Case Study: Mailchimp Stores Launch (2020-2021)

Zero-to-one new product release of e-commerce capabilities for Mailchimp customers.

My role

Lead Content Designer

The project

  • In 2020, I was hired to lead content design work for Mailchimp’s online store feature release. Initial work had been completed by a previous content designer; I joined about 1 month before the private beta launch and 4 months before the GA release.

  • As a zero-to-one launch, our team was tasked with creating brand new patterns and flows while maintaining consistency with Mailchimp’s existing design system.

  • In addition to 4 feature development squads, this launch involved several teams at Mailchimp, including integrations (for Stripe payments), legal, brand marketing, technical content, and more. I was the single content point of content for all teams.

Customer experience (CX) flow: I first created this flow to capture the end-to-end experience for different release phases (private beta, public beta, general release). Our team used this artifact as we progressed towards launch to highlight experience risks and opportunities. Presented weekly to senior leadership to show updates to the flow, red flags, and items for discussion.

UX copy: I audited and updated existing experience copy, wrote new copy as needed. I then worked with a product designer to run our E2E flow through usability testing and edit copy as necessary.

A walkthrough of the Mailchimp store setup.

Writer’s guide: To maintain consistent messaging throughout Mailchimp, I created internal writer’s guide for the product release and shared with fellow content designers, technical content writers, and marketing copywriters. Sections included a glossary of terms, summary of functionality, etc.

Educational email series: I collaborated with Mailchimp’s marketing team to create the strategy and copy for a 4-part onboarding series to Mailchimp stores.

Copy governance: As the content design lead for this project, I collaborated with product marketing and brand marketing team to provide copy governance over marketing and promotional materials for the campaign to promote the release. This included a feature description page on Mailchimp.com.

The result

Mailchimp stores successfully launched to qualifying customers in April 2021.