In her presentation at the Warm Gun Conference in San Francisco CA, Carrie Whitehead shared how Zappos Labs works on new retail experiments. Here are my notes from her talk:
- Zappos Labs created an experiment called Glance that used a stylist to create collections of products around trends or events like weddings.
- Solve a real customer problem: get out of the office and find out what people really need. If you can, experience these problems first hand.
- Keep it Simple was a huge theme that can through in Zappos research. This does not mean boring.
- All your customers will be casual at first -design for them. They'll arrive ready to back-out, you need to convince them otherwise.
- Launch with must have features only. Keep asking yourself what can you take away. It is much easier to add things than to take them away.
- Adding a feature can be useful but it can also clutter up an experience.
- Zappos Glance was accessed from emails, so the interface needed to work well on mobile and tablets. This meant simplifying the information on the screen as much as possible.
- After launch start collecting feedback, learning, and iterating.