Team
3 Designers
2 Product Managers
Director of PM
Role
Design Director
Timeframe
3 months
Platform
Responsive web
Traditionally a listing service turned into e-commerce marketplace, 1stDibs was looking to extend its purchase format to include auctions. This was to optimize its pricing model, increase inventory and obtain new buyers. I had the opportunity to lead design from a seller experience perspective as part of a cross-functional superteam. We had assembled to launch this new product with an aggressive timeline fueled by expectations as a newly public company, all in the span of 3 months. This launched to very positive adoption metrics and continued investment in updates and iterations to optimize the MVP experience.
Overall we wanted to get better at pricing as a business, ensuring sellers get a fair price for their inventory while buyers feel like they are getting a deal. In a market that is made up of one-of-a-kind items, this is a trickier problem to solve. Auctions, however, are a great way of getting to the “right price” as it enables supply and demand to naturally converge to an agreed price. For buyers, it works to get a “steal” and for sellers it enables them to ensure they can boost sales, especially for items that haven’t sold at an original market price
One of the first things we did was to understand the extent of the project. Going into it, we knew it was a project that required a lot on the design team to help lead efforts and shape the experience. Along with my design director partner on the buyer side we first mapped the entire auction experience and its associated product touchpoints, which included buyer side, seller side and also our internal tools.
We focused on key areas of the seller experience that needed to be updated which enabled us to prioritize design efforts on critical moments that mattered.
We were able to design, develop and ship the initial MVP experience within 3 months. Working closely with our cross-functional teams in engineering, marketing, product marketing, product and account management, we were able to ruthlessly prioritize the key features that would be in the MVP a result of this. Soon after launch, we were able to boost our available inventory by around 10k listings as sellers gravitated towards using this additional method of selling their unique items.
Coming off the heels of the initial launch were several product updates that accounted for the items we could not include within the MVP. These included features like batch conversion, shipping subsidies, and pricing guidance, all working in concert to increase buyer conversion and make sellers successful in a competitive marketplace.
