The project lasted about 4 years from inception to launch and it required dozens of compromises, a great deal of stakeholder buy-in and an insane amount of back and forth during development.

Customers build a cart over weeks or months. We had to get creative to get really useful insights. While testing prototypes, I developed an animation to reset customer expectations and mimic the passage of time.

This intentional distraction helped us understand more about customer mental models when items fall out of stock.

Our stakeholders often compared our designed experiences with competitors. Whether it was a way to ask questions, engage with the designers or just cut corners, it was something we often had to address.

I decided to embrace this. I ran a workshop with our stakeholders and we critiqued a competitor. From that point forward, rather than copying the experience, we used it as a jumping off point.

Next, I needed to get feedback from stakeholders and turn these wireframes into a direction for our future work.

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First, I developed a system and some principles that would help us make decisions. We also did this with buy-in from stakeholders so all of us were speaking the same language and making a cohesive product.

After interviews and concept tests, research studies and gathering metrics, wireframing and refining the branding, I finally pitched our North Star vision.

We didn't launch right away. First we had to prove this design was the best design for our customers. During the summer of 2020 we distilled our North Star into 14 rapid A/B tests.

With our rapid tests we were able to build our Out of Stock Tray, setting aside out of stock items and allowing customers to continue to check out.

This proved to be a huge conversion driver. Before this, a customer would need to manually remove each out of stock item. That success gave the business teams confidence in our design team and our idea.