Contributing to the successful launch of an app that helps people to stay on top of topics they care about
SUMMARY
What was the problem we were trying to solve?
The Pocket iOS team had a timeline to launch Pocket 8 for mobile users. This was a significant update since the team decided to start over and build a new version of the iOS app with the goal of enabling quicker feature development as a primary objective. I joined the team as a product designer during the last six months of the project to support a successful launch.
My role
Product Design Lead for Mobile, working closely with the iOS team. Tasks: design, user testing, stakeholder management and collaboration (engineers, researcher and product manager).
Challenges
The primary challenge of this project was that I needed to quickly establish trust with my new teammates since we were approaching the finishing line.This project had two other designers before me and the team was feeling overwhelmed by the rotation of designers.
Outcomes
• Transitioned from isolated JIRA tickets (and static screens) to cohesive user flows, emphasizing end-to-end experiences and streamlining the design process.
• Enhanced the delete account flow on mobile and coordinated with the web team for consistent user experience across platforms.
• Led the development of a feature to capture user feedback during account deletion, maximizing insights with minimal effort.
• Successfully launched the Pocket 8 iOS app, achieving project goals through effective teamwork and strategic design leadership.
Background
I joined this project in its last 6 months, helping push it to the finishing line. The team was feeling overwhelmed due to a rotation of designers: I was the third designer assigned to this project.
Recognizing the importance of fostering strong relationships, I actively engaged in team rituals and analyzed the Project Requirement Documents (PRDs) to better understand the project’s scope. Given the way the team was feeling about the constant change in their design point of contact, establishing a solid foundation for collaboration between design and other areas was crucial for a successful project execution.
My first task when I joined this team was to think about the search experience. Another highlight from this project was the design of a seamless flow to delete the Pocket account.
Problem statement: search experience
While equipped with a detailed PRD outlining user stories and features, a critical element was missing: a comprehensive user flow to ensure a cohesive user experience. With the current structure the team had, the role of design was reduced to tackling each feature individually, creating a fragmented user experience. I knew I had to change our process in order to have a truly user centric experience.
Process: search experience
I crafted diagrams and user flows to shift our focus from isolated tickets and ad hoc design tasks. My objective was to establish design as a guiding influence in the process, rather than merely reacting to urgent issues or addressing a list of JIRA tickets.
The experience wasn’t straightforward. I needed to design the path of both free and premium users and consider their online and offline context (some search features were deactivated when in offline mode and we had to make sure we clearly communicated the different states to users).
During the shipping process I collaborated closely with engineers doing design QA/ iterating on solutions when we encountered technical restrictions. I also worked closely with copywriters to make sure copy was consistent across the app and with marketing to align in-app message communications.
I believe the experience is owned by all people who work in the product and the designer role is to not only deliver a well crafted Figma file but also to align stakeholders and gather experts in different fields to build the experience together. This is exactly what I achieved in this project, since it was very collaborative and the outcome was a better user experience.
Problem statement: deleting Pocket account
Premium users needed to cancel their subscription first before deleting their Pocket account, as the subscription from the App Store was not automatically canceled when the account was deleted. Our customer support team was receiving many tickets related to that issue and that was the most urgent need we had to address with this flow.
We had a deleting account flow proposal from the web team. By looking at the flow, I saw some opportunities of improvement for the mobile app, which was the team I was working with.
Process: deleting Pocket account
Instead of just replicating what was proposed by the web team on mobile I took a step back and saw opportunities of improvement, like creating extra friction to the flow to make sure users canceled their Premium subscription first.
First I did some desk research to see how the same flow is in other apps. Then I talked to the web team about the idea of adding checkboxes as a way to add extra friction and make sure users canceled their Premium account first. The idea was well accepted in that team, so I went ahead and built the high-fidelity prototype on mobile. We agreed on doing the same for the web experience later on, so the flow would be identical, no matter the platform.
I also saw the opportunity to get users’ feedback on the reason why they deleted their account so we could leverage insights for future product improvement. I led the initiative and aligned different stakeholders to get this done. Our researcher created an exit survey and the engineers implemented a toast with the survey link.