The Anatomy of a Large Experience Design Organization—1.0
Or, why Wayfair employs so many Experience Designers
I’ve published a new-and-improved edition of this article. Read it here.
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As my career has progressed, I’ve come to recognize the value of a strong professional network. As such, during the last two years, I’ve had countless one-on-one conversations with experience designers who work in the Boston area.
These conversations more-often-than-not involve a casual walk around the Wayfair headquarters in Copley Place. Conversations are usually fairly wide-ranging. We talk about design systems, agency vs in-house design, management strategy, team culture, and Game of Thrones, just to name a few. However, the topic that comes up most often is the structure of our design team. More specifically, what does each of these 80ish experience designers work on? This post will serve as the definitive answer to that question
Side note, why is coffee the de facto offering when meeting like-minded professionals? Between work and networking, I sometimes have as many as four coffee-chats a day. If you want to chat, feel free to ask me to grab ice-cream, or a churro. We’ll both be happier for it.
While network building is a selfish side-effect of the conversations I have, the main pretext is recruiting for Wayfair’s Experience Design team. While there are currently around 80 experience designers on the team (as of October 2019), we’ll likely have to add many more as the company continues to grow. So… I shall be drinking much more coffee in the future.
How Wayfair’s Experience Team is Organized
To understand the structure of the Wayfair Experience Design team, you’ll first need to understand the size and scale of the whole product organization. It may or may not be okay for me to share the size of this team, but it’s safe to assume there are many hundreds of people.
Curious about the process that glues this large experience design team together? Read more here: 🎨 The Agile Methodology of a Large Experience Design Organization
You may have read about the Tribes and Squads team structure that Spotify has plastered across the internet. Wayfair’s product team is structured somewhat similarly. Where Spotify calls them Tribes and Squads, Wayfair calls them Super-Pods and Pods.
Super-Pods: Focused on the Customer Journey
The hundreds of people in the product organization are logically separated into four major teams we call “super-pods.” Rather than being responsible for separate sections of the site, each super-pod is focused on a loosely defined aspect of the customer journey. Here’s a way-too-brief summary of each super-pod:
Core Funnel Super-Pod: Responsible for the core e-commerce experience of Wayfair US. This team inspires our customers to imagine their perfect home (Discover Pod), seamlessly helps them to find that perfect piece (Find Pod), and enables them to feel confident in their purchase (Buy Pod).
Tailoring Super-Pod: Adapts our web and app experiences to ensure we’re the very best place to buy every product we sell, for each customer in every store and geography.
Tools & Services Super-Pod: Give our customers the superpowers they need to shop how they want, confidently buy, and fully enjoy their purchases, resulting in increased loyalty to Wayfair.
Platforms Super-Pod: Builds and supports platforms, technologies, frameworks, libraries, tools, and design assets. By unifying these efforts we are able to more effectively design, collaborate, and execute on a shared vision for the future of Wayfair.
Core Funnel:
- Discover Super-Pod: Helps customers determine what products are right for them. Pod Examples: Homepage, Navigation, Category Pages, etc.
- Find Super-Pod: Helps customers narrow our vast selection of products. Pod Examples: Search, Browse Pages, Computer Vision, etc.
- Decide Super-Pod: Helps customers evaluate customize, and configure products. Pod Examples: Product Detail Pages, Product Reviews, etc.
- Purchase Super-Pod: Helps customers afford and purchase products. Pod Examples: Shopping Cart, Checkout, Shipping, Financing, etc.
- Enjoy Super-Pod: Helps customers during the post-purchase experience. Pod Examples: Self Service, Account, Chat, etc.
- B2B & Services Super-Pods: Helps customers organize projects large and small. Pod Examples: B2B Projects, Home Services, Design Services, etc.
- Apps Super-Pod: Supports App development across Super-Pods, enabling other teams in creating great iOS & Android Apps
- Attract & Accelerate (A&A) Super-Pod: Helps customers who are new and returning derive greater value from Wayfair. Pod Examples: Wedding Registry, Promotions, Login, etc.
- Best in Class Super-Pod: Helps customers understand that Wayfair is a trusted source to buy everything in our catalog. Pod Examples: Complementary Items, Product Sets, Product Comparison, etc
Pods
The five super-pods are divided into around 50 scrum teams that Wayfair calls “pods.” Each pod focuses its efforts on a more specific aspect of the customer experience and owns that experience across mobile web, desktop, and app. As is typical with scrum teams, these pods generally consist of:
- Experience Designers
- User Researchers
- Content Strategists (AKA, UX Copy)
- Product Managers
- Engineers (Full Stack, QA, Front End)
- Data Analysts
The small size of our pods enables us to more quickly research, design, and launch new initiatives. It also lets us remain nimble as we react to qualitative and quantitative data.
Example Pods
I won’t list all 50ish pods, but here’s a rundown that will give you a good idea at the variety of pods at Wayfair.
Augmented Reality: Uses the latest in ARKit and ARCore technology to render true-to-scale product models that allow users to effortlessly measure and visualize the perfect pieces for their home.
Product Customization: Builds dynamic features for things like fully customizable upholstery or complex furniture sets that help customers better visualize, configure, and purchase products specifically tailored to their style and budget.
Shop The Look: Inspires customers by allowing them to discover new styles and products in our shoppable room experiences
Product Sort & Recommendations: Leverages vast amounts of data to curate products that are tailored to each unique customer.
Chat & Messaging: Develops a robust chat experience to connect users across platforms with in-house experts so they can get the assistance they need faster.
Idea Boards: Gives customers a place to compile, organize, and share items they’re interested in. Think Pinterest meets Anylist.
Room Planner: Our design tool that lets users build a virtual room, and fill it with their favorite products to see how everything looks before they buy.
Visual Search: Leverages our custom-made deep learning photo search tool to enable customers to find items inspired those they find online, or in-person.
Design Services: Offers affordable interior design services by matching Wayfair customers with professional third-party, interior designers.
Product Search: Enables users to find the most relevant products, utilizing dynamic past behavior, and relevant keywords.
Wedding Registry: A seamless registry experience that guides and inspires registrants, while creating a frictionless purchase experience for guests
Home Services: Offers integrated assembly and installation services and top-notch renovation products.
Consumer Guidance: Presents product information in visual and compelling ways to guide users to the purchasing decision that’s right for them.
Loyalty and Financing: Develops strategies that allow all customers to bring home items that fit their style and budget.
User-Generated Content: Harnesses customer knowledge to help future users find reliable content about products they’re interested in.
Want to hear more about the 30+ other pods? Ask me to grab a coffee, or better yet, a churro.
