Initiative
RenoRun is an on-demand construction material delivery startup based in Montréal, Canada. From Seed to Series B, I served as Design Lead and later as Product Manager.
RenoRun didn't have a designer prior to my entry. They managed successfully despite their UX. It was evident from the get-go that the app required immediate enhancements in usability.
It was clear that setting up a solid foundation of conventional design patterns would 1) solve most of our UX issues and 2) allow us to continue product development without unwanted side effects.
Broad redesigns are risky due to a collective enthusiasm that lead organizations to over design with diminishing returns and unknown side effects. My job was also to continually remind stakeholders that our focus is solving our immediate–and severe–UX issues. Not winning a design award.
The audit process is straight forward. Examine each screen and annotate every problem area. For a proper audit, solutions should not be explored during the audit. Observation first. Solution later.
Cataloging UX issues helps communicate and coordinate which screens should be tackled first. To reduce the risk of large releases, we built and released the most important screens first (namely: shopping experience, checkout). Leaving things like account settings to later.
Within 2-3 weeks of starting the audit, the engineers were already building some of the new screens. Crushing our most embarrassing UX issues. The complete build took approx. 8 weeks with 2-3 developers.
💭 Final Thoughts
I'm quite happy with the work we've done. I'm most proud of our diligent focus on accomplishing an improved user experience. This foundation allows us to continue building out our product with greater ease since everything is standardized.