” businesses if they know their marketing is working. These learnings clarified which of the many existing and new ideas from stakeholders, partners, and our team to dig into. With the Design Strategist and Senior Design Director, we deprioritized ideas like a content-heavy learning site, a community platform, e-commerce-only site, and a multi-brand suite of signature services. We now knew the digital paradigm small businesses dreamed of and their mental model of foundational marketing constructs (brand, channel, campaign, and insights).

Strategy

Q: How can VistaPrint deliver multi-channel solutions and workflow efficiencies?

A: Through an integrated marketing platform built on a simple four-step flywheel experience strategy.

Through concept testing, the learnings from my team (agency and internal special projects team) helped the Senior Design Director, Design Strategist, and me understand the fundamental benefit VistaPrint could realistically deliver to small businesses (multi-channel solutions). We defined the experience strategy (a simple four-step flywheel) and created the operational framework to help teams work backwards from the outcomes our customers seek. I led the creation and socialization of the illustrated vision and strategy across the company, with key stakeholders and the executive team.

MVP

Q: Will the multi-channel solutions strategy work with our small business customers?

A: Yes! And now we have quant data, too.

I co-led a multi-team program that took the vision, strategy, and frameworks to market validation. The team included over 20 members from UX, PM, engineering, data, strategy, marketing, merchandising, pricing, search, and more. From rounds of user and content testing, we iterated to an experience with multiple shopping pathways powered by flexible new page templates, a content strategy of highly specific short-form copy, and a playbook for curating products by customer and business criteria. The MVP ran as an A/B experiment in North America, our biggest market, and gave us the last signal we needed: quant data from our customers.

Impact

We methodically clarified VistaPrint’s vision and strategy and demonstrated their business viability. Other teams are now building on our work.

• Aligned to single vision.

• Defined the experience strategy.

• Increased multi-product purchases 23%.

• Increased OSAT 10%.

• Increased NPS 22%.

• Led to multiple big bets in the company-wide product strategy.

Reflections

I learned how to motivate teams in challenging times.

Lots of stakeholders with pent-up ideas from four years spent migrating to a new stack; tech and organization constraints appearing unexpectedly; a culture unfamiliar with customer- and design-centric processes; and a timeline spanning nearly two years –– all contributed to moments of very low morale. Fortunately, I got formative advice from incredible leaders. I was able to truly engage with each team member, understand their motivations (and fears), and connect our work with the stories they want to tell. Plus, we were able to laugh. An absolutely fantastic, resilient team!