Remitly · Product and UX research
People weren't deciding in the app store
The question I was handed was about screenshots. The answer was about a stretch of the journey that happens well before anyone opens an app store, and that nobody on the team owned.
- Method
- Two-phase qualitative, exploratory then focused
- Working team
- Two ASO leads, US and Europe, plus agency
- Context
- Live A/B/C test program
- My role
- Design, fielding, analysis, handoff
The problem
The team was mid-flight with an agency, running A/B/C tests, and wanted the why behind hypotheses the tests could not explain. They were after quick, fixable answers.
Before designing anything I sat in their agency meetings, so I understood how an answer would actually get used and on what timeline. Then I brought back what we already knew about the customer journey before anyone reaches a storefront.
What I designed
Two phases. The first was exploratory: how do people evaluate an unfamiliar money app, asked open-ended before any stimulus. The second was focused testing on the specific screenshot elements phase one surfaced, sequenced to feed the agency's next test round rather than arrive after it.
I shared as I went, in Slack and in the weekly agency meetings, rather than saving it for one reveal. By the time the deck existed, nothing in it was a surprise to anyone.
What I found
The storefront was not where the decision was being made, and it was not being made alone. Conversion was being shaped upstream, by owned and organic marketing, and by other people. That put the fix outside the team's remit, and closing the gap needed several teams in a room.
I delivered that plainly and grounded in the data, and I named the implications and which teams would have to be involved rather than leaving it as an observation. Findings were written as testable hypotheses with clear success criteria, so the team could keep going without me.