Kinship is a family of brands conspiring to support pets and their people in a new way
— KINSHIP —
OVERVIEW
KINSHIP IN A NUTSHELL 🌰
Kinship, under MARS Pet Care, Inc., is the mothership to six distinct brands specializing in pet technology, genomics, wearables, health & wellness, and adoption services. In my role, I led the establishment of a robust design ecosystem and framework aimed not only at making a more cohesive and friendly pet parenting experience, but to enhance the way we work. This effort streamlined our design processes, knocked down barriers, and addressed challenges in moving from concept to development.
MY ROLE: Head of Product Design & Experience
RESPONSIBILITIES
Lead strategic and tactical design initiatives
Manage projects, budgets, and resources
Plan, partner, and facilitate qualitative and quantitative design research
Track and report UX performance analytics
Act as brand consultant and manage agency/vendor relations
Oversee HR management, mentorship, and career growth
Conduct continuous design reviews and provide direction
Manage enterprise design across all 6 businesses
PEOPLE, PEERS & PARTNERS
Managed 8 FTEs, 3 Contractors
Reported to the CPO
Routine strategic collaboration with the CBO, CMO, VPs of engineering and technology, and all product managers
Pet shelter partners, veterinary providers, commerce partners, pet influencers
Steady collaboration with brand and marketing teams
CHALLENGES
Outdated Tech Stack: Tackling the challenges of legacy and disparate technologies
Resource Constraints: Managing limited bandwidth due to multiple concurrent projects within the Kinship product portfolio
Fragmented Workflows: Streamlining complex and siloed product development processes
Brand Alignment: Ensuring cohesion and consistency across multiple brands and experiences
Prioritization Puzzles: Navigating the tricky task of feature and product fit prioritization (surprise, surprise — 🙃)
Tech Integration: Merging diverse technologies, such as AI and LLMs for pet health diagnostics and IoT smart sensors for pet data tracking, into a seamless user experience
Roadmap Balancing Act: Coordinating and juggling multiple product roadmaps simultaneously
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Revamped Design Team: Shifted to a horizontal structure, boosting collaboration and efficiency by 60%, and saving ~$300k per quarter by reducing external agency dependency.
Unified Design Framework: Created a comprehensive framework with design principles, UX analytics, streamlined workflows, and operational guidelines. Adopted the “HEART” framework to capture UX metrics across all product verticals.
Launched The Kin: Strategized and launched a new pet technology platform in 10 months.
E-commerce Redesign: Overhauled the e-commerce experience for Wisdom Panel DNA services.
Launched GoodFriend: Launched and rebranded a pet services e-commerce platform in 9 months.
Subscription Service: Designed and launched The Wildest subscription program, achieving a 7% conversion rate at launch.
SSO and Profile Overhaul: Directed the overhaul of our SSO authentication, onboarding flows, and Pet Parent Profile services for all six businesses.
(RE)DESIGNING THE DESIGN ORG
The existing design organization was hampered with siloed communications, outdated design role descriptions, lack of design cohesion, and redundant work efforts. It was evident this needed to change — but, in a mindful and measured way. I was up for the task! 💪🏼
Moving from a decentralized Product/UX Design team had it merits:
⚠️ Inconsistent design & UX output and redundant work efforts
⚠️ A differential in design best-practices and workflows
⚠️ Siloed communications and isolated design activities
⚠️ Dependence on TWO outside design agencies
⚠️ Inefficient and duplicitous design roadmaps
🚨 A morale killer
Centralized/hybrid matrix Product/UX Design team
✅ Consistent design & UX output, shared design system, and principles
✅ Shared best practices and workflows
✅ Increased collaboration, shared design reviews and activities
✅ All design work moved in-house saving the company $~275K quarterly!
✅ Universal design roadmap shared across all product lines
😊 A morale booster due to ongoing and healthy team interactions
CALIBRATE AND COORDINATE
Design Org Revamp: Alongside our team restructure, we held collaborative workshops to redefine our design processes, principles, and operations
Department Insights: We became sleuths of sorts, diving deep into the unique quirks and rhythms of each business unit, uncovering insights that would influence our next steps. Ohh, the gaps and redundancies we uncovered 🧐
Workflow Prototyping: Armed with this knowledge, we prototyped our ideal collective product development workflows, blending creativity with practicality
MAPPING EXPERIENCES
Visualizing the Pet Parent experience
In collaboration with our market research team, we synthesized extensive customer insights to create company-wide "Pet Parent Journey" maps. These touchpoint diagrams were shared across all departments and businesses.
