MissTravel

The MissTravel website launched in 2012 and had not received any updates since the first launch. Site membership grew quickly, yet it's user base was generally unknown to key stakeholders. I was introduced as the product manager to help bring a new face lift to the dying website and mobile app.

Objective 1: Re-Branding

When I first toured the MissTravel website, I noticed disconnects in the MissTravel presentation. There were remnants of a 1950's feel combined with rogue additions added by come-and-go designers. Ultimately, we needed the desktop presence, mobile app, and public relations efforts one in the same.

After assessing user surveys, HotJar recorded web sessions, and competitor designs, I learned that the biggest influencer was our lack of customer recognition.

I presented 5 major pain points to our key stakeholders:
 

1. After reviewing our analytics data, I found that female users contributed $0 to monthly revenue while male users contributed roughly $50. Charging female members at a reduced rate was an obvious need. This claim was justified by competitors such as Tinder who followed this practice. 

Female member payments contributed to a 39% increase in revenue for MissTravel within the quarter this change took effect.

2. Interestingly, male members were often signing up as female users to avoid paying costs. We also found that female members were more likely to connect with each other versus male users. 

When surveyed, 50% reported seeking "friends only" and 36% were seeking LGBTQ connections. These were obvious areas of revenue that MissTravel had not been taking advantage of. We updated the onboarding process requiring a brief video introduction that also mentions sexual preference.

3. The mobile app appeared much more modern than the desktop site. Verifying feature parity was a necessity. The development process took roughly 3 months. In addition, new processes needed to be put in place for processing tickets of mirrored features in the mobile app (iOS & Android) versus the desktop site.

4. Learning that there were two major segments of users- LGBTQ users, and female seeking female (platonic)- all of our brand copy would need to be changed. We swapped the male seeking female descriptions with neutral language. Visually, we included same-sex friendly imagery on select landing pages and within segmented email streams. We saw a 15% reduction in customer dissatisfaction expressed in exit surveys and support team complaints.

5. When reviewing the mobile app feedback, there were many complaints about expectations not being understood by all parties before embarking on travel. I suggested that we first survey members to understand who's paying, any shared costs and any costs individuals were expected to cover themselves.

Overwhelmingly, members expressed a desire for shared travel spending. I suggested a 50/50 feature which would also correlate with our findings of female members seeking platonic travel companions. 

Objective 2: Emails

MissTravel had a fragmented stream of system emails that were ill-timed and often text-only with little to no design. 

I prepared a series of onboarding, welcome, retention, promotional, and reactivation-based emails. The only emails that existed correlated with password resets and account verification. Our press team also had a difficult time engaging customers from a promotional standpoint.

Before I revised all of the MissTravel emails, the open rate varied from 0.5-2%. After the emails began sending consistently (with some A/B testing in-between) we saw the rate climb to 5-7% within the first month of testing.

Objective 3: User Interface

I was tasked with mapping any "leaks" in the overall customer experience.

I prepared desktop and mobile user interface sketches offering solutions that satisfied complaints from surveyed users. Other areas of consideration included feedback from support team members and competitor comparisons.

A minimal design was achieved with the collaborative efforts of the UX design team. This was largely sparked by creating a vision board to align group tasks. 

Design execution took roughly 2 months.