In one month alone, we sent over 700 communication messages across various brands to one user!
Picture yourself the CEO of a well-known retail group, which includes 6 brands (Centerpoint, Max, Homecenter, Homebox, Splash, Babyshop), you are facing a dilemma. Each brand is sending marketing communications to opted-in customers via different channels (emails, push notifications, WhatsApp, and SMS), resulting in an increased number of messages to the same customer. While brand managers are pushing for more communications to drive sales, Product team advise reducing the costs associated with the redundant messaging. Meanwhile, the CRM team reported a drop in click-through rates, a high blocking rate on WhatsApp, and an increase in opt-out rates, suggesting a need to decrease the number of communications per customer.
To resolve this, you assigned the issue to a newly-formed squad where the Product Owner, under pressure for delivery, proposed an unvalidated hypothesis: to build a global preference center where customers could choose the channel on which they wanted to receive marketing communications.
My role
I led the Design and discovery research phases, focusing on understanding user behaviors, identifying pain points, and evaluating alternative solutions through competitive analysis. I developed wireframes for various preference center options, then facilitated usability testing to gather actionable user insights.
coordinated closely with stakeholders to ensure the solution was aligned with both user needs and business goals, iterating on the design based on feedback and findings.
Results
This project improved collaboration within the squad and across teams, uniting stakeholders with diverse needs to create a balanced solution. The final preference center met varied objectives by reducing message redundancies, optimizing costs, and enhancing user engagement, while streamlining cross-functional communication.
Here’s the Full Story 📖👇
Determining if the preference center was the right solution
Was this truly what customers needed, or was it just a feature that would not solve the underlying problems?
Designing it Effectively
If a preference center was the right solution, How to design it in a way that effectively addressed user needs and reduced issues like opt-outs and messaging overload?
The lack of data and evidence made it difficult to justify building the feature as proposed. To move forward effectively, it was clear that proper discovery research needed to be done to uncover the root causes of the issues and explore alternative solutions.
I began by conducting discovery research, with the following steps:
Stakeholder Interviews
I interviewed the CRM team, brand managers, and Shukran team to gather insights into their concerns and objectives. This allowed me to understand the business needs, customer pain points, and operational constraints from all angles.
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed competitors and similar companies in the retail and e-commerce space like Shein, Temu, Sephora that might have implemented similar features.
User Interviews
I reached out to a sample of customers to understand their preferences regarding marketing communications. The aim was to gain a deep understanding of customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, and whether they would benefit from a preference center.
Key questions included:
Which channels do they prefer for receiving promotional messages?
How do they feel about receiving marketing communication across multiple channels?
What would make them opt-out or block communication?
During the interviews, I facilitated a sorting exercise using a sample of the communication we were sending to our customers.
Which allowed participants to freely select preferred channels for each brand they engaged with. This exercise helped us uncover that communication preferences varied widely among users and often depended on their app usage and the type of message.
I identified three user archetypes to guide the preference center design
Engaged Subscribers
Frequent shoppers who appreciate the volume of communications and are less concerned with frequency.
Selective Subscribers
Users who prefer fewer, more targeted messages and greater control over what they receive.
Reserved Observers
Passive users who prefer minimal communication and are more likely to opt out if messages are too frequent.
Our research revealed that shopping habits influence communication preferences. Users shopping for themselves and family are more comfortable with higher message volumes, while solo shoppers want more customized communication. Additionally, users sought clarity on communication frequency and preferred managing preferences for each brand separately.
Inital Design Alternatives
Based on our research insights, I created two alternative designs for the preference center
Centralized Preference Center
This design provided a unified location within the user’s account where they could manage preferences across all Landmark brands. Users could select which brands they wanted to receive updates from, set their desired message frequency, and choose specific channels (email, SMS, push, WhatsApp) for communications. Additionally, I separated transactional from promotional communications, allowing users to choose distinct channels for each type.
Brand-Specific Preference Settings
In this alternative, users could set preferences for each brand individually, giving them control to manage communication settings on a brand-by-brand basis. This option aimed to cater to users with different engagement levels and preferences for each brand, providing a more tailored approach for high-frequency users or those with specific brand interests.
I conducted user testing sessions on the proposed design and gathered valuable insights that shaped the final solution. Key findings included:
Particpants expressed a clear need for setting distinct preferences per brand.
Particpants wanted visibility into how frequently they would receive communications for each brand, helping them feel more in control of their preferences.
They appreciated having a single, accessible location to manage all their communication preferences and were interested to discover other brands.
Asking for user interests led to higher expectations for a personalized experience across the app, signaling that users value customization but may expect the app to deliver it more broadly.
During the stakeholder playback session, I presented both design options, outlining the pros and cons of each approach to facilitate a balanced discussion, and weighing the centralized approach’s simplicity against the flexibility of brand-specific settings. Concerns were raised around user experience complexity, potential support needs, and compliance alignment. This discussion clarified priorities and guided final design adjustments to address these points.
Following stakeholder discussions and insights from user testing, I implemented several design changes to improve the preference center’s functionality and compliance. These updates included:
Separating Transactional and Promotional Communications
Transactional communications were made global across brands, while promotional preferences were set at the individual brand level to allow greater customization.
Adding Friction for Opt-Out
Introduced minor steps to create a more deliberate opt-out process, reducing accidental or impulsive opt-outs.
Separating Consent from Communication Preferences
To ensure legal compliance, consent settings were separated from communication preferences, providing users with clearer control over data permissions.
Limiting Cross-App Opt-Outs
Users can no longer opt out of communications for other Landmark brand apps, though they retain the option to adjust communication preferences online for each individual brand.
As this project is still ongoing, our next steps will focus on
Explore how to implement segmentation based on user data to deliver tailored communications and improve engagement.
Investigate methods for gathering and organizing user profiles, ensuring data supports targeted, meaningful communication.
Research opportunities to incorporate additional user segments, such as "Reserved Observers," to ensure personalized communication strategies reach all types of users effectively.
The MVP of a wedding cake is a cupcake, not a cookie
We were on the verge of falling into this trap. The team gravitated towards Alternative 1 because it seemed like the simpler solution, but it didn’t deliver the value that the discovery research had uncovered. This taught me the importance of staying true to user insights and not oversimplifying the solution at the cost of long-term value.