How much has Blibli Seller Center been growing?
Hi everyone! I’m Santi, UX Designer for Blibli Seller Center. I handled BSC since April 2018, and in 2021 I got an opportunity to lead the UX team for BSC. I would like to share my experience handling BSC til today and how different it has been compared to the previous years.
Team member and structure
In 2018 — there are only 2 designers handling the whole Seller Experience tribe. Me and my superior. We don’t have any dedicated PIC for each squad. So, whoever was free from tasks at that time will take up the project.
UX Designer is the one responsible to take care of all user flows, use cases, and visuals. We only have 1 UX Copywriter and we don’t even have a design system. So, anything related to visuals were created from our end or sometimes we used the free icon from 3rd party.
Because of this, I learned a lot of things and it helps me to understand the overall journey and system.
Now — We have more than 10 members under the seller tribe and we do have dedicated PIC for every squad. Below is an illustration:
UX initiative
From 2018 until 2020, the UX team is focused on projects requested by the Product Manager or Business. We were trying to catch up with features competitors already have and make the feature go live as fast as possible. It was really challenging for the UX team to propose an improvement because we have limited resources and we need to focus on the overall feature of our platform. Even though it’s challenging, it does not stop us to propose the improvement for our users.
I remember how we use a concept called “sekalian” or “including minor improvement”. When working on a project, if we know that there was an issue then, we directly covered it into the design. Sometimes this concept works for minor cases but it’s not really an ideal practice for major use cases.
It works if the changes are minor. But if the changes are major, then it might require more effort from the team and more discussion with team members and decide together.
Since the team is still small, we couldn’t track how many improvements we proposed. Since the team is growing, we start discussing how to streamline the process and everyone can share their idea for each squad.
In 2021 — Early Q1, I have initiated a discussion with UX BSC team members on how to add UX initiatives and what are the initiatives that we want to push.
We started with a discussion within internal UX team and comes up with a list of improvement. Below is a preview:
After we finalized the list, we shared it to the respective PIC and discussed the possibility to include the item on the roadmap.
It sounds easy, but it was not easy at all. There are a lot of pressure, debate, stress, and many more. But in the end I can say the hard work has been paid off!
See how much improvement that we did till now. Check it below!
Old Seller Center vs. now
After handling BSC for more than 3 years, there are a lot of progress that we made. Below are some of the highlights of what we have done until now:
Lesson learned
There are a lot of ups-and-downs handling Blibli Seller Center for almost 4 years. But I did really enjoyed every moment and learn a lot from all projects. Here are some points I learned from my 4 years of experience:
- Understand what you are working on
If we really like the project, we can get really into it. But for a project that we think is less beneficial, we don’t pay much attention to the details and just let it go.
My point is, even though you don’t like it you must understand what the background, the problem, the goal, the risk and give your best. At the end of the day, the goal is user satisfaction and best user experience :) - Everyone has their own work style
As a designer, we work with multiple people such as Product Managers, Business Analyst, Developers, and many more. Sometimes the relationship can be lovely but some other times it can get awful.
Working with more people, I note that I cannot push people to follow my work style. As long as we can understand each other and find out what is the most convenient way for us to work together, it would be better because we work as a team. - Speak up!
Having different opinions is fine. We always see things from a different point of view. If you feel uncomfortable, SPEAK UP! Do not lose the opportunity. If you don’t speak up and things do not work as your plan, you will regret it. Speak up doesn’t mean everyone should agree with your opinion, but it’s more on explaining our thought process and maybe we can discuss more and take the opinion as a consideration. - Trust your team member
Since this is my first time leading a team, I don’t really know how to manage the people. But I learn that I don’t have to work on everything because it would overwhelm me and the result is not optimal.
Actually, it’s as simple as just sharing your idea with the team and discuss. From the discussion, we can find out what is really important for the team and find out how we can run it together.
Don’t forget to keep everyone updated with current conditions and involve them in relevant discussions so they feel belong to the team and their opinion matters. - Do not take things personally
Sometimes other people’s opinion sound too harsh, but that’s the fact.
We need to learn to acknowledge that we are not perfect. We work with other people as a team and we want to make things work and successful. So, no hard feelings and let it go.
Control that you can control and you can be satisfied with your work before sharing it with others. So, you won’t regret anything :)
Last but not least, I would like thanks to UX team, PM, Tech, and Business who are always being supportive. Without you, we wouldn’t make it this far. KUDOS TO ALL TEAM MEMBERS!
If you’re interested in applying for a full-time position or intern, Blibli is currently hiring! Send your resume to recruitment@blibli.com and get the chance to work with our PM and UX team and our own unique stories.
