Industry
E-Commerce / Custom Apparel / Print-On-Demand
Client
Custom Ink
Driving Cross-Team Alignment Across a Complex Top Funnel
Overview
Custom Ink’s e-commerce experience had grown complex and fragmented over time. While individual teams optimized within their domains, the top of the funnel including recommendations, catalog browsing, and pricing had become disjointed and difficult for customers to navigate. Initially brought on to support the recommendations team, I quickly identified that customer friction was the result of systemic decisions spanning multiple teams rather than failures on any single surface. Consequently, my role expanded to bridge the catalog and pricing teams, effectively covering the entire top-of-funnel experience. Key Achievements •Systemic Problem Solving: Reframed fragmented domain issues into a unified, user-centric funnel strategy. •Strategic De-risking: Used high-fidelity prototyping and moderated testing to transform a complex, 10-step quote flow into a validated roadmap for simplified pricing. •Cultural Alignment: Shifted team focus from "vanity metrics" to shared customer outcomes, earning a seat in annual roadmap planning.
Custom Ink’s e-commerce experience had grown complex and fragmented over time. While individual teams optimized within their domains, the top of the funnel including recommendations, catalog browsing, and pricing had become disjointed and difficult for customers to navigate. Initially brought on to support the recommendations team, I quickly identified that customer friction was the result of systemic decisions spanning multiple teams rather than failures on any single surface. Consequently, my role expanded to bridge the catalog and pricing teams, effectively covering the entire top-of-funnel experience. Key Achievements •Systemic Problem Solving: Reframed fragmented domain issues into a unified, user-centric funnel strategy. •Strategic De-risking: Used high-fidelity prototyping and moderated testing to transform a complex, 10-step quote flow into a validated roadmap for simplified pricing. •Cultural Alignment: Shifted team focus from "vanity metrics" to shared customer outcomes, earning a seat in annual roadmap planning.
The Challenge
As Custom Ink scaled, its digital experience naturally accumulated complexity. Over time, independent optimizations within siloed teams led to a disjointed customer journey. Core areas like recommendations relied on manual processes that struggled to scale, while the catalog and pricing structures were governed by legacy logic. This created a high-friction experience, particularly a multi-step quote flow that no longer aligned with modern expectations. My challenge was to help the organization pivot from these historically successful but aging models toward a cohesive flow, while maintaining an experimentation-led approach.
As Custom Ink scaled, its digital experience naturally accumulated complexity. Over time, independent optimizations within siloed teams led to a disjointed customer journey. Core areas like recommendations relied on manual processes that struggled to scale, while the catalog and pricing structures were governed by legacy logic. This created a high-friction experience, particularly a multi-step quote flow that no longer aligned with modern expectations. My challenge was to help the organization pivot from these historically successful but aging models toward a cohesive flow, while maintaining an experimentation-led approach.
While the visual system will take time to evolve, the foundation for experimentation, pricing clarity, and recommendation quality is now in place — and the organization is actively building on this work.
Workstreams
Recommendations: Moving Toward Personalization The recommendations experience relied heavily on manual curation, which limited relevance and scalability. I worked with the team to transition toward an algorithmic approach grounded in user behavior. This included shaping a roadmap that differentiates first-time visitors from repeat buyers and accounted for audience context. Alongside these structural changes, I introduced restrained UI refinements to improve consistency and trust, focusing on clarity rather than visual novelty. Catalog: Aligning Architecture with Mental Models To address years of accumulated complexity, I led a systematic overhaul of the product catalog, replacing merchant-centric silos with an information architecture grounded in user mental models (type, use case, and constraints). I validated this structure through card sorting and qualitative insights from store staff and sales reps. To balance UX with SEO and margin requirements, we decluttered the interface by elevating high-value signals like "staff picks" while moving secondary attributes into a flexible, testable filtering system. Pricing: Making the "Cost of Complexity" Visible Facing a convoluted 10-step quote flow dictated by internal logic, I reframed our pricing strategy around customer comprehension. By using abandonment data to make the "cost of complexity" visible, I advocated for a model that decouples pricing from backend constraints in favor of user-adjustable levers and transparent volume discounts. I prototyped a streamlined flow and validated the concept through usability testing, which successfully shifted the internal conversation. Leadership has since adopted the prototype as a strategic direction for live-site testing.
Recommendations: Moving Toward Personalization The recommendations experience relied heavily on manual curation, which limited relevance and scalability. I worked with the team to transition toward an algorithmic approach grounded in user behavior. This included shaping a roadmap that differentiates first-time visitors from repeat buyers and accounted for audience context. Alongside these structural changes, I introduced restrained UI refinements to improve consistency and trust, focusing on clarity rather than visual novelty. Catalog: Aligning Architecture with Mental Models To address years of accumulated complexity, I led a systematic overhaul of the product catalog, replacing merchant-centric silos with an information architecture grounded in user mental models (type, use case, and constraints). I validated this structure through card sorting and qualitative insights from store staff and sales reps. To balance UX with SEO and margin requirements, we decluttered the interface by elevating high-value signals like "staff picks" while moving secondary attributes into a flexible, testable filtering system. Pricing: Making the "Cost of Complexity" Visible Facing a convoluted 10-step quote flow dictated by internal logic, I reframed our pricing strategy around customer comprehension. By using abandonment data to make the "cost of complexity" visible, I advocated for a model that decouples pricing from backend constraints in favor of user-adjustable levers and transparent volume discounts. I prototyped a streamlined flow and validated the concept through usability testing, which successfully shifted the internal conversation. Leadership has since adopted the prototype as a strategic direction for live-site testing.
Impact and Strategic Influence
This initiative drove measurable site improvements and transformed how our teams collaborate. By aligning the catalog, pricing, and recommendation workstreams, I enabled teams to move faster and execute bolder experiments despite legacy constraints. My expanded scope now includes annual roadmap planning and shaping the long-term experimentation cadence. While the visual evolution is ongoing, the foundations for intuitive pricing and discovery are firmly established.
This initiative drove measurable site improvements and transformed how our teams collaborate. By aligning the catalog, pricing, and recommendation workstreams, I enabled teams to move faster and execute bolder experiments despite legacy constraints. My expanded scope now includes annual roadmap planning and shaping the long-term experimentation cadence. While the visual evolution is ongoing, the foundations for intuitive pricing and discovery are firmly established.
Why This Case Matters
This project is a study in driving impact within a complex, legacy environment by evolving the decision-making culture. Rather than pursuing a purely aesthetic transformation, I focused on creating leverage through cross-functional alignment. By using research and prototyping to de-risk ambitious ideas, I was able to demonstrate how to deliver meaningful progress and strategic clarity, even in an organization where authority and ownership are widely distributed.
This project is a study in driving impact within a complex, legacy environment by evolving the decision-making culture. Rather than pursuing a purely aesthetic transformation, I focused on creating leverage through cross-functional alignment. By using research and prototyping to de-risk ambitious ideas, I was able to demonstrate how to deliver meaningful progress and strategic clarity, even in an organization where authority and ownership are widely distributed.
