Amway Labs Pilot
Problem: Executives wanted a live model (proof of concept) test of the Amway Labs platform running in Hong Kong, with only 5 months of lead time. The pilot would test assumptions around the value proposition of the platform, the target customer, the experience required to engage the customer, the startup products we would sell, and the go-to-market strategy. A key constraint: the pilot test had to appear fairly polished to our Amway distributors and had to be built on existing back-end systems.
Solution: Build a fully-functioning platform in partnership with an in-market team, but use core-team member past experience and existing expertise to side-step conventional timelines and barriers.
Method: I used my sketching ability and background in content marketing to define wireframes for the platform and key content buckets for the website. With the help of a UX designer, I brought the sketches to life in a week’s time, creating mock-ups of the website ready for development. We drafted and prioritized epics and feature briefs and outlined UI design. Because the pilot was taking place in Hong Kong, we identified a partner to translate copy and a Chinese development team, both of whom I project managed until the website was launch-ready 3 months later. We recruited 19 distributors to serve as our initial pilot group for the concept, and created a Facebook group welcome and onboarding program, and designed an orientation event to meet and equip them. I also designed the go-to-market strategy for each of our startup partners, directing photo and video shoots and crafting a social media strategy. We tested initial prototypes with Hong Kong stakeholders and customers, and we were ready for launch, with all the kinks worked out! Our test plan identified several pivot points to look out for and I designed challenges along the way to engage our pilot participants and test assumptions.
Outcome: We learned a lot about how not to prototype and pilot from this project. While our build was scrappy, it could have been more iterative, and we should have pushed back against leadership demands for a fully integrated solution. We could have automated less of the back end of the platform and still gleaned the same insights for a much smaller price tag.
