One of two designers at a DTC subscription start-up, mainly on UX, though at this size that also covers UI, CRO and a fair amount of product thinking.
Years is a start-up selling fresh dog food on subscription, in a market with plenty of competition. It's fast-paced and marketing-led, and there isn't much research capacity.
So decisions get made on whatever's available. Heatmaps, analytics, what the support team is hearing from customers, and experience where none of that covers it.
I'm the main UX designer, though in a team of two the role covers UI, CRO and product thinking as well, depending on what's needed that week.
I work closely with the developers. My background is technical enough that I can spec things properly, review builds and sort problems out before they turn into rework. I also stay close to the support team, which is the quickest way to find out what customers are actually struggling with.
The work's ranged from conversion optimisation to new features, navigation and information architecture, and customer-facing tools. I've led A/B testing on the busiest parts of the site, designed new purchasing flows from scratch, and built internal tools for the retention side of things.
I push for testing wherever there's enough traffic to make it worthwhile, and usually for bolder variants than you'd expect. Given how quickly things move here, a small safe change tends not to tell you much.
Fast, but not reckless. I use data where there is data, customer insight where there isn't, and I'm comfortable making the call when there's neither rather than holding things up waiting for certainty.
